Amazon Reviews Have Nothing to Do With Product

Zac Freeland/Vox

Who are these people who write thousands of Amazon product reviews?

They don't get paid, but they do get tons of complimentary stuff.

By Updated Jun 14, 2019, 9:19am EDT

In the past month alone, Kort Kramer has written thoughtful reviews for socks ("a stylish, aggressive design that looks like business"), bathroom mats ("perfect to identify either outside the shower or tub to dry off"), and wicker storage baskets ("doesn't feel sturdy enough to hold anything but sheets").

The products themselves, all reviewed on Amazon, conduct the trademark qualities of the eastward-commerce behemothic: algorithmic, splashed in primary colors, designed to blend quietly into the corners of duplexes and condos all over the world. In that sense, Kramer is the Zagat of tasteful suburbia. After 15 years on the site, he'southward published more than v,000 reviews, which makes him the No. 9 all-time reviewer according to Amazon's internal metrics.

You could argue that Amazon established the universal expectation of the "customer review" after the visitor was founded in the mid-'90s. Everything on the internet since, from YouTube videos to Yelp listings, is punctuated with a barometer of user gustatory modality. This trend has completely altered our consumer civilisation; as Wired reported recently, much of a product'southward success on Amazon hinges on its star rating. Merely would you always accept unsolicited communication from the humans behind those reviews? Who knows. It's hard to gauge grapheme from a simple iv-out-of-five.

That's what makes Kramer different. He rigorously tests each product he reviews, and has strict definitions for what should be categorized in which star value. Ane of his pet peeves is the Amazon reviewers who toss out a petty ane-star rating afterward putting in a fraction of the piece of work that he does.

In 2007, Amazon granted a modest core of its most dedicated reviewers the ability to request, receive, and review certain products available on the site for free (albeit with a modest tax), in a program chosen "Amazon Vine." Kramer had been reviewing books and CDs on Amazon since the company resembled a local co-op (rather than the television studio/grocery store we know today), so naturally, he was among the first invited to be a "Vine Vocalisation." He'south taken slap-up reward of the license: From laptops to couches to Roblox toys, most everything in the Kramer household has been supplied by the Bezos estate.

Kramer, now 48, works as an art director in Boca Raton, Florida, and regards his Amazon duties as a nominal second job. His status in the Vine program injects the typically frivolous art of the customer review with a sense of gravitas, and he goes the extra mile of analysis on even the most mundane products in his purview. (Here, for instance, are two robust paragraphs on a pair of flip-flops, which Kramer deems "good for quick jaunts outside or to the puddle.")

He says he hopes his massive catalog of Amazon judgments is enshrined as part of his legacy, and since his reviews accept been marked as "helpful" more 17,000 times in his career, information technology's articulate the rest of the world recognizes his talents. We talked well-nigh that, as well as his intensive procedure for reviewing clothing, the nightly unboxings he and his family host, and what information technology's like to take a house bulging with Amazon products.

When did writing reviews become a hobby for you? When were you like, "You know what? This is fun."

Well, I savor writing. I wasn't doing too much of that. I similar the idea of helping people out with my experiences. I saw the other reviews, and I liked some, and some I thought shouldn't exist on there, so I wanted to do my own thing.

I savour the products too, of grade. Early on on, I was passionate nigh the music, mainly; I was getting CDs from groups I liked. I liked to leave my feedback on what they sounded like on their latest release.

How many products practise you think you lot review in a given month?

Well, that plainly varies. Some weeks I end up doing a lot, sometimes less. There was a time when Amazon Vine started, if you didn't go far when the newsletter came out, everything would be gone. That was that, and you lot waited till the adjacent week. Recently, though, things trickle in every day. You tin can stop up having very aroused UPS guys bringing you twenty packages.

I'd say per day, I average three to four reviews — sometimes more, sometimes less. It peaks sometimes at, like, 8 or nine. I'd practice one in the morning before going to work, and and then several at dark. I experience a responsibleness; I go this thing and I want people to know how it works.

How much of the stuff exercise yous end up keeping?

There was a time where you lot had to go on information technology. Y'all couldn't fifty-fifty give it away. They inverse the guidelines, where you have to go along it for vi months. I keep what I'1000 using, if it [breaks] I throw information technology out, and if there's some reason it's not worth saving, it goes into the garbage. In the meantime, my wife and daughter and I become a lot of use out of the stuff nosotros accept. But there does come a time likewise when the garage gets full and you're like, "We accept plenty of this stuff."

That's got to be tough to pare down, when your business firm is but bulging with Amazon product.

Yeah, and we have an evening unboxing party [of the new stuff that's showed up]. That tin exist fun. And we definitely have an eclectic-looking firm now.

You lot mentioned to me that yous accept a formula for your reviews of things like wear. What are some of the key points you striking?

If it's a T-shirt, I'll mention the textile, and how comfortable it is. I'll give my size, elevation and weight, and how it fits me to give people an idea. I'll shoot photos, I'll talk about the buttons, the stitching, and the look of it. I'll talk about how well it washes. People forget if a shirt turns into a wrinkled mess every fourth dimension you wash it, y'all won't desire to be wearing it equally much.

You do seem to take a pretty in-depth approach with your reviewing. I'm sure almost people on Amazon wouldn't bother washing a shirt to see what happens earlier writing their review. Is that something you like to emphasize?

[A lot] of reviewers will say, "Oh the shipping was terrible, information technology arrived cleaved, 1 star." That's not going to help anybody. I like to use the product for a while. I desire to take a more interactive arroyo and spend some time with the product earlier I give an cess, because oftentimes things pop up that you don't see right away.

What to you lot is a v-star product?

Well, it'south a funny thing. It doesn't have to be the greatest. If it'south really skillful, if it does everything it's advertised to practice, so I'll probably give it five stars. If it'due south good just it has a few things that don't quite gel, and then I'yard more likely to give information technology four stars. If information technology'due south just okay, nothing special, that's three stars. And if information technology'due south not working right, that'south ii and below.

I saw that you write some reviews on behalf of your wife for some women's products, specially women's clothing. How does that work? How practice you collaborate with your wife in the review procedure?

As it happens with Vine, you get offered certain things, and it'due south great having a partner who can attempt things on. You get offered things from diapers to women'south products to men'south products. She would generously model for me, take pictures of a lot of things, and she'd give me her feedback on it. She does the same thing for me; she takes pictures of me in wearing apparel. Information technology'south near like a second job.

Does she give you a star rating? Similar, "Oh, this is a 4 for me."

Yes, and there's definitely been times where we don't agree on stars. Usually, I don't tell her, though. I say, "Oh, y'all liked that apparel, okay!" I don't argue much on that. And I capeesh her female person perspective on information technology too, because maybe there's a reason she likes it more than I practice.

Practise yous have a favorite product you've received from Amazon?

Manifestly, there's more i matter. But I accept to say I got a nice HP laptop that'southward served me well. When I got some other one, I was able to let my wife take over the older 1. That got a lot of use. I was fortunate plenty to get a nice couch. Nosotros've gotten tables, and chairs, and patio furniture. Our house … I wouldn't say it's been furnished by Amazon, but if you lot throw a rock, you'll probably hit an Amazon product.

If I asked you what the worst product you reviewed was, does anything come up to mind for you?

I've reviewed over 4,000 now, so I don't have whatever single worst [product.] Simply some have arrived broken, some that are just actually bad and fall apart. There are vesture items that don't fit. Things like that. I had some shorts that I reviewed, and when I put them on the first time, the push button popped off. I had two or three pairs of those, and the button popped off on two of them. I've read some books that weren't edited well, where the author wasn't ready for primetime. Just I try to write about things I do enjoy, and things I'm going to enjoy. And so the negative ones are fewer and far between.

I'm also not a big fan of the star system. It gives yous a general idea, but it'southward the content of the review that matters.

It must be squeamish when something comes through Vine where yous're like, "Well, this is nice, and I'm going to review it, plain, just information technology will also be a prissy present for my girl."

Aye, basically same with my wife. Things I wouldn't exist able to get them ordinarily, or that I'd have to be more than selective about.

Some other motivator is that there was a fourth dimension, years ago, when I was getting close to the Top 100 of Amazon reviewers. They inverse a bunch of stuff, they deleted old reviews, and I lost some ranks. I was like, "Oh well, I gauge I'll never become at that place." But and then this past yr, I did break into the Tiptop 100. I'k looking right at present, and I'm No. 13. [Since this conversation, Kort has moved up to No. 9.] It's hard to fathom. If you put time into something, it pays off.

Would you like to be No. 1?

I don't know what it would take. I've put in equally much time as I tin. I'll proceed reviewing; if I'm fortunate to get there, not bad. If not, I'1000 happy being 13.

Do you wait at your time as an Amazon reviewer as whatsoever part of your personal legacy? Practice yous look at this huge database of reviews as something yous'll leave behind?

I promise so. Only time will tell if they do terminal [or] if they delete all the reviews, which has happened in the past a couple of times due to a glitch in the system, and I had to go through a procedure to get them support. That's very frustrating. But I do hope that it'south some sort of legacy, something I've been able to contribute. Whenever I get a similar on a review, it shows me that someone found some value in it. It makes me feel skilful. Like whatever hobby, I enjoy the writing process, I enjoy the testing process. As long every bit I'm having fun with it, [I'll proceed going.]

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Source: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/7/18645784/amazon-product-reviews-reviewers-vine