How to Get More Product Reviews on Shopify

How do you get more product reviews on Shopify?

To get more product reviews on Shopify, ask each customer by email once their order has arrived, follow up once or twice, and let the review start from the email itself. Shop asks its own buyers in the Shop app, but those reviews stay there unless a partner review app shows them, so reviews on your own product pages need a review app.

Note: The Shopify, Google and FTC pages cited in this guide were checked on 27 October 2026.

Most customers who are happy with a product never think to review it, and most review forms are found by people who already meant to write one. The difference comes from asking: at the right moment, with as little effort as possible between the email and the finished review, and again if the first email is missed. The rest of this guide takes each step in turn.

When should you ask for a review?

Ask for a review once the customer has had the product long enough to use it, which for a physical product means after it arrives, not when you ship it. A request that lands before the parcel asks for an opinion the customer can’t have yet, and it is easy to ignore.

• Count from delivery when you can. Shipping and delivery can be days or weeks apart, longer for international orders. If your review tool can start the clock when the carrier marks the parcel delivered, use it, with a fallback for parcels whose delivery is never confirmed.
• Give time to use the product. A few days suit a book or a phone case; skincare, supplements or a mattress need weeks. Set the delay by what you sell, not by habit.
• Digital goods and services are different. A download or a booking can be reviewed soon after purchase, so count from the order instead.
• Send in the customer’s daytime. An email that arrives at 3 a.m. sits under the morning’s mail. Some tools hold it until daytime in the customer’s time zone.

Shop, Shopify’s shopping app, waits for delivery too: “After an order is delivered, customers receive a notification on their device”, asking for a review in the Shop app (Shopify Help Center: Shop product reviews).

How many reminders should you send?

Send one or two reminders to customers who haven’t reviewed yet, a few days apart, and stop the moment they review. A single email is easily missed; a third or fourth reminder starts to cost you goodwill and unsubscribes.

• Remind only about what’s left. If the customer reviewed one of three products, the reminder should ask about the other two.
• Stop for every reason the customer gives you. A review, an unsubscribe or a cancelled order should end the reminders.
• Let late parcels wait. A “my order hasn’t arrived yet” link that moves the next email back is better than a reminder about something still in transit.

What does Shop already ask for?

Shop already asks your buyers for reviews, but only inside the Shop app. “Only Shop customers that have purchased a product from you are allowed to submit a review”, with a rating from 1 to 5 stars and a comment of up to 1,000 characters, and the reviews show “on the product details page in the Shop app” (Shopify Help Center: Shop product reviews).

Those reviews reach your own product pages only through one of the partner review apps Shopify lists for Shop, which share reviews in both directions (Shopify Help Center: sync with partner apps). Shopify itself has no review feature for your online store: its old Product Reviews app says “This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store.” So whichever way you collect them, reviews on your product pages come from a review app, and the requests in this guide are that app’s job. More on what Shopify does and doesn’t do for reviews: how to add product reviews to Shopify.

How do you get photo and video reviews?

Ask for the photo in the same flow as the review, make it easy to add from a phone, and say why it helps. Photo reviews show shoppers the real product in real hands, and a customer is more likely to add one when the form asks for it at the right step rather than as an afterthought.

• Open the form from the email. Star links in the email that open the review form with that rating chosen save a step; the shopper then adds the text and the photo.
• Accept phone photos as they are. Large files and formats such as HEIC come straight from phones. A form that refuses them loses the photo.
• Ask for the photo, not just allow it. A form step that prompts for a photo, with a line on what helps other shoppers, gets more photos than an optional upload button.
• Reward the photo, if you reward anything. If you offer a reward, tie it to adding a photo or video, never to the rating, and label the review (see the next section).

Can you offer a discount for a review?

Yes, in the United States and on Google, as long as the reward doesn’t depend on what the review says, and shoppers can see it was offered. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews “does not prohibit giving incentives for reviews”, but there can’t be “an express or implied requirement that the reviews have to express a particular sentiment” (FTC: The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers, November 2024).

Google’s Product Ratings policies take the same line for reviews sent to Google Shopping: incentives such as gift cards or discounts “cannot be dependent on the sentiment of the review”, and a feed has to mark incentivised reviews (Google Merchant Center Help: Product Ratings policies). The same page asks you to share every review, “including low-star reviews”, and not to submit reviews from employees or people with a vested interest.

In practice that means:

• reward every review, or every review with a photo, never only good ones;
• label each rewarded review where shoppers read it;
• never review your own products or ask staff and family to;
• read your own country’s rules too: the FTC and Google pages above aren’t the only ones that apply.

How do you ask past customers?

To ask past customers for reviews, send requests for orders that never got one, and put a review link where you can’t send an email. Past customers are often the quickest source of reviews for a new store or a newly installed app, because the products have long arrived.

• Recent orders first. Customers remember a recent order best, and many apps can only see recent orders: by default, Shopify lets an app read orders “created within the last 60 days” (shopify.dev: access scopes).
• A review link or QR code. A link printed on a package insert or a receipt, or posted on social media, reaches customers you can’t email. The safest links send the customer a review request for their real order rather than an open form.
• The customer’s account. If your store uses Shopify’s customer accounts, a “write a review” button on the order status page catches customers who come back to check an order.

How do you collect reviews with an app?

A review app sends the request emails, shows the reviews on your product pages and keeps the ratings your theme displays up to date. Choose one that counts from delivery, sends reminders only about products still unreviewed, takes phone photos and video, and labels rewarded reviews.

Avis Product Reviews, which we build, does each of the steps above for free. It counts from fulfilment, delivery or purchase, sends two reminders by default (up to three), opens its review form from one-click stars in the email, takes photos and videos, labels rewarded reviews Incentivized review, and can ask past customers or send a request when a customer uses its review link or QR code. Its monthly limit is 2,000 review request emails, with reminders not counted (Avis’s pricing). Avis isn’t one of the partner apps Shopify lists for Shop, so reviews customers leave in the Shop app don’t appear on your store through it.

Tip: Avis Product Reviews, which collects and imports Shopify reviews, sets up its review requests in a few steps: Avis review request emails, then ask past customers for reviews and, if you want them, discount codes for reviews.

Whatever app you use, the order of work is the same: get the timing right, ask once and remind once or twice, make the photo easy, and keep any reward honest and labelled.