According to the latest data on December 28, the United States has a total of 19,436,574 confirmed cases and 288,906 deaths.

A total of 2,288,345 cases have been confirmed in the UK, with a total of 70,752 deaths.

It is obvious that the epidemic situation in Europe and the United States is still severe, and sellers have therefore been subject to a series of problems such as shipping restrictions, warehousing restrictions, logistics price increases and delays.

But in addition to the above problems, sellers of a certain category of products have also suffered unexpected disasters brought about by the new coronavirus.

Negative reviews for scented candle sellers tripled

In Amazon operations, the impact of negative reviews is serious.

But recently, the scented candle store on Amazon in the United States has received a large number of negative reviews this year. What is strange is that sellers of scented candles from different brands have all received one-star negative reviews.

▲ Screenshot from Amazon Yankee Candle  

In a forum, a seller said that the aromatherapy products in his store have a sweet and greasy smell, but this year he received a lot of negative reviews saying that they have no smell. Coincidentally, other sellers who received negative reviews also said that the reasons given by buyers are very consistent: there is no smell, and it is no different from ordinary candles.

▲ Negative reviews of scented candles

What’s even more strange is that for the same product from the same store, some people said it had no smell, but some buyers gave it five-star reviews and said they really liked the scent.

▲ Good reviews of scented candles

Some netizens suspected that it was a problem with the staff and product quality: maybe there was something wrong with that batch of candles, or there was something wrong with the staff who made that batch of candles? But as other netizens replied: factories generally make candles according to the recipe, so it is unlikely.  

▲ Screenshot from Weibo

In addition, for scented candles, consumers will pay attention to the smell, duration, burning efficiency, packaging, and cost-effectiveness. Among them, the smell can be said to be one of the important factors that determine whether consumers place an order. Therefore, sellers of this type try to describe the fragrance as accurately as possible to avoid negative reviews from consumers.

So why do scented candles, which clearly have no quality issues and do have fragrance, receive so many negative reviews and complaints from consumers that they have no smell?

The reason is that it turns out that the seller of scented candles has become an unexpected victim of the new coronavirus...

The reason why negative reviews of scented candles surged

 

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the aromatherapy fragrance, but the problem is the consumer's nose. You may not know that one of the most obvious symptoms of COVID-19 infection is the loss of taste and smell. And these buyers who said there was no smell may have been infected with COVID-19, resulting in a loss of smell.

To further investigate and confirm, Kate Petrova, a research assistant at Harvard University's Department of Adult Development, found more data and found a close connection between scented candles and the new coronavirus.

She downloaded reviews of the three best-selling scented candles and ordinary candles on Amazon in the United States from 2017 to 2020. And analyzed the ratings of the reviews: between January 2017 and January 2020, the average rating remained around 4.3-5 points, but dropped sharply between January 2020 and November 2020.

At the same time, the ratings of Amazon's top 3 unscented candles did not change much, but the ratings of the top 3 scented candles dropped sharply between January and November 2020.

The comments about lack of fragrance in the top 5 scented candle reviews on Amazon also have a regular pattern: negative reviews about lack of fragrance peaked in April, rose slightly in August (the second wave peak), and reached the third wave peak in October and November. This is consistent with the outbreak of several waves of the epidemic in the United States.

It is reported that this phenomenon is not only seen in the United States. Moritz, a doctoral student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was inspired by Petrova's research and conducted an investigation and analysis and found a similar trend in the reviews of perfume products on Amazon UK. At the same time, there are also consumers who have made a series of comments about taste and smell, such as "can't smell coffee", "can't taste alcohol", "milk tea has no sweetness"...

The changes in the negative reviews of these aromatherapy products, combined with the peaks of the epidemic in the United States, and then recalling those negative reviews, are terrifying. Some netizens said: It is really creepy to think about it. Countless people have been infected with the new coronavirus and don’t know it. They live their lives as usual, and death comes unexpectedly one day.

Of course, some netizens also raised questions with concern: Is it a permanent loss or will it be recovered after treatment?

Some netizens said: Most will recover, but it takes time. My American colleague got COVID-19, and he said that after half a year of recovery, he has now partially recovered his sense of taste and smell.

For the sellers who received so many negative reviews for scented candles, they were both innocent and helpless. In response, the customer service of an Amazon scented candle store said: There is no problem with the products, and if consumers can't smell the scent, they are willing to return or exchange the products.