Tired Of Fake Reviews? Blockchain & Crypto Payment To The Rescue

Andy has been staring at his phone for over half an hour, scrolling through reviews for a watch that caught his eye. Everything seems good; he likes the item and the product reviews are great. With a tap on his screen, he buys the watch and eagerly awaits its delivery.

But Andy’s watch never arrives, and the merchant he purchased it from has seemingly disappeared into thin air. The online reviews were fake. He’s frustrated - his money gone.

Situations like Andy’s are not uncommon for the millions of people who shop and sell online everyday. The rise in fake reviews is an existential problem for e-commerce, and one that is difficult to combat. Fake reviews tarnish the industry. They deceive unsuspecting shoppers, and damage the reputation of businesses, with fake reviews providing an unearned advantage (or disadvantage) to sellers.

Online Reviews Can Make Or Break A Business

Shoppers love the convenience of shopping online, and this is reflected in the success of the industry. The global retail e-commerce market is predicted to cross 6.3 trillion US dollars in 2023 (1). For these consumers, one of the key deciding factors before making a purchase is online reviews. Almost half of shoppers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, showcasing the power and influence reviews have within the industry. (2)

Yet where there’s money to be made, fraud will often rear its ugly head. In online shopping, fake reviews alone could potentially cost businesses 152 billion US dollars a year. (3) In 2019, Amazon spent more than 500 million US dollars and employed more than 8,000 people to reduce fraud and abuse on its platform. (4)

But why are fake online reviews so rampant? Perhaps the most common reason is because they’re easy to write. Online reviews are unregulated, meaning anyone can comment on any product whether truthful or not, with no-one to stop you. Most e-commerce platforms don’t have sufficient safeguards or processes to combat this, if they have any consideration for this at all.

The World Economic Forum highlighted a potentially significant reason for the high number of fake reviews we see online is due to the fact that they are extremely profitable. Writing fake reviews could yield as much as 20 times the money spent by these unscrupulous sellers. 

So how could Andy, or any other online shopper avoid being deceived by fake online reviews?

Blockchain Powered Commerce

E-commerce sites leveraging blockchain technology are able to guarantee that when someone praises or laments their online purchase, they have actually bought and used it. The blockchain ensures a true and accurate product review system that all parties can trust, and where potential buyers can put their mind at ease knowing that the reviews they are reading, whether good or bad, are genuine and from real buyers.

But How Does Blockchain Technology Stop Fake Reviews?

The blockchain is a decentralized ledger of digital transactions. Each transaction is validated by multiple participants. It is transparent and tamper proof due the way the transactions are recorded.

Think of the blockchain like a detailed diary that never lies, forgets or erases anything, and is accessible to everyone. Once something is jotted down in this diary, it is there for good, without the capacity to change or edit the contents.

Now imagine everyone else you know maintains the same identical diaries. If you did want to embellish or change what is written, you’d have to convince everyone to rewrite their own pages. It would be virtually impossible.

With the use of a smart contract, the review system can be shown only to genuine buyers, ensuring transparency, and authenticity.  

Benefits of Blockchain Technology For Online Shopping

Marrying the blockchain with an online review system is a tamper proof way of verifying and preserving the authenticity of shoppers’ feedback. And beyond eliminating fake reviews, there are more advantages that blockchain powered commerce brings to the table.

• Crypto Payment - Shoppers are able to spend their crypto to buy real life goods without the need to convert their funds to real world money (Fiat). Crypto payment is secure, transparent and borderless, making it easy for a shopper to buy almost anything from anyone across the world.

• Verified Purchases - The blockchain can prove that a reviewer has genuinely bought a product or service.

• Smart Contracts - These programmable digital contracts can automate and verify the status of a sale. For instance, a product needs to be successfully delivered before a buyer can leave a review.

• Tamper Proof Reviews - Once a review is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be altered or deleted by merchants, competitors, or even the platform itself.

• Transparency In Incentives - If a platform offers incentivised reviews, the blockchain can transparently record these transactions, so other potential buyers know it is a paid or sponsored review.

• Tokenized Incentives - Platforms can reward genuine reviewers with tokens that are recorded on the blockchain. This ensures genuine incentivization and avoids the pitfalls of hidden promotional reviews.

Why Shop With Crypto On GM.co?

References

(1) https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/ecommerce-statistics/
(2) https://www.oberlo.com/blog/online-review-statistics
(3) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/fake-online-reviews-are-a-152-billion-problem-heres-how-to-silence-them
(4) https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-fake-customer-reviews-do-and-dont-work