Amazon’s new approach to displaying star ratings for products in search results has raised concerns among users for its potential to complicate the process of evaluating product quality. The new star rating layout was spotted on Amazon India’s mobile site, as well as on Amazon Germany and the global site when accessed from Germany.
Under the new system, when users search for a product, they see an average star rating accompanied by a single star icon. Next to the star icon, there is a percentage indicating the proportion of reviews that received five stars. This differs from the traditional layout, where five stars are shown in color according to the average rating, along with the number of reviews.
Many users find the new layout confusing and worry that it could make it harder to quickly assess a product’s quality. The previous system provided an easy-to-understand visual representation of both the average rating and the number of reviews, helping users make informed decisions about the product’s overall reputation.
The concern is that this change might impact the confidence customers have in their purchasing decisions. Having a significant number of reviews is often seen as a sign of a product’s reliability, and the new layout might not convey this information as effectively.
As of now, it remains to be seen whether Amazon will roll out this new star rating layout more widely or if they will consider user feedback to potentially revise the system to better serve customers’ needs for transparent and clear product information.
