Editing Amazon (company) (section)

==== Product reviews ====
{{See also|Criticism of Amazon#Amazon reviews}}
Amazon allows users to submit reviews to the web page of each product. Reviewers must rate the product on a [[rating scale]] from one to five stars. Amazon provides a badging option for reviewers which indicates the real name of the reviewer (based on confirmation of a credit card account) or which indicates that the reviewer is one of the top reviewers by popularity. As of December 16, 2020, Amazon removed the ability of sellers and customers to comment on product reviews and purged their websites of all posted product review comments. In an email to sellers, Amazon gave its rationale for removing this feature: "...''the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used''." The remaining review response options are to indicate whether the reader finds the review helpful or to report that it violates Amazon policies (abuse). If a review is given enough "helpful" hits, it appears on the front page of the product. In 2010, Amazon was reported as being the largest single source of Internet consumer reviews.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100503005110/en/2010-Social-Shopping-Study-Reveals-Consumers%E2%80%99-Online |title=2010 Social Shopping Study Reveals Changes in Consumers' Online Shopping Habits and Usage of Customer Reviews |work=the e-tailing group, PowerReviews |publisher=[[Business Wire]] |date=May 3, 2010 |access-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-date=January 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126023159/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100503005110/en/2010-Social-Shopping-Study-Reveals-Consumers%E2%80%99-Online |url-status=live }}</ref>

When publishers asked Bezos why Amazon would publish negative reviews, he defended the practice by claiming that Amazon.com was "taking a different approach...we want to make every book available—the good, the bad and the ugly...to let truth loose".<ref>{{cite book |author=Spector, Robert |title=Amazon.com |year=2002 |page=132}}</ref>

There have been cases of positive reviews being written and posted by [[public relations]] companies on behalf of their clients<ref>{{cite web |date=May 25, 2010 |title=BEACON SPOTLIGHT: Amazon.com rave book reviews – too good to be true? |url=http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php?/contents/comments/amazon.com_rave_book_reviews_too_good_to_be_true |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502004404/http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php?%2Fcontents%2Fcomments%2Famazon.com_rave_book_reviews_too_good_to_be_true |archive-date=May 2, 2014 |access-date=January 31, 2013 |work=The Cincinnati Beacon}}</ref> and instances of writers using pseudonyms to leave negative reviews of their rivals' works.