Life, politics and... application development by Frank Quist.
I'm a second-year social work student in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Here I occasionally "blog" on random topics, as a means of distracting myself from the place of intense chaos that some call Hogeschool Utrecht. Also, I have to channel my nerdier tendencies somewhere... social work does not tend to work for that.
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The Magic Behind Amazon's 2.7 Billion Dollar Question - OR: how to write an article based on a premise that's awful bullshit →
In 2008, Amazon brought in $19 billion, of which 70% came from media products, such as books, movies, and music. It’s not an accident that these products also make the best use of the reviews feature. As we’ve watched Amazon customers make purchases on the site, we can clearly see that promoting the most helpful reviews has increased sales in these categories by 20%.(One out of every five customers decides to complete the purchase because of the strength of the reviews.) From this, we can project it has contributed to Amazon’s top line by $2.7 billion. This is a case of a simple question - asked in the right way at the right time - that can have a dramatic affect on the success of the organization. Simple, subtle design once again proves it has great magical powers (and, in the right circumstances, very lucrative ones).
The above paragraph is all the proof the article contains that Amazon’s “was this review helpful to you” question has been responsible for almost 15% of all their profits. Insane.
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