Sorting Review Results

It would be helpful if, when sorting review results by "Rating", the results would also be sorted by a secondary key, "number of ratings".

What I mean is this: I'm much more interested in an item which has received 5 stars from 20 users, than one that's received 5 stars from 1 user.

By way of example, as it currently works, if you sort "backpacking boots" by Rating, the top entry is Lowa Banff, with 5 stars and 10 reviews. Then there are a bunch of items, also with 5 stars, but with 1 review, 2 reviews, etc. Then, further down, there's "Asolo 520 GTX", with 5 stars, but with 19 reviews.

I'd consider the 5star/19review item to be more highly rated than the one with 5 stars and 10 reviews.

Maybe you're using a different criteria for the sub sort? It looks like having an image (or not) might be the key in the subsort now. I can see the logic behind that, but it would be nice to at least have the option of sorting strictly by rating/number.

Agreed, and I've added this to my feature request list.

We're already doing this to a limited extent. I call it the "weighted rating" and it's used in the default "sort by availability" option. In that sort, a product with ten reviews averaging 4.5 stars, for example, will show up above a product with only two 5-star reviews.

However, "sort by availability" sorts first product availability, and then by the weighted rating. So products that don't have any retailers listed are shown only after currently-available products with no reviews. The practical effect is that a few products with reviews get pushed way down the list, but that mostly affects discontinued products, which are of little interest to most people using the site.