Changes to review sharing across product variations starting Feb 12

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Some people may complain about this change but we think it will be an improvement (anyone else remember those hijacked listings that were taken over for the 5 star reviews?)

Changes to review sharing across product variations starting Feb 12

Create and Manage Listings

Jan 07, 2026

7.8K views

Starting February 12, 2026, we’re changing how reviews are shared across products in a variation to improve accuracy and help customers make more informed purchasing decisions. This change will help customers understand product-specific feedback before purchase, increasing trust and potentially decreasing returns.

Currently, reviews are shared across all variations of a product, even when variations have significant differences in features or specifications. This can lead to reviews that don’t accurately reflect the specific variation a customer is considering.

With this change, reviews will only be shared between variations with minor differences that don’t affect functionality. Reviews will no longer appear on variations with significant differences which may affect your products’ overall star ratings and review counts.

Reviews will continue to be shared for the following variations:

  • Color or pattern variations of the same product.
  • Size variations that maintain the same function, like king-sized and queen-sized bedding.
  • Pack size or quantity variations.
  • Secondary scent variations for non-scent-focused products, like lemon-scented vs. unscented cleaning products.
  • Different model fitments for the same product type, like phone cases for different models.

We recognize the importance of reviews to your business. To ensure a smooth transition for both you and your customers, we’ll implement these changes gradually by product category between February 12, 2026, and May 31, 2026. You’ll receive email notification 30 days before any changes affect your products.

To prepare, we recommend that you review your variations in Manage All Inventory to ensure that they accurately reflect product differences (for example, use color variation for color differences, not quantity variation). For guidance on listing variations and product information, visit Listing quality and Variation relationships .

If you need to update your variation themes after the change takes effect, reviews will be re-shared for eligible products.

For more information about review sharing across variations, visit Review sharing guidelines .

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I do remember - and the practice certainly hasn’t been stopped w/ Amazon’s previous efforts (citational references available upon request) - so I heartily do second your supposition that that there’s likely to be more good than bad unfolding in the wake of this latest initiative on the Product Review front (which would seem to actually having been going on since the waning days of Q2 2025, given the mentions of it over in the NSFE - reports which have only intensified since then), but I do remain trepid about the almost-sure-to-come incidences of Amazon’s typically poorly-parameterized automated mechanisms casting false flags…

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Just happy that pack size isn’t one of the ones getting killed.

When you sell 2-packs, 3-packs, etc, generally it’s those that like the product that will reorder the larger pack size and generally leave better reviews. Having multi-packs can and does boost the overall rating of the product.

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