No one can argue that review sites do not serve a much-needed purpose. By providing consumers with the opportunity to share their real experiences with merchants online, they can benefit purchasers and merchants alike. The former can make better decisions about what to buy and where to buy it. The latter become privy to feedback that they might otherwise not receive and resolve outstanding issues, improve their products and services and better serve the public.
Of course, that’s assuming the review site chooses to act in a non-partial manner. Regrettably, not all of them do.
The most widely known review site is undoubtedly Trustpilot.
“Trustpilot was founded in 2007 with a vision to create an independent currency of trust,” it declares on its website. “We're a digital platform that brings businesses and consumers together to foster trust and inspire collaboration. We're free to use, open to everybody, and built on transparency.”[1]
And indeed, its statistics – accurate as of December 31, 2021 – are impressive. It hosts more than 167 million reviews concerning about 714,000 merchants. Founded and headquartered in Copenhagen, Trustpilot’s 850 employees also work out of London, New York, Denver, Vilnius, Berlin, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Milan, and Amsterdam.
But can Trustpilot be trusted? To answer that question, it is first necessary to understand its business model.
Review sites generate income by contracting out to merchants varying degrees of input over the page on which consumers may post their reviews. “Any business can use our services for free to collect and respond to reviews,” Trustpilot states,[2] and 87% of all merchants with Trustpilot pages do.[3] “The only difference between free and paid businesses using Trustpilot is that paid businesses can use extra features such as our marketing assets or more detailed review insights.” [4]
Trustpilot offers businesses four different plans at graduating prices. Each allows the merchant to upload its own profile, issue increasing amounts of invites to clients to post reviews and a variety of other benefits ranging from widgets to personalization options. The most expensive plan, designed for major enterprises, also provides a dedicated account manager.Trustpilot offers businesses four different plans at graduating prices. Each allows the merchant to upload its own profile, issue increasing amounts of invites to clients to post reviews and a variety of other benefits ranging from widgets to personalization options. The most expensive plan, designed for major enterprises, also provides a dedicated account manager.
For their part, reviewers have the option to assign the merchant between one and five stars. The more five-star reviews received (and conversely, the fewer reviews received that are less than five stars) the higher the merchant’s “TrustScore” will be. Instinctively, it would be logical to assume that the primary reason why a merchant would want to invest money in Trustpilot would be to take advantage of the opportunity to generate a wave of positive reviews by sending invites to those clients it presumes would respond effusively. So yes, the allure of increasing positive reviews is certainly a major consideration.[5]
Of course, it would also be instinctive to presume that merchants that are attentive to their clients and provide excellent goods or services would naturally attract a steady flow of positive reviews and very few, if any, lousy ones. So, what would the added value really be if the merchant could generate positive reviews by signing up for a business plan?
To answer that question, it is first necessary to understand Trustpilot’s review rules, or more specifically, their loopholes.