A two-sided store-review platform where the same merchants it rates are also its paying SaaS customers, and some merchants allege the unpaid get their worst reviews surfaced.
What it's really for A retailer-review site fused to a paid merchant SaaS that sells review-collection tools.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its shopper star ratings of online retailers, not everything the site does.
Medium Scoring Confidence Mostly sourced, but a detail or two still needs a primary source, so the grade could shift slightly.
Paying merchants are the core revenue source, subscribing from roughly $349 to $549+ per month for collection tools and display widgets; ResellerRatings says solicited reviews are labeled "Verified" and against-the-rules incentivized reviews are barred, but some merchants allege paying lets them surface their best reviews while non-payers see old negative ones promoted.
Source →- Operating since
- 1996 (30 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- A consumer-facing store-rating site fused to a paid merchant SaaS that sells review-collection and Google Seller Ratings tools to the very businesses it rates.
- What they do
- It aggregates shopper reviews into star ratings for online retailers while selling those retailers subscription tools to solicit, display, and respond to reviews.
- What to watch for
- It doesn't independently verify that reviewers actually bought anything beyond labeling merchant-invited reviews as "Verified," and critics say its merchant-solicited model lets happy-customer outreach skew the ratings.
- Composite score
- 1.90 / 5.00 → grade C-
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- ResellerRatings was launched in 1996 by Scott Wainner as a subsection of SysOpt.com; after several ownership changes it operates on a freemium model where merchants can participate free and subscribe for additional features. Source: Wikipedia: ResellerRatings →
- Merchant subscription tiers run from a free invite-only Starter to Growth at $349/month and Pro at $549/month, bundling Google Seller Ratings, display widgets, and review-collection tools sold to the businesses being rated. Source: ResellerRatings business pricing page →
- Verint Systems agreed to acquire ForeSee, the parent that had absorbed ResellerRatings; the deal closed in December 2018, placing ResellerRatings under Verint. Source: Verint press release on ForeSee acquisition →