I was deceived by fake reviews ... How to detect Amazon's "Sakura Review"

When shopping on EC sites such as Amazon and Rakuten Ichiba, I sometimes wonder which product of the same genre to buy. In such a case, user reviews are the basis for many users to make decisions.

If it's a product in a similar price range, you'll probably want to buy one with a higher review rating. Especially if the one with a high review rating is a little cheaper.

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However, there are some products that should have been highly evaluated by user reviews, but when I bought them, they were lost. It's no wonder why this product was so well received. When I look at the sales page of the product to write one of the unpleasant evaluations, for some reason other reviews may disappear completely.

Why is this happening?

Satoshi Yamato

That's because there are so-called "Sakura" users who try to improve their reviews, regardless of whether the product is good or bad.

In general, Sakura is a fake customer who is hired by a performance organizer or a store to get lost in customers or queues, to liven up a specific scene or the entire performance, or to create an atmosphere where products sell well. Point to. In the case of an e-commerce site, a customer who gets a flickering profit from a manufacturer or a seller and writes a better evaluation than it really is called Sakura.

In the case of Sakura on the EC site, the seller is not a "fake customer" because he / she receives money and sells the product, but for example, a discount or a large (full, or even more) cash back. It will be defined as a person whose evaluation is guided to a higher level than it should be.

Due to the fact that there are vendors who hire Sakura and users who write reviews as Sakura, products that are actually inconvenient or of low quality may be noticed as "products with high user evaluation" at first glance.

The quality of the product is not always bad because there are reviews from Sakura users.

Even if you make a product of reasonably good quality at a slightly lower price, it will be buried in a mountain of similar products on an EC site like Amazon, and it will be difficult for you to pick it up. This is especially true for products from manufacturers whose names are unknown overseas. Therefore, there are manufacturers and vendors who are looking for Sakura users who also serve as monitors. "Anyway, if you pick it up and evaluate it, you should be able to understand the goodness of the product." With that in mind, it may be a means to create as many reviews as possible.

However, the resulting Sakura Review does not honestly describe the strengths and weaknesses of the product by the user. It is hard to say that it will be a collection of reviews that take up the appearance of the product soundly because it will pick up only the good points, ignore the inconvenient points, or ignore the substance at all and give a high rating. ..

And that's essentially something that Amazon's community guidelines also prohibit.

The old Sakura reviews were written in terrible Japanese, and many of them could be understood by foreigners if you read them a little, but these days they are usually written in easy-to-read Japanese and are accompanied by photos. However, the number of Sakura reviews that are difficult to identify as Sakura is increasing. This is because Japanese people have started to write Sakura reviews.

Some may wonder how these cherry blossoms are collected. Here, I will introduce how small Chinese manufacturers and vendors can turn users into cherry blossoms.

Satoshi Yamato They used Facebook messenger, Twitter, LINE, etc. and asked those who saw it, "Are you interested in this product? Do you want it for free?" Or "I will give you a bonus as well as using it." He complains and invites me to become Sakura.

In addition, there seems to be a case where an advertisement such as "Are you interested in these products? It's free!" Is posted on Facebook etc., and clicking on it leads to the Sakura recruitment page.

If the invited user replies that he is "interested", he will approach it as follows.

"I want you to buy this product from a designated e-commerce company (for example, Amazon), and write a review with a high rating."

Depending on the vendor, you may be given detailed instructions such as giving the highest rating to all items, adding photos to reviews, and searching methods when purchasing products. The user who agrees to this buys the specified product from the EC vendor and writes a Sakura review.

In the case of this vendor, there was no condition for evaluation, just "I want you to write a review" Photo by Satoshi Yamato

When the Satoshi Yamato product arrives and the Sakura review is written and posted to the manufacturer, the purchased amount will be refunded, and in some cases, a reward will be sent. There are various refund methods, such as sending money using PayPal or sending a considerable amount with an Amazon gift certificate. Also, in the case of remittance by PayPal, there are cases where the remittance fee is deducted and that amount becomes a loss, causing trouble.

In general, many of the companies that hire Sakura are Chinese manufacturers whose names are unknown in Japan, and it is not uncommon for Sakura's invitations and exchanges to be in terrible Japanese. Therefore, trouble may occur due to words.

If you buy a product that has been collected as these cherry blossoms and you think, "No matter how much this product is," you can honestly give it a bad rating in the reviews. Since the seller does not send me a reward or gift certificate, the amount I paid to purchase the item will be lost.

Even EC sites such as Amazon do not tolerate or neglect such Sakura reviews.

The site is also taking measures. I don't know what to do, but I've found and regularly reviewed Sakura's suspected reviews (perhaps taking into account behavior such as what search was done and how much comparison was made when purchasing the product). Is deleted. Then, as I wrote at the beginning, depending on the product, there will be cases where the customer reviews that have been posted will disappear after a certain day.

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However, there seems to be no penalty for manufacturers and distributors, and the same company sells different products in the same way. Moreover, there is also a review by Sakura Reviewer posted in the same way. Under these circumstances, the number of companies recruiting cherry blossoms on EC sites has not decreased, and Sakura reviews are still posted on a certain number of sites.

The genres that are likely to have the most Sakura reviews are small appliances such as earphones, headphones, smart watches, non-contact thermometers, and mobile batteries. There are many manufacturers and parts suppliers in China for these products, and it is easy to imitate the preceding products. Also, small items are easy to send overseas such as Japan. It seems that new entrants are easy for both manufacturing and sales.

There are many Sakura reviews in genres that are mostly occupied by Chinese products, such as mobile fans, selka sticks (simple gimbals), small household appliances, and Hollywood mirrors (small makeup mirrors with LEDs embedded in them). .. On the contrary, there are few Sakura reviews for heavy and large items such as air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators, which are difficult to manufacture and distribute (exception, for some reason, vacuum cleaners have many Sakura reviews).

However, sometimes you have to look at the EC site and buy earphones / headphones. How can I avoid catching Sakura products in such a case? As you get used to it, you will somehow understand which products have the most Sakura reviews, but here's a simple way to tell them apart.

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First of all, products with extremely divided evaluations should be doubted. There are cases where the reviews have only 5 stars and 1 star.

Sakura is usually forced to give the highest rating, but people who bought it after seeing the review tend to get extremely low rating reviews like repulsion. These are a bit dangerous.

I also want to read the content of the review carefully. Among the Sakura reviews, there are many reviews that are ☆ 5 for reasons such as "well done for the price", and there are many reviews that are not necessarily complimented for the number of ☆, ☆ 5 reviews The contents may be inconsistent. It is safe not to touch such a product because it is an example of trying to write well and failing.

Recently, there is also a site called "Sakura Checker" that uses AI to identify how much Sakura reviews are contaminated with product reviews. You may want to refer to such sites and buy products with a low "Sakura degree" (that is, no Sakura in user reviews) from the category.

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