The star rating on an Amazon listing is a useful starting filter, but it compresses a huge amount of information into one number. Here's how we actually read reviews before deciding whether a product is worth featuring.
Sort by "Most Recent" before anything else. A product's quality can change after a manufacturing shift, a cost-cutting redesign, or a change in supplier — even though the listing and its historical reviews stay the same. The most recent 10-20 reviews tell you about the product being shipped today, not the one shipped two years ago when most of the five-star reviews were written.
Filter to 3-star reviews specifically, not just 1-star. One-star reviews are often extreme cases — wrong item shipped, damaged in transit, user error. Three-star reviews tend to be the most balanced and specific: "does what it says, but X annoyed me" is far more informative than either extreme.
Look for photo and video reviews. Reviewers who bother to attach photos are usually more invested in giving an accurate picture, and photos often reveal sizing, color, or build-quality details that product photos (taken by the seller) don't show.
Notice what complaints repeat versus what appears once. A single review complaining about a broken unit could just be one unlucky shipment. The same complaint showing up across a dozen reviews, spread over months, is a pattern worth taking seriously.
This takes a few extra minutes compared to glancing at the star average, but it's usually enough to tell a genuinely solid product apart from one that's just been marketed well.