Real purchases, real reviews – Galaxus and Digitec reset rating system
From now on, only customers who’ve bought a product can review it on Galaxus and Digitec. This is meant to stop brands and manufacturers from influencing ratings. As part of the system change, 380,000 old reviews are being removed.
Five stars, glowing praise and a non-existent purchase history? That’s what a recent product review of the «Kevin» burglar alarm looked like on Galaxus and Digitec. Employees of the manufacturer and people associated with them had showered the product with positive comments, all without having actually bought it. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Effective immediately, Galaxus and Digitec are only allowing reviews from customers who’ve ordered a product from them and already received it. Until now, anyone with a user account could hand out stars and write reviews with no restrictions. Although reviews did show whether or not a user had bought the product, it was easy to miss, and all reviews were included in the average star rating regardless.
What was the reasoning behind the original system? «We wanted anyone who’d bought a product elsewhere or received it as a gift to be able to share their experience with us,» explains Eveline Jordi, who leads the Community Team. But this led certain brands and manufacturers to manipulate reviews of their own products – possibly also leaving malicious negative reviews on competitors’ products. This behaviour was in violation of the Community guidelines. «This had the potential to greatly influence purchasing decisions and negatively impact people’s trust in ratings, especially for niche and new products,» adds Thimo Schuster, who’s responsible for the change.
The change also aims to address the problem of backlash. Thimo illustrates this with an example: «Let’s say Galaxus and Digitec offer a games console for pre-order, but fails to meet the promised delivery date. Customers would then use product reviews to vent their frustration.» As a result, the console’s rating doesn’t reflect its graphics performance or the range of games available, but rather frustration about the delayed pre-order.
Out with the old
Because we like to go the full nine yards, we’re deleting all existing reviews on Galaxus and Digitec that stem from customers who hadn’t bought the product in question – a kind of spring cleaning. Just under four per cent of all reviews, or around 380,000, are affected. All points, levels and other gamification achievements will remain intact regardless. As Thimo puts it, «The loss of information is minimal, while protection against manipulation is significant.»
The «Kevin» was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back; as you can see below, our editorial team had written more than one exposé in this vein. And behind the scenes, our Community team was constantly battling abusive product reviews. This change is meant to put an end to that.
What do you think of the new system? Let us know in the comments!
At Digitec and Galaxus, I’m in charge of communication with journalists and bloggers. Good stories are my passion – I am always up to date.
News about features in our shop, information from marketing and logistics, and much more.
Show all
