Phony stars and false testimonials are rampant online. But is this really a problem, how did we get here, and what responsibility to e-commerce platforms have in addressing the problem? Assistant professor Shreyas Sekar explores what the future of reviews looks like, and why platforms like Amazon should probably take the issue of fake reviews more seriously. 

Show notes: 

[0:00 ] When you see thousands of version of the same product you’re looking to buy online, how do you parse through the options to make a selection? This is where reviews come in. 

[0:46 ] Shreyas Sekar, an assistant professor at the Rotman School of Management/University of Toronto Scarborough studies how consumers make choices online, and how these choices can be manipulated.

[0:59 ] More than 29 million Canadians made an online purchase in 2022 – and with that comes inevitable fraud. 

[1:23 ] Fake reviews are likely a billion-dollar industry. 

[2:08 ] A quick brief on how Amazon shows you products in your search results, and why results near the top of the search are more likely to get purchased. 

[3:31 ] Reviews play a crucial role in helping sort the rankings, with products with more plentiful and favourable reviews landing higher in the results. 

[3:57 ] Estimates peg phony reviews and algorithm manipulation between four and 40 per cent. Shreyas suspects it’s somewhere in the middle. 

[4:14 ] Why is this a problem? 

[5:29 ] Consumers are likely also buying products on false information, resulting in a substandard experience, likely costing $150 million a year. 

[6:07 ] This is likely to erode trust in the entire online buying ecosystem.

[6:49 ] So how did we get here? Let’s look first at how we used to shop a few decades ago.

[7:17 ] Amazon changed the game, first by offering online shopping, but second helping popularize the “marketplace.” 

[8:02 ] What is a marketplace? 

[8:44 ] How did the marketplace create an even greater reliance on reviews?

[9:14 ] And, in the current system, e-commerce platforms have little incentives to fight this issue.

[9:36 ] Fake reviews have gotten very sophisticated.

[10:58 ] So what can consumers and small businesses do? 

[12:25 ] How can AI be utilized to help solve the problem of fake reviews? Shreyas has two suggestions. First, it can create a Coles’ Notes for consumers. 

[12:56 ] Second, it can be used to create some randomness. 

[14:11 ] Why does it even matter? “Algorithms play a huge role in our life, which means that we have to critically examine this pipeline, in terms of the different ways in which humans can manipulate the algorithms to do their bidding.

But when you trick the algorithm, you're not just tricking one consumer, you're tricking 1000s of future consumers, who are going to rely on this algorithm for the purchasing decision.”