How Do You Get More eCommerce Reviews?
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A product page with zero reviews looks exactly like one with a hundred bad ones to a shopper deciding whether to trust you. Reviews are the evidence a claim on your own website can't provide, and getting more of them is a process, not a one-off ask.
TL;DR
Reviews affect search rankings, buyer trust, and how much you spend on marketing to convince someone who's never heard of you
Ten practical ways to get more reviews, from reducing friction at checkout to third-party review platforms
Asking for a review feels awkward, but most customers do not mind being asked
Incentivising reviews is fine on your own site with the right disclosure, and against the rules on Amazon, eBay, and Google
Respond to every review you get, not just the positive ones
What Are eCommerce Reviews?
eCommerce reviews are evaluations of a product or service left by recent buyers, on your own site, a marketplace listing, or a third-party platform. They help shoppers decide whether to buy, and they give you a direct read on what is working and what is not, which a feedback form alone rarely surfaces as honestly. Our guide to customer feedback and reviews covers the difference between the two and when each is worth collecting.
Benefits of Improving Your Online Reviews
Increase brand awareness. A product people talk about, share and tag reaches shoppers your ads never will.
Improve SEO and increase traffic. Fresh review content on a product page gives search engines more to index and more reasons to rank it.
Boost the confidence of first-time customers. A claim on your website is marketing. The same claim from a stranger who already bought the product is evidence.
Save money on marketing. A genuine review with a customer's own photo often out-converts professional product photography, at a fraction of the cost.
Create customer loyalty. A customer who feels their opinion was valued comes back.
Improve perceived legitimacy. A listing with no reviews, or a suspiciously perfect five stars across the board, reads as a scam to a wary shopper either way.
Show customers that you care. Responding to reviews, including the negative ones, signals that someone is actually listening.
Create better products. Reviews are unfiltered product feedback at scale, and they tell you what to fix before a support ticket does.
Where Each Review Tactic Is Allowed
Check this table before you run any review campaign, because the same tactic that is fine on your own storefront can get a marketplace account suspended. The compliance line is not about the tactic itself, it is about who owns the channel the review sits on.
Tactic | Your own site | Amazon and eBay | |
| Automated post-delivery email request | Yes | Yes, within each platform's messaging rules | Yes |
| Neutral request at point of support resolution | Yes | Yes, if wording stays neutral | Yes |
| Incentive such as a discount or prize draw | Yes, with clear disclosure | No, prohibited | No, prohibited |
| Asking only happy customers to review | Yes, but it skews your own data | No, prohibited as review gating | No, prohibited |
| Featuring a review in marketing | Yes | Check the platform's terms first | Check the platform's terms first |
Anything in the prohibited rows risks review removal or account suspension, which costs more than the reviews were worth. Our guide on avoiding review manipulation on Amazon sets out where that line sits in practice. Book a Free Demo and see how eDesk triggers review requests off resolved tickets rather than a blanket send list.
Ten Ways to Get More eCommerce Reviews
Before any of these, resolve the open issue first. A customer with an unresolved complaint who receives a review request reads it as tone-deaf, and you have handed them a reason to leave a worse review than they otherwise would have.
1. Make It Easy to Review
Cut every unnecessary step. A review flow that requires an account login, a multi-page form or a confusing redirect loses most of the customers who were willing to leave one.
2. Follow Up by Email
A short, automated email a few days after delivery, timed to when the product has actually been used, outperforms a generic blast to your whole list. Keep the ask to one line and one link.
3. Ask When Customers Are Happiest
The moment right after a support issue is resolved well, or right after a product clearly does what it promised, is the best time to ask. Satisfaction is highest then, and so are your odds of a detailed, genuinely positive review.
4. Use Retargeting Prompts
A retargeting ad aimed at recent buyers, asking for a review rather than another sale, reaches people who already have an opinion formed and just need the nudge.
5. Use In-App Prompts
If you sell through an app, a review prompt right after a completed transaction catches the customer while the experience is still fresh.
6. Ask on Social Media
Your social followers are disproportionately your happiest customers already, so a direct ask there reaches an audience pre-selected for goodwill.
7. Use a Third-Party Review Platform
A verified platform adds credibility a self-hosted review widget cannot match on its own, and most can automate the request entirely. If you sell on Amazon, review requests there follow their own strict rules, covered in our guide to getting reviews on Amazon.
8. Respond to Every Review
Thank the positive ones specifically, not with a copy-paste line. For a negative one, acknowledge the issue and ask for the chance to fix it. A seller who replies to everything looks like a seller actually running the business rather than collecting stars.
9. Share Positive Reviews
Feature a real customer quote in a marketing email or a social post wherever the platform's terms allow it. Borrowed trust from an existing customer converts better than anything you would write yourself.
10. Offer Incentives Only Where the Platform Allows It
A small incentive can meaningfully increase how many customers leave a review, and it is legitimate on your own website or storefront with clear disclosure that the review is incentivised. It is not legitimate everywhere. Amazon, eBay and Google all prohibit incentivised reviews on their platforms, and sellers caught offering them risk account suspension or review removal. Keep incentives to channels you control, and never offer one in exchange for a review on a marketplace or Google listing.
Which Review Tactic Should You Start With?
Pick one. If you are getting almost no reviews right now, start with the automated follow-up email. It needs no ongoing effort once set up and reaches every customer by default. If you already get some reviews but few are detailed or useful, the problem is timing rather than volume, so focus on asking at the moment satisfaction peaks instead. Our guide to automating review requests covers the setup for both.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get more eCommerce reviews? Remove friction from the review flow and ask at the right moment. The highest-yield single change for most sellers is an automated email a few days after delivery, timed to when the product has actually been used, with one line of copy and one link. After that, ask at the point a support issue is resolved well, which is when satisfaction peaks.
Can you offer customers an incentive for leaving a review? On channels you control, such as your own website or storefront, yes, provided the incentive is clearly disclosed so the review is identified as incentivised. On Amazon, eBay and Google it is prohibited, and sellers offering incentives there risk review removal or account suspension. Never offer an incentive in exchange for a marketplace or Google review.
When is the best time to ask for a review? A few days after delivery, once the customer has actually used the product, or immediately after a support issue has been resolved to their satisfaction. Asking before the product has been used produces thin reviews, and asking while a complaint is still open invites a worse review than you would otherwise have received.
Should you respond to negative reviews? Yes. Acknowledge the issue specifically and ask for the chance to fix it. A public reply is read by every future shopper, not just the reviewer, and a seller who replies to everything reads as someone running the business properly. Silence on negatives is more damaging than the negative itself.
Do online reviews help SEO? Review content adds fresh, regularly updated text to a product page, which gives search engines more to index and more signals of an active page. It is a supporting factor rather than a ranking shortcut, and the trust benefit on conversion is usually worth more than the search benefit.
Is it a problem to have only perfect five-star reviews? Yes. A listing with nothing but perfect scores reads as suspicious to a wary shopper, much as one with no reviews at all does. A spread that includes some critical reviews, each with a visible seller response, is more credible than an unbroken run of five stars.
Where to Start
Set up the automated post-delivery email first, because it runs without ongoing effort and covers every customer by default. Then add a neutral request at the point your support team resolves an issue, which is where the most detailed reviews come from.
Keep incentives to the channels you own, disclose them, and respond to everything that comes in. Good customer service is still what makes a customer want to leave a review in the first place. Start for free and trigger review requests off resolved tickets instead of a blanket send list.
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