The Digital Executive Podcast: Cracking the Code on Amazon Reviews with Shane Barker | Ep 1119

Guest: Shane Barker, CEO & Founder of TraceFuse
Host: Coruzant Technologies
Date: September 27, 2025
Duration: ~10 minutes

Episode Overview

This episode spotlights Shane Barker, the founder and CEO of TraceFuse, who discusses how his company is revolutionizing negative review removal for Amazon sellers using an AI-powered, Amazon Terms of Service (TOS) compliant process. Shane draws on 25+ years in digital marketing and shares the challenges, breakthroughs, and real-world impact of providing a "white hat" SaaS solution to protect seller reputations and revenue from policy-violating reviews.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Genesis of TraceFuse & Identifying the Pain Point

• Timestamp: 01:25
  Shane recalls the moment he recognized the urgent need for a compliant, scalable review removal tool, noting feedback from multiple clients:

  "Everybody said reviews. And I said hey, you know, not a problem at all. Let me take a look at that. I was a little too cocky and thought I could figure it out in a few weeks... It took us two years to crack the code which tells me that was obviously not an easy process." (Shane Barker, 01:25)

• The core pain point: Existing tools could not reliably remove reviews, especially those violating Amazon's clear guidelines (like competitor mentions, cussing, pricing, hate speech, FBA shipping errors).

• The breakthrough established TraceFuse as the first effective, scalable, and TOS-compliant SaaS product in this niche—removing over 14,000 reviews for 600+ brands.

What Does TOS Compliance Mean in Practice?

• Timestamp: 03:23
  Shane outlines what it means to be 100% TOS compliant:

  "Everything we do is... the AI that we've created. We're looking for things that violate Amazon's guidelines. So we actually collect the reviews, we run those through our AI software, and the AI will tell us whether it's compliant with Amazon's guidelines or not." (Shane Barker, 03:23)

• Criteria for eligible removal include:

  • Mentioning competitors
  • Price discussion
  • Cuss words or hate speech
  • Issues with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

• Cases are escalated only if there’s a clear guideline violation; otherwise, the review remains untouched.

The Hybrid AI-Human Review Process

• Timestamp: 04:47
  The TraceFuse process combines AI for detection with a human team for compliance check and Amazon case filing:

  "We were manually looking at reviews through these things called humans... They can only work about four hours because you start to run into errors... We said, wait a second, is this something that we could train AI on?" (Shane Barker, 04:47)

  Process Breakdown:

  • AI Detection: Monitors and flags hundreds of thousands of reviews daily for TOS violations.
  • Human Verification: Every AI-flagged review is double-checked by a person before being submitted to Amazon (Amazon does not allow automated submissions).
  • Manual Case Filing: All requests to Amazon are individually filed by humans, maintaining platform compliance and quality control.

  "Everything that we file with Amazon is done manually through humans. And one of the reasons ... is because Amazon doesn't want you to just automatically file and there's no automation allowed like that on Amazon." (Shane Barker, 05:45)

  • This approach ensures high accuracy, mitigates false positives, and keeps Amazon’s trust.

Patterns in Violating and Unfair Reviews

• Timestamp: 07:38
  Shane discusses observed trends with 600+ brands and 14,000+ reviews:

  • Most Common Violations:

    • Mentioning Competitors: Especially in beauty, e.g., "I usually use Maybelline but tried this instead."
    • Pricing Complaints: E.g., "I paid $35 on Prime Day, now it's $50." Amazon restricts these to preserve future pricing power.
    • Cussing/Profanity: Emotion-driven outbursts lead to noncompliance.

  • On Unfair Yet Compliant Reviews:
    Some reviews are undeniably harmful to brands but don't break any TOS rules, leaving sellers with little recourse:

    "Those kind of break my heart because we obviously can't file on them because there's nothing that violates Amazon's guidelines." (Shane Barker, 08:47)

The Impact and Unique Offering

• TraceFuse pioneered a fully TOS-compliant, tech-enabled solution:

  • First to market at this scale
  • Over 14,000 reviews removed for 600+ brands

• The human + AI hybrid mode is both effective and compliant with Amazon’s policies.

Memorable Quotes

• On the challenge of cracking the code:

  "It took us two years to crack the code which tells me that was obviously not an easy process." (Shane Barker, 01:43)

• On the harmony of AI and humans:

  "...we were manually looking at reviews through these things called humans... you start to get the human error factor... We said, wait a second, is this something that we could train AI on?" (Shane Barker, 04:55)

• On regulatory heartbreak:

  "Some reviews are potentially unfair or harmful... but they didn't write anything that violates Amazon's guidelines. So those kind of break my heart..." (Shane Barker, 08:47)

• On the pain of negative reviews for passionate sellers:

  "It's kind of a catch 22... It is hurtful for the company that's working hard to do a good job of what... they're trying to sell." (Host, 09:25)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:25: Shane’s “aha” moment and the founding story of TraceFuse
• 03:23: What TOS compliance entails and common review violations
• 04:47: AI-human hybrid workflow for scaling review detection and case filing
• 07:38: Review violation patterns and challenges with “unfair but compliant” reviews
• 09:06: Host and guest summarize key terms, challenges, and emotional toll

Takeaways

• The Amazon review space is fraught with violations that hurt honest sellers, and prior tools have failed to address them TOS-compliantly and at scale.
• TraceFuse’s blend of AI automation and diligent human oversight is pioneering in both effectiveness and compliance.
• Despite tech advances, some hurtful reviews remain untouched unless they clearly break Amazon’s specific rules.
• Emotional intelligence and empathy remain vital in this “white hat” approach to reputation management.

A concise, insightful dialogue for any Amazon seller, e-commerce entrepreneur, or tech enthusiast keen to see how AI and human ingenuity are reshaping digital marketplaces.