JOSEPHINE SCHIELE
skin-care brand owned by a prominent
parent company. Direct-to-consumer
brands, for their part, have found
a convenient loophole that allows
them to get up to thousands of
reviews per product while keeping
up appearances: “ambassadors”
who work on commission. “A lot of
the reviews we had were from
ambassadors,” says Josh Johnson, a
former social media manager for a
direct-to-consumer brand. “We never
sent out emails that said, ‘We want
you to write a review.’ Ambassadors
are really passionate about these
products.” And why wouldn’t they be
when they’re getting a share of
the spoils?
Positive reviews aren’t the only
ones that can be gamed. Another
brand founder, Beth Booker, whose
line was available on a television-
based shopping network’s website,
once suspected a competitor had left
dozens of bad reviews for Booker’s
new foundation on that site. A cursory
username search revealed that the
same people were leaving five-star
reviews for that competitor’s product
and two-star reviews for Booker’s. For
better or worse, brands say it’s
extremely difficult to get product
reviews taken down even if they
suspect foul play. In the case of the
shopping-network reviews, the brand
was too big of a cash cow to receive
more than a slap on the wrist, or so
Booker thinks. In most cases, though,
a third-party retailer’s reluctance to
scrub negative reviews is a point in
their favor for being a trusted source.
Says Lucy Lake*, a social media
manager at a skin-care brand:
“[In-house] we flag ones that seem
off, but unless it’s inflammatory,
Sephora doesn’t remove it. You’re
seeing everything.”
SOWING
(a 4.5), a nonstarter rating (a 3.4 or
below), and a desired volume (a lot).
But there’s also the right timing:
early and often. Certain retailers
expect beauty companies—and
possibly their own websites—to seed
products before they launch so that
there are dozens of reviews waiting
for would-be customers when they
arrive at that product page on launch
day. “We always aimed for around
100 reviews at launch,” Smith says.
“That seemed like a good sweet spot.”
At first it makes no sense at all:
What kind of sucker is going to
believe reviews from people who got
some sort of VIP access in the first
place? On the other hand, it makes
perfect sense. Think of how you’d feel
if you met someone new who
seemed promising, and they told you
that you were their very first friend.
You’d wonder if everyone knew
something was up with them—or
worry you’d discover so yourself.
And one more thing: “Recency
matters too,” says Laura Brinker, senior
vice president of marketing at
Influenster, one of those companies
that specialize in getting beauty
products in the hands of potential
reviewers. “Most people think that if
the review is more than three months
old, it’s not particularly credible.”
As consumer psychologist Murray
explains it, “the currency of the
internet is immediacy.” But don’t worry!
Influenster offers a package to help.
For the right price, you can seed
product over months or even years to
ensure a steady stream of reviews
for existing products.
With such behind-the-scenes
machinations, a cottage industry has
emerged: web-based services, such
as FakeSpot, that help you weed out
fake reviews. Just paste in a product
page, and AI-based algorithms will
determine which reviews come
from bots or influencers, which it
deems less credible. FakeSpot
currently analyzes reviews from the
likes of Sephora and Amazon—
in June, it declared that almost 25%
percent of the latter’s beauty reviews
are untrustworthy. Let that sink
in: According to FakeSpot, about
a quarter of Amazon’s beauty reviews
are fake, with cosmetics, anti-aging,
and hair-loss product reviews
harboring the biggest phonies.
A spokesperson from Amazon
declined to confirm a percentage or
share figures on untrustworthy
reviews. Last year, the company
estimated this figure at less than 1
percent, but no explanation wasprovided for the gulf in estimates.
However, the company says about 90
percent of inauthentic reviews are
computer generated, and the e-tailer
uses a combination of machine
learning and investigative teams to
weed out suspect posts. “Even one
inauthentic review is one too many,”
says the spokesperson.
At press time FakeSpot had yet
to look at ulta.com. We spoke to
many brands that sell at Ulta Beauty,
and while they all say reviews are
certainly important to that business—
and that they have seeded products
before they’ve launched there—they
didn’t feel any serious pressure to
hit certain numbers.
Almost every retailer has its own
methods to help bar fake reviews
from its site, or at least designate
which ones might be more authentic
than others. Ulta sends emails to
buyers after they make a purchase so
they can post the review as a “verified
buyer,” and Sephora has an honor
system that asks reviewers to indicate
whether or not they got free product.
(Many, but not all, brands also ask for
this disclosure from consumers who
review their stuff, but it is a difficult
request to enforce.) What’s more, at
least one source told us they’ve heard
that if you upload a high volume of
reviews on one product from the
same IP address, “Sephora will flag it.”
So no, this world is not the Wild
West completely. But still: As long as
reviews exist, brands will push—and be
pushed—to get good ones. “There is a
huge pressure for every single product
we launch,” Adams says, a little
defeatedly. “At the end of the day, it’s
‘anything to sell products.’”
There is hope, though: Not all of us
are that easily sold. “I’ve seen shoppers
check two or three retail websites,
watch videos, and google bloggers to
purchase an eye cream,” says Yarrow.
Because yes, they want to know if the
color payoff is good and how your
skin looked the next day. But also: “We
humans need support,” says Murray.
We want to connect. In a world where
choices are vast, we want to know our
decisions are right and well-informed,
so we’ve come to look at the stars
(3.5 and above). Whether it’s the right
place or not.