Chinanews client, Beijing, October 17th (Zhang Xu) "When did Taobao change its version? Why can't I find the bad reviews? How can I buy things?"

  At the end of September this year, Taobao's personal store evaluation system ushered in a reform. The "bad reviews" were replaced with the "feeling bad" label, which made many buyers at a loss what to do, while individual store owners believed that they could protect the interests of small and medium sellers.

It's just that the seller was not happy for long, and Taobao quietly resumed the "bad reviews" in October.

  Hide the negative reviews, do you favor the seller?

How should the evaluation system be reformed to satisfy all parties?

"Normal review" is gone and come again

  On September 23, mobile Taobao revised the evaluation system.

In the past, when users clicked on "Baby Evaluation", they would see the option of medium and negative reviews, but after the revision, the content of medium and negative reviews was merged into "Feeling Bad" and arranged after many related items expanded by positive reviews.

In the past, the bad reviews that were displayed separately were hidden in this way.

At the end of September, Taobao customer service stated that the negative reviews were included in the "Poor Feeling" label.

  In these days when "intermediate reviews" disappeared, the personal Taobao shopkeepers are most delighted and ordinary consumers are the most annoyed.

  "I usually buy things to look at the negative reviews. If it is not related to the quality of the product, you can buy with confidence. Many of the positive reviews are brushed out, and they are very fake at first glance. I didn’t like the negative reviews before. I have suffered a few losses." Feng Yi from Zhejiang told a reporter from Chinanews.com that if he had not known the revision of the evaluation system in advance, he would have seen the "bad experience" label, and if he didn't click in, he might think that the store did not exist. Bad review.

Many netizens said that the negative reviews are important shopping references.

Weibo comment screenshot

  A staff member of a Guochao clothing brand told a reporter from Chinanews.com that the praise rate is an important indicator of Taobao's personal store and product search rankings, which will affect search, participation in marketing activities, and Taobao through trains.

The sales of individual stores are low, and the total number of reviews is far less than that of flagship stores. In this case, a bad review will greatly affect the praise rate of the entire store.

Therefore, hiding the negative reviews is good for individual sellers.

  The "Middle Bad Evaluation System" was once an important part of Taobao's credit evaluation system. It was borrowed from eBay and was first launched in 2003.

Since then, even though Taobao has undergone many adjustments, the negative feedback system has always existed and has become an important reference for consumers to shop.

  But in the store's eyes, this move can protect small and medium sellers.

"When we are a personal store, a bad review will result in a decrease in store ratings and sales will also be affected. The revision allows some customers to ignore the bad reviews and can reduce the impact of accidental negative reviews on products." Mr. Zhu, a personal Taobao store owner Tell a reporter from Chinanews.com.

  He also believes that hiding the bad reviews does not mean that the bad reviews have been deleted, but it has become less obvious, reducing the interference in the buyer's decision-making.

If the quality is not good enough to cause too many negative reviews, it will also reduce the store's score and make it difficult to sustain.

For the black cat complaint vote, 90% of the people choose to display the negative reviews directly.

  But in the eyes of consumers, this increases the cost of shopping choices.

In the black cat complaint initiated by the "Taobao bad reviews are no longer displayed separately, what do you think?" poll: Up to 90% of netizens think that "bad reviews should be intuitive".

  Recently, a reporter from China News Network found that the bad reviews on Taobao, which disappeared at the end of September, made a comeback in October. The only difference is that the bad reviews changed from separate display to combined display.

The flagship store does not display the negative reviews, and the combined display of the negative reviews in the personal store.

The flagship store does not display negative reviews.

  Take a flagship store that sells leather goods as an example. The hot item in the store is a replacement strap, with 24,770 reviews.

Taobao summarizes these reviews into six tags. The first five are positive tags such as "good quality" and "good design". Only the last "a bit hard" is a relatively negative tag, but it does not show negative reviews after clicking in. .

Combined display of negative reviews in personal shops.

  In another personal store that sells digital accessories, although the historical evaluation of a wristband has reached 1,299, which is comparable to some flagship stores, when you click on the comment, you will find that in addition to "good quality", "will repurchase" In addition to ", there is also a separate "bad review" to view.

The "feeling bad" label in September has disappeared.

The right and wrong of "medium bad review"

  Why did you suddenly withdraw the function of hiding bad reviews?

Some sellers consulted Taobao officials, and the response they got was to wait for market feedback to determine the way to display comments.

In other words, the government is actually in an exploratory stage, and there is no definite number.

In October, the negative reviews returned.

Forum screenshot

  Ms. Gui, the owner of convenience food, told a reporter from Chinanews.com that during Taobao’s September test cancellation of "intermediate reviews", she found that the link conversion rate of her store had dropped from usual. "Buyers don’t know that the comment area has been revised. I didn’t see any negative reviews for a while, and I suspected that we had a good review, so I went directly to the flagship store to place an order.”

  But Ms. Gui still supports hiding bad reviews.

“In the past, I encountered too many people who deliberately gave bad reviews and had to spend money to avoid disasters. Although the revision made the middle and bad reviews feel less, but buyers can still give bad reviews, so we have a store with a high reputation. There are still some advantages. And it can also narrow the gap with the flagship store to a certain extent. After all, their negative reviews have never been shown separately."

  The malicious bad reviews mentioned by Ms. Gui have plagued many sellers since the birth of the evaluation system.

Individual sellers ask how to modify bad reviews.

Forum screenshot

  In 2014, a research report on online shopping credit by Tianjin Normal University pointed out that the “bad review system” represented by Taobao did not consider buyer credit issues, leading to greater uncertainty and randomness in buyer reviews. More directly gave birth to the emergence of "professional bad reviewers". These professional bad reviewers active in Taobao have evolved into tools that "damage the reputation of competitors".

  Some shop owners among the interviewees said that they just spent 10 yuan to get buyers to eliminate a bad review.

"Every three to five, you will encounter deliberate negative reviews. If you have freight insurance and do not return the goods, you have to make negative reviews. Just now this is a good talker, and there is really no way when you encounter non-compliance."

  "Paid processing of bad reviews" has long formed an industrial chain.

  The reporter contacted by claiming to be "the most professional rating improvement and negative review deletion team" stated that they accepted the commission of the store owner to help the store owner and users communicate through their customer service system to resolve the negative reviews.

"The business has been good, especially the bad reviews have come back recently. The improvement of the score is just needed for the individual shopkeepers. Our team is to help solve the problem, not to harass consumers."

The revised negative reviews have become the industry chain. The team in the picture claims to be the most professional in this field.

Where to go with the "medium bad review"?

  Behind the revision of Taobao's evaluation system is the changing trend of the e-commerce industry evaluation system.

  Ali’s old rival, JD.com, uses a "five-star" star rating, and there is no clear choice between good and bad.

At the same time, JD’s evaluation system also separates multiple tags to give users a more intuitive information reference.

  At present, the product evaluation on the JD platform will not only display user ratings, but also display favorable ratings, as well as medium and negative reviews. Taobao's current is similar to this, but there is no favorable rate.

Screenshot from Jingdong App.

  Pinduoduo is more obvious in the reform of the evaluation system.

In 2019, the total transaction value of Pinduoduo exceeded one trillion, and the number of active users reached 585 million, which not only surpassed JD.com, but also narrowed the gap in the number of active users with Ali.

  Pinduoduo has not had a bad review option since its inception. Its evaluation system is similar to JD.com, but it has fewer negative labels and almost no display.

What did Pinduoduo, once nicknamed "Pixixixi", rely on to gain user trust?

  In order to solve the problem of insufficient consumer trust, Pinduoduo emphasized the "acquaintance relationship" and developed a new model of group grouping. In February this year, it launched the function of grouping small circles.

In Pinxiaohuan, users can share their consumption experience with friends.

"This is easier to be trusted than stranger comments." Some insiders commented.

You can view the shopping records and evaluations of your friends in the small circle.

  In recent years, Ali has also been following changes in trends.

The Tmall store has long cancelled the neutral and negative rating system that was displayed separately, and also adopted star ratings. The difference is that users cannot directly filter and view low-scoring ratings of 1 to 2 stars.

This time mobile phone Taobao revision can be said to be another attempt to weaken the "bad reviews".

  Tan Haojun, a part-time professor and financial commentator of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, affirmed Taobao's revision.

  "Using specific standards to replace a single medium and negative review has certain positive meaning. For example, if consumers find that the leather is not good, they can make targeted improvements, which is more valuable than just saying good reviews and negative reviews. It was changed back later, indicating that Taobao is exploring and reforming the evaluation system and is looking for better solutions to solve existing problems. We should be more tolerant of reforms.” Tan Haojun said.

  In the future, whether Taobao's evaluation system will continue to maintain a "bad evaluation" or will find another way, everyone is waiting to see.

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