Sort by Recommended

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mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
When you goto a website for example you want to buy a new MTB and then you can sort by Price Ascending, Price Descending, Brand name A-Z, Brand name Z-A, or whatever... there is also a "sort by recommended". How does that work? Who does the recommending? Is it sorted by what people are most likely to buy, or whatever is in high stock, how does that work?

(MTB is just an example, it could be coffee tables, cars, whatever).
 

Lozz360

Veteran
Location
Oxfordshire
I think it works on the review scores. Reviewers are required to give one to five stars and the average star rating per review for a particular item gets a score. The higher this score is, the more it is recommended. Not a perfect system if an item has just one review with five stars and it ranks higher that an item that may have an average of four and a half stars over 1,000 reviews.
 

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
I think it works on the review scores. Reviewers are required to give one to five stars and the average star rating per review for a particular item gets a score. The higher this score is, the more it is recommended. Not a perfect system if an item has just one review with five stars and it ranks higher that an item that may have an average of four and a half stars over 1,000 reviews.
Really? I think it is linked to whichever product will make the sales engine the most profit or the product they are struggling to shift.
 

presta

Guru
It's 'Sort by price' on Amazon that bugs me. It's useless, because it includes hundreds of items that have absolutely any connection to the search keyword, no matter how tenuous.
 

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
When you goto a website for example you want to buy a new MTB and then you can sort by Price Ascending, Price Descending, Brand name A-Z, Brand name Z-A, or whatever... there is also a "sort by recommended". How does that work? Who does the recommending? Is it sorted by what people are most likely to buy, or whatever is in high stock, how does that work?

(MTB is just an example, it could be coffee tables, cars, whatever).
I think it works on the basis of the retailer giving all their products a score, and it chooses the highest of those scores first.

They can give that score based on what they believe to be the best products, but they could (and probably do) also quite easily give a high score for something they make a high margin on, or want to shift quickly, or any other factor they choose.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
When I worked part time in Whiteleys electrical department my full time colleagues used to highly recommend a certain Remington shaver. Everyone knew it was crap, with both Brauns and Phillishave better by a country mile, but they got £2 from Remington for each one they sold.
 
Location
London
I wouldn't play a blind bit of notice to any "recommended" ranking from someone trying to flog stuff - it's hardly as if it's related to MY needs.
Reminds me of those endless:
"what's trending" promo mails I get.
Who gives a f** ?
 
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