May 14, 2024, New Delhi: Earlier this week, the Department of Consumer Affairs accepted a long standing ask of consumers via LocalCircles to make standards for online reviews and ratings mandatory. The department had launched a framework for online consumer reviews and ratings in December 2022. The framework or standard titled “IS 19000:2022”, was designed to protect consumer interest from fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce. The implementation of the standard, being managed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), was first started on a voluntary basis. However, complaints about biased positive reviews, sponsor reviews and censoring of negative reviews have only risen in the last 18 months indicating that the implementation isn’t working for the consumers.

“As online reviews are increasingly influential to consumers' purchasing decisions, it is vital to both consumers and suppliers/sellers that online platforms are managed effectively to build confidence in the quality, integrity, accuracy and transparency of reviews. Both consumers and suppliers/sellers have reported some problems with online reviews. These problems lead to a degradation of trust in the online review process,” the BIS Business Services Sectional Committee had observed in a report.

Online reviews of products and services play a crucial role in eCommerce or online commerce as it gives consumers access to information not disclosed by sellers on the portal or through advertisement. On the other hand, fake reviews can be misleading, trapping consumers into making wrong choices. Ahead of issuing the guidelines, the Department of Consumer Affairs had initiated dialogue with ecommerce platforms on how to minimise fake or paid reviews from their platforms. Under the new guidelines, platforms are required to set up review administrators to moderate reviews using automated tools or manually to filter out biases and restrict fraudulent reviews. The reviews should also include the publishing date and star rating, the framework said.

Addressing the issue of trust, the guiding principles of the standard set are integrity, accuracy, privacy, security, transparency, accessibility and responsiveness. Apart from authors having to submit reviews online to verify their identity by platforms, the guidelines require the platforms to also verify consumers’ identity from their email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses or by using a Captcha system.

Given the continued complaints, LocalCircles conducted a comprehensive national survey to find out how effective these voluntary standards for online reviews and ratings have been. The survey received over 54,000 responses from users of eCommerce sites and apps located in over 344 districts of the country. 61% respondents were men while 39% respondents were women. 43% respondents were from tier 1, 32% from tier 2 and 25% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

56% of online shoppers surveyed say they have found ratings on the eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months

Positively biased ratings continues to be a significant consumer concern with many of them writing about buying something with high ratings only to find the product otherwise after receiving it. The survey asked respondents, “in the last 12 months how have you found ratings on eCommerce sites/ apps for the majority of the products?” The query received 10,979 responses with 19% indicating that they found the ratings to have “high positive bias”; 37% indicated “some positive bias” and 5% indicated that they found them to be “accurate”. In addition, 19% of the respondents found “some negative bias”; 5% indicated that the “sites/ apps that I used didn’t have product ratings and 15% shared that “didn’t look at product ratings”. In aggregate, 56% of online shoppers surveyed say they have found ratings on the eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months.

The survey shows that in comparison with last year, there has been some slide in the percentage of consumers who found ratings on eCommerce apps/ sites to be positively biased from 69% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.

60% of eCommerce users surveyed say they have found reviews on eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months

While ratings provide stars or numerical value averaged over a set of consumer ratings, reviews provide qualitative inputs, anecdotes and many a times reasoning on why they have rated the product in a particular way. The survey next asked respondents, “In the last 12 months how have you found reviews on eCommerce sites/ apps for the majority of the products?’ The query received 10,965 responses with 10% indicating they found reviews with “high positive bias”; 50% indicated “some positive bias”; 10% stated “some negative bias”; and 10% indicated “high negative bias”. Only 5% of the respondents indicated that the reviews were “accurate”; 5% stated that the “sites/ apps that I use didn’t have product reviews”; and 10% admitted that they “Didn’t look at product reviews”. To sum up, 60% of eCommerce users surveyed say they have found reviews on eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months.

When comparing the results of the survey done last year and currently, the government guidelines appear to have had only very marginal impact on positively biased reviews as the percentage has dipped from 64% to just 60%. It is obvious that the government decision to try for voluntary compliance by the eCommerce platforms as far as reviews is concerned is having lesser impact than in the case of ratings or else the platforms are being more ax where reviews are concerned. It must also be noted here that some brands and sellers hire external agencies to manage their ratings and reviews online. According to feedback by consumers, some of these agencies go to the extent of several of their employees even buying the product as many ecommerce platforms only provide the ratings and reviews capability to consumers who have ordered the product.

52% of eCommerce users surveyed say that their negative ratings and reviews were not always published by eCommerce sites/ apps in the last 12 months

As many consumers care to share their experiences of their purchases on the eCommerce platforms to guide other buyers, the survey asked “In the last 12 months how has been your experience when you posted low rating or negative reviews of products on eCommerce sites/ apps?” Only 16% of the 10,829 consumers who responded to the query stated that their reviews “were published as is”. Of the remaining cases, 30% indicated “they were not published sometimes”; 22% indicated “they were not published at all” and 32% did not give a clear response. To sum up, 52% of eCommerce users surveyed say that their negative ratings and reviews were not always published by eCommerce sites/ apps in the last 12 months. Many platforms continue to not publish reviews instantly and they go through an approval process and if found to have certain keywords these reviews are rejected and never published. Common cases include those where the seller is selling a product above MRP, falsifying the MRP, listing an inaccurate best before date or engaging in fraudulent activity by listing one product and shipping a different one. Also, in cases where the product is found to be counterfeit by the consumer and the return window is closed, the only avenue available with the consumer is to write a review and get a response from the seller. Hence, consumers want that a negative review is always published unless it uses inappropriate language.

It is disturbing that the guidelines have not stopped eCommerce platforms from manipulating consumer views as percentage of eCommerce users who found that their negative ratings and reviews were not always published has risen from 45% to 52% in the last 12 months.

46% eCommerce users surveyed say they always referred to online rating and reviews when buying while 44% referred to them occasionally

Despite the controversy over veracity of ratings and reviews, many consumers use them as yardstick before buying products on eCommerce platforms. The survey asked “In the last 12 months when buying something on eCommerce sites/ apps, how did you use the ratings and reviews information that was available?” The query received 11,218 responses with 46% indicating that they “always went through them”; 32% indicated that they “sometimes went through them” and 12% shared that they “only checked them generally for expensive or non-branded products”. Remaining 10% of the respondents stated they “never went through them”. To sum up, 46% of eCommerce users surveyed say they always referred to rating and reviews when buying while 44% referred to them occasionally in the last 12 months.

The latest survey shows that the percentage of eCommerce users who always refer to rating and reviews information when buying products continues to be at 46% in the last 12 months, same as seen in the last survey done in 2023.

Only 9% eCommerce users surveyed say that all eCommerce sites/ apps have enabled an interface so they can easily identify sponsored, incentivized or influencer reviews

Biased reviews and ratings, particularly by influencers, are often suspected to be sponsored or paid for. The survey finally asked eCommerce users, “In the last 12 months, when you went through reviews on eCommerce sites/ apps, did they enable the interface so you can easily identify sponsored, incentivized or influencer reviews vis-a-via general user reviews?” The query received 10,879 responses with 9% indicating “yes, all of the apps/ sites did that”; and 36% indicating “yes, some of the apps/ sites did that”. Out of the remaining respondents, 46% stated “no, none of the apps/sites did that” and 9% did not give a clear response. To sum up, only 9% of eCommerce users surveyed say that all eCommerce sites/ apps have enabled an interface so they can easily identify sponsored, incentivized or influencer reviews; 46% say no eCommerce sites/apps have enabled such an interface.

In summary, the 2024 survey shows that voluntary implementation of the ratings and reviews guidelines as issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs in November 2022 is not really working as 56% of online shoppers surveyed say they have found ratings on the eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months. Similarly, 60% eCommerce users surveyed say they have found reviews on eCommerce sites/ apps to be positively biased in the last 12 months. Despite the standards that prohibit deletion of negative ratings and reviews, percentage of eCommerce users who found that their negative ratings and reviews were not always published has risen from 45% to 52% in the last 12 months. Despite the controversy, 46% of eCommerce users surveyed say they always referred to rating and reviews when buying while 44% referred to them occasionally. What the government needs to note is that only 9% of eCommerce users surveyed say that all eCommerce sites/ apps have enabled an interface so they can easily identify sponsored, incentivized or influencer reviews while 46% say no eCommerce sites/apps have enabled such an interface. Consumers in the online community discussions on LocalCircles also questioned as to why most eCommerce platforms were still not using artificial intelligence to improve quality of ratings and reviews. If the information quality on platforms improve, it will boost consumer trust and it is likely to drive increase in spending from existing users and drive newer users to the platform and hence the standard being made mandatory is as much in interest of the consumers as it is in interest of the platforms.

LocalCircles will continue to follow up with the Department of Consumer Affairs on its recommendation to make the standards for online reviews and ratings mandatory and will measure compliance annually.

56% of online shoppers found ratings on eComm sites to be positively biased: LocalCircles surveyMay 14, 2024The survey assumes significance given that the government is considering making it mandatory for e-commerce companies to comply with quality norms for consumer reviews after a voluntary push failed to effectively curb fake reviews.https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/56-of-online-shoppers-found-ratings-on-ecomm-sites-to-be-positively-biased-localcircles-survey/articleshow/110122891.cmsarticleET

56% of online shoppers experienced positively biased ratings on eComm sites: ReportMay 14, 2024Additionally, just 16 percent of consumers believe that their negative reviews were consistently published in the past year.https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/56-of-online-shoppers-experienced-positively-biased-ratings-on-ecomm-sites-report-429579-2024-05-14?utm_source=btweb_story_sharearticleBT