Inside BuzzFeed Shopping's Product Vetting and Recommendations

BuzzFeed Shopping describes itself as service journalism: its writers and editors spend their days testing and vetting products so readers don’t have to. The team fact-checks brand claims and focuses on products that prove useful in real life.

The editorial approach centers readers over revenue, favoring authentic recommendations based on real experiences rather than ad copy. Coverage aims to reflect a diverse audience across price points, people, and needs.

The team says it cuts through fake deals and glossy fluff, providing useful information and offering both budget and splurge options with context so readers can decide what’s right for them.

Melanie Aman is a deputy editorial director on the BuzzFeed Shopping team. With about a decade in lifestyle and service journalism, she applies a shopping-editor perspective to vet products across categories including lifestyle, home, beauty, fashion, pets, cleaning, travel, and aging. Away from work she says she often eats foods that upset her stomach and watches old MTV shows from the 2000s.

Key Topics

Culture, Buzzfeed Shopping, Melanie Aman, Service Journalism, Product Vetting, Consumer Reviews