What to Know About “Best Seller” Tags on Amazon.com
It seems like a no-brainer. A buyer searches for a product on Amazon and takes comfort in the fact that whatever the item is — a new watch, a stainless steel shower caddy — has the Best Seller tag emblazoned on its listing. This means, theoretically, that other buyers have purchased this item, were highly satisfied, and then wrote reviews on Amazon.com reflecting their utmost satisfaction. But, because this is the internet, even something as seemingly innocuous as a “Best Seller” tag comes with its share of thorns. The latest scam of note has to do with hackers and unscrupulous sellers overriding Amazon’s popularity ranking system to boost their own products. As it stands, Amazon utilizes an algorithm that measures certain aspects of user activity, apart from actual sales: views, searches, time spent on a product page and items placed on wish lists. Part of the scam involves said hackers and unscrupulous sellers who hire workers to essentially game the algorithm. This, in turn, ...