Amazon figuring out how to deal with the problem is critical for their future.
It doesn't take a genius to look at all the reviews that some products have and realize that they're fake
It's not neglect, it's a very hard problem, as is any problem where you are trying to make an inference with limited information controlled by an adversary. Amazon could spend billions on incredibly sophisticated fake-review-detection algorithms, but they still couldn't stop sellers finding real amazon customers and paying them to buy and review their products.
A few ideas:
Walmart. Their grocery delivery service is already baked into our weekly workflow. Plus they benefit from having X000 stores around the USA. They really are getting their act together.
Wayfair and friends. Wayfair is demonstrating that certain verticals really benefit from having a dedicated site and customer service matters.
For nearly everything I buy on Amazon now, I wonder: “is this real? Are these reviews real? Will it break in 10 minutes?”
Obviously, Amazon is doing just fine, and we are a long way from my parents asking those same questions, and they have tons of businesses beside retail. So yes, they’ll be ok.
But I think they’ve left the door open for competition with their approach to third party sellers.