Riva Score combines published Riva Review evidence with reviewer credibility, structured assessment signals and current Riva Verification. It is designed to reduce the effect of tiny review samples while remaining understandable to buyers and vendors.
Published star ratings are Bayesian-smoothed toward a neutral prior when review volume is low.
Product criteria and company-service criteria are evaluated separately.
Uses reviewers who explicitly answered whether they would recommend the product or company.
Verified-email and identity/KYC signals strengthen provenance without excluding legitimate unverified reviewers.
A current Riva Verified status contributes a small trust signal. Verification alone never creates a Riva Score.
A new listing with one 5-star review should not automatically rank above a product with hundreds of consistently strong reviews. TrustRiva starts low-volume ratings from a neutral 3.5/5 prior with five review-equivalents, then lets real review evidence increasingly dominate as volume grows.
The raw review average always remains visible separately, so users can distinguish what reviewers rated from TrustRiva’s confidence-adjusted assessment.
Riva Score answers “how strong is the current trust assessment?” Confidence answers “how much review evidence supports it?” A good score with emerging evidence is not presented as equally established as the same score backed by a large, credible review set.