Reviews 101

Amazon.com was created in July 1995 by American businessman Jeff Bezos. Initially the site was created for selling only books. In June 1998 the product line was enlarged - they started selling music records and in November of the same year – video records. Nowadays service of Amazon.com embraces 34 goods categories including electronic books, household appliances, toys for children, foodstuff, housewares, sports stuff etc. One of the most remarkable and popular options Amazon has is review feature. Customers can submit reviews to the web page of each product. More over as the part of the review they must rate the product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Such rating scales provide a basic idea of the popularity and dependability of a product. This feature makes a great impact not only on the customers but also on the producers. For example data from the site amazon.com has influenced on the decisions of publishers regarding the issue what and in which volume to publish.

Amazon has an optional badging option for the reviewers. Some books have well over one thousand reviews but many books, especially new ones, have none. The U.S. site generally has the most reviews, but other country sites offer the perspectives of other reviewers. A review posted on one site is not necessarily visible on another site. According to information in Amazon.com discussion forums, Amazon derives about 40% of its sales from affiliates, whom they call “Associates.” An Associate is an independent seller or business that receives a commission for referring customers to the Amazon.com site.