What is a verified Amazon purchase?
A verified purchase is a “purchase confirmed by Amazon”. Articles or products ordered directly from Amazon are verified. You can see if a product was ordered from Amazon by looking at the customer rating under the star rating. If “Verified purchase” is written in red, you are dealing with a rating that was made after the product was purchased from Amazon.
Does a product always have to be purchased from Amazon to be rated there?
In order to be able to write a rating on Amazon, it is not necessary to have bought the product there. In order to be able to review a product, one only needs an existing account and must have already made a completed evaluation. In this case, no “Verified purchase” suffix will appear next to the review.
Another possibility to rate a product is the option under a review. Here the question is asked whether the review was helpful or not. You can choose between “yes” and “no” and write a comment.
There is also the Vine program offered by Amazon. Here product testers are provided with free products. It is important that the testers give their honest and uninfluenced opinion about the product. These product testers are invited by Amazon to participate in the program. The invitation is based on the reviews they have already made, e.g. if they have been particularly helpful. If a product was reviewed by an Amazon Vine tester, this review will be marked with a green link “Vine customer review of a free product”.
Why are reviews so important to Amazon retailers?
Customers like to buy products that have already been purchased and approved by other buyers. A good product description and great pictures are one thing, but many people often trust the opinions of other buyers more because they expect a neutral evaluation from them. Especially trustworthy are of course reviews that are based on verified purchases made on Amazon.