Many users rely on the ratings of other customers when shopping online. The better these are, the more attractive the product is. Amazon has relied on star ratings for years. The online retailer has now bundled the best products in a new star shop.
“We’ve put together a selection of the highest rated products at unbeatable prices, all conveniently in one place,” is how Amazon describes its new star shop, which launched in May 2023. Here, customers will find products from very different categories, but they have one thing in common – they have received a particularly high rating from buyers and are offered by Amazon at a “star price” that “enthralls”. At least that’s what the dealer promises. But why is Amazon “hiding” the new star shop from its customers?
Star shop from Amazon only accessible via direct link
The online retailer usually advertises new offers in large letters on its website. At least the most important shops like Amazon Fresh and Outlet, the Luxury Stores or Handmade can also be found as tabs on the homepage or in the app. Not so with the star shop, which Amazon does not list here. However, the start did not take place entirely without advertising. As Amazon informed us in response to a TECHBOOK request, various advertising measures were implemented to increase awareness. “We ran a social media campaign and display ads outside of the site, among other things,” an Amazon spokesman told us.
The star shop can only be found by searching for it via Google or the direct link knows. Both ways lead to a subpage of the well-known Amazon homepage, which is divided into different categories such as electronics, video and audio, house and garden, fashion, household and sport. Within these categories, Amazon lists suitable products in the new shop that have been rated four stars or more by buyers. It is striking that the articles mostly come from well-known manufacturers. The large number of China products that often appear when searching in the regular Amazon shop are not available here. This makes it much easier to search for high-quality goods in Amazon’s star shop.
“The star shop offers Amazon customers products at an attractive price-performance ratio: from electronics to household goods to toys and much more, including popular items from big brands,” said the Amazon spokesman. “The ratings are an important part of the star shop selection and help customers to make the purchase decision for the desired products.”
How cheap are the offers really?
But what about the prices, does Amazon really offer the goods in the new shop at “star prices”? We did a few spot checks.
Amazon charges 89.99 euros for the WLAN repeater 2400 from AVM. A price comparison at Idealo shows that this is currently the cheapest offer. The same applies to the smoothie maker Kult X Mix & Go Mini from WMF, which costs 37.98 euros on Amazon, but at least 43.90 euros from other retailers, as they still have shipping costs.
However, customers have to pay more for the portable Bluetooth speaker JBL Flip 6, which Amazon offers for 117 euros, but which is available from other well-known retailers such as Cyberport for 111 euros. So it goes to show that customers shouldn’t rely on getting the best price from Amazon’s Star Shop. A price comparison is worthwhile in any case.