The "old analog" world has solved this problem long ago: Consumer review magazines and NGOs (e.g. "Stiftung Warentest" in Germany) that review and rank products on objectively measurable criteria, with dedicated niche magazines (especially in computing) going on deep dives for reviews.
Why can't Amazon do it like Facebook and have a set of publicly trusted reviewers organizations whose reviews are shown with a "trusted review" mark and ranked higher?
Also: why can't regulators step in and demand that:
a) Amazon does not commingle inventory from different sellers to prevent fraudulent product from entering the system and being "washed" in the process, as well as provide end-to-end (from ingestion in the warehouse to the parcel at delivery) for each and every product they ship
b) Amazon employees have to manually review changes to product descriptions, varieties etc. so that "switch-a-roo" schemes where a vendor sells, let's say, plant seeds and then shifts the product description to laptop chargers while retaining the reviews.
This is the advantage that physical retail stores have: they at least know what they are selling and that it is reasonably free from fraudulent product.
Amazon is the unregulated Wild West, and frankly this has to stop.
That is up for Amazon to decide, but generally many countries already have established organizations. It should not be that hard for Amazon to hire one of the global market research networks to gather a suitable list.
> How do you get reviews for the long tail?
You mean for new products? Why not mandate that all products that are sold on Amazon have to pass review by two or three of the trusted organizations as a condition of listing?
Why can't Amazon do it like Facebook and have a set of publicly trusted reviewers organizations whose reviews are shown with a "trusted review" mark and ranked higher?
Also: why can't regulators step in and demand that:
a) Amazon does not commingle inventory from different sellers to prevent fraudulent product from entering the system and being "washed" in the process, as well as provide end-to-end (from ingestion in the warehouse to the parcel at delivery) for each and every product they ship
b) Amazon employees have to manually review changes to product descriptions, varieties etc. so that "switch-a-roo" schemes where a vendor sells, let's say, plant seeds and then shifts the product description to laptop chargers while retaining the reviews.
This is the advantage that physical retail stores have: they at least know what they are selling and that it is reasonably free from fraudulent product.
Amazon is the unregulated Wild West, and frankly this has to stop.