The importance of data
We begin by gathering and filtering products based on reviews, how long the company has been around, and brand sentiment.
Some of the databases we aggregated our data from include:
- Amazon Customer Reviews
- Ebay Customer Reviews
- Trustpilot
- TestFreaks
- ConsumerReports
- Better Business Bureau
- Product Hunt
- Facebook Ratings and Reviews
We use Fakespot to check whether the reviews for a product are real or not. If they are not real, we discount that review.
Vetting retailers and manufacturers
Search for retailer reviews
Merchant name + ‘customer reviews’
We start by looking for customer reviews of the product from online retailers. This helps us gauge customer satisfaction and get a feel for what people are saying about the product.
Look for red flags
repeat failure to fulfill orders, fulfill wrong items, poor customer service.
When we’re looking at customer reviews, we’re also on the lookout for red flags. These might include retailers repeatedly failing to fulfill orders, fulfilling the wrong items, or having poor customer service.
Read policies
check to see at least a 30-day warranty. For big expensive items at least a one-year manufacturer’s warranty. For mid-priced items a 60-day warranty is good.
We also read the policies of the retailers to see what kind of warranties they offer. For example, we look for at least a 30-day warranty for small items and a one-year manufacturer’s warranty for big, expensive items. For mid-priced items, a 60-day warranty is good.
Look for Digital Payment Methods
Do they have digital wallet services like PayPal or Amazon Pay.
We also look for retailers that offer digital payment methods like PayPal or Amazon Pay. This helps to ensure that our customers can easily and securely pay for their purchases.
Third-party sellers
Check if they’re fulfilled by Amazon. Check to see if the seller has consistent reviews. Check for a high customer satisfaction rating; 85% with 4+ stars.
If we’re considering a product from a third-party seller, we make sure to check that they’re fulfilled by Amazon. We also look at the seller’s reviews to see if they’re consistent and have a high customer satisfaction rating (85% with 4+ stars).
We also place a high importance on customer feedback. We always want to know what our customers think about the products we recommend. We take this feedback seriously and use it to help us improve our products and services.
The Decision matrix
Finally, we take all the data that we have and we put it into a decision matrix.
A decision matrix is a tool that helps us compare products and make the best decision for our customers.
We consider factors like price, features, customer reviews, warranty, and availability when making our decisions.
To make a decision matrix we simply create a spreadsheet for the given product category that we are reviewing. We list all of the features that we can think of across the board. Some features will be a simple yes or no while others will be a number or a range from discrete choices. Some are manual and others are more automated. Once all of the data is in we can give a point to each different plus or minus. Once all of these are added up we can see which are the top picks.
Relying on Experts
Since we have a small team we rely on resources like HARO to be able to get recommendations and opinions for outside experts. This helps us to get a well-rounded perspective on products.
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a service that connects journalists with sources for their articles.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. We hope that it has been helpful in understanding our process for choosing the products that we recommend. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.
