In 85 days between February 29th and May 24th, the share of positive reviews on Amazon worldwide marketplaces dropped from 92.5% to 88.7%. It then took nearly as long - until August 11th - to recover. While only a change of 400 basis points, this more than five-months-long swing represented hundreds of thousands of additional negative reviews.

Increased negative experiences shoppers had were caused by Amazon’s fulfillment struggles that caused sellers to sell out of inventory stored in Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and thus reduced Prime-enabled assortment. The company is now preparing for the upcoming holiday season, and fulfillment capacity is already reaching capacity. Holiday shopping at the end of a year is the typical time for negative reviews to spike; this year, it could reach new highs.