Amazon is experimenting with removing customer ratings from its product search results page, a test that the retailer says could make it easier for shoppers to scan its vast selection of products.
The "limited test" affects only a small set of products, the company told Fortune on Thursday, and only affects the search results page, with star ratings and review count totals still available on individual product pages.
Some Amazon customers and sellers recently noticed changes to the Amazon website and mobile app that strip away the star rating and review count of the products that appear in search results. In one example on LinkedIn, an Amazon seller posted the product listing results for a search for "water flosser." Previously, the resulting feed of products in the search results would each include a line of information, from left to right, that included a numerical rating from 0 to 5, the same rating displayed in the form of five shaded-in stars, as well as the number of total ratings for a given product.
In the new experience, all of that rating and review information has been removed from the overall results page, and shoppers need to click through to each listing's product page to view this information.
Amazon is known among its rivals as an online retailer that is constantly testing new features and tweaking formats inside its shopping experience. But the recent change to the search results page has drawn attention because of the impact it could have to shoppers, independent sellers, and big brands alike.
Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti confirmed to Fortune that the change is indeed a test, rather than the result of a software bug. She did not offer any information about the results of the testing so far, or about how long the company plans to conduct the tests.
"We're conducting a limited test on a small set of products to refine which product information, including reviews and other attributes, show in search results to make the results more compact so customers can quickly and easily browse a range of product options."
Boschetti also stressed that all of the product details, including ratings and reviews, will continue to show up on individual product pages.
On the surface, it's fair to wonder how much screen space and customer browsing time Amazon is actually saving by eliminating this one line of information. With customers increasingly using smartphones to browse and buy on the web, companies have optimized the mobile versions of their sites and apps for smaller screens.
Ratings and reviews have long served as one of Amazon's biggest differentiators and advantages, but also a source of exasperation. As Amazon has courted millions of merchants across to the globe to begin selling through its marketplace, some have tried to game the reviews system through tactics ranging from paying shoppers for 5-star reviews to merging a new product onto an existing product's listing so the new merchandise looks like its carrying a high rating.
A few years back, Amazon introduced one-tap ratings that made it easier for "verified buyers" to provide feedback on a product without crafting a written review. At least part of the idea behind the initiative was that it might make it harder, or more expensive, for fake reviews to significantly impact a product's overall rating.
More recently, Amazon has added AI-powered review summaries to product pages to give shoppers a snapshot of customer feedback without having to wade through individual reviews.
