Predicting Product Issues in the Use-Phase from Online Customer Reviews-A Demonstration using UV-C Sterilizer Products

Producer responsibility (PR) in the use-phase of a product lifecycle is challenging due to information obscurity once the product reaches the customers. To aid traceability of products in their use-phase, the potential of customer reviews from e-commerce platforms is explored in this work. In this work, UV-C sterilizer is taken as a product class to illustrate the proposed method to track product issues during use-phase through customer reviews from Amazon platform. The study uses sentiment analysis and tagging of reviews to understand use-phase issues. A method to predict product issues of importance during the use-phase is presented to aid faster product recalls by early spotting of product design flaws after market release. The research aims to aid agencies to promote responsible product practices and user safety through a data mining approach.