Reviews and Seals
Customer reviews and trust badges build trust. This guide explains who can review products in your store, how the review request works after an order is placed, and how to approve and display reviews. To do this, integrate Trusted Shops, Google Customer Reviews, and ShopVote.
At a Glance
- Enable: under Settings → Design → General. By default, only buyers can leave reviews, and new reviews await your approval.
- Leaving a Review: Logged-in customers can leave reviews on the product page and under “My Orders.” Buyers—including guests—can leave reviews without logging in by using the personal link from the review request.
- Review Request: The email is sent a few days after the selected order status is reached, as soon as someone logs in to the backend. By default, it’s sent only to customers who have given their consent.
- Approve and reply: under Products → Product Reviews. Your reply will appear publicly below the review.
- Seals: Trusted Shops, ShopVote, eKomi, and authorized.by under Settings → Interfaces → Review Portals; Google under Settings → Interfaces → SEO/SEA → Google Services. Trusted Shops and ShopVote will only appear in the cookie banner after consent is given.
In this guide
Not covered in this guide: tracking pixels and conversion tracking (such as Microsoft Advertising or Meta), product feeds for social networks, coupon networks, and the affiliate program. Google Analytics and Google Ads are explained in the guide “Google Analytics, Ads & Tag Manager.”
Enable Product Reviews
The basic settings are located under Settings → Design → General. The default settings work for most stores: “Only buyers can rate,” and you approve each review.
The review settings under Settings → Design → General with the default values (screenshot without the rows from other topics in between). Click to enlarge.
| Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| “Product Reviews On/Off” | true | Toggles reviews throughout the store: the section on the product page, stars in lists, the reviews page, the review box, the review slider, and the store’s review prompt. |
| “Product Reviews Only After Purchase” | “Open,” “Shipped” | Only customers who have placed an order for the item in one of these statuses may leave a review. If no option is selected, any logged-in customer may review an item once. |
| "Product Reviews Require Admin Approval" | true | New reviews remain locked until you approve them, and you’ll receive an email with a link to the review. With “ false,” they appear immediately. |
| “Product Reviews: Maximum Number per Customer and Item” | 5 | One purchase allows one review; each additional purchase in a separate order allows another, up to this number. 0 or 1 means exactly one review per customer and item.from 4.9.21 |
| “Combine Reviews for Master/Slave Products” | true | All variants of a product family share reviews and star ratings. |
| “Product Reviews: Show Reviewed Variant” | true | For aggregated families, this displays the variant for each review, such as “Color: Red · Size: XL” |
| “Product Reviews: Show AI Summary” and “… Minimum Number for AI Summary” | false, 3 | see AI summary |
Additional Settings
- Settings → General → Minimum Values → Minimum Length for Customer Reviews: The minimum number of characters the text must have; the default is 2.
- Settings → Design → Product Detail View → Foreign-Language Reviews (Default): With “
false” (default), visitors see only reviews in their own language. If there are others, they can display them using the “Show foreign-language reviews” toggle. - Settings → Checkout → Customer Details → User Alias: When registering, customers provide an alias that appears in their reviews instead of their name.
Who can leave a review?
Before each review, the store checks the account, purchase, order status, wait time, and the number of previous reviews. Customers can leave reviews in three ways.
On the product page
Only for logged-in customers. Guests see “Log In and Leave a Review.” The form includes stars (required), a title (optional), and the text field. The store removes any HTML from the text.
Under “My Orders”
In the customer account, “Rate this item” appears next to each item in an order as long as a review is possible.
Via the personal link
The review request includes a link to the form for each item, which works without logging in—even for guest orders. Each link is valid for one use; after that, the store displays the message “The link is invalid or has already been used.”
Why a customer can’t leave a review
| Reason | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Not logged in | Only logged-in customers can leave a review on the product page. Guests use the link from the email. |
| No matching order | There is no order for this item under this customer account. A guest order is not associated with an account created later; see “Guests and Latecomers.” |
| Status: Not Approved | The order is not in any status other than “Product review only after purchase.” |
| Waiting period in progress | If the order is in a status that triggers the review request, the customer can only leave a review after the number of days specified in “Email Review Request After x Days,” counted from the last change to the order. In all other approved statuses, the review can be left immediately. |
| Already Reviewed | Each purchase allows for one review. Multiple items of the same product in asingle order count as one purchase. After a new purchase, another review is possible, up to the maximum number. from 4.9.21 |
On the product page, the customer sees the same message in the middle three cases: “A review is only possible after purchasing the product.” The exact reason is shown in the “Review Link” column of the order in the backend, such as “Status not on whitelist” or “Waiting period: 2 days remaining.”
Review Request After Order Placement
The store sends buyers an email with an image, name, and review link for each purchased item. You can set this up under Settings → Interfaces → Email Marketing / CRM → Email Options.
- “Email review request with the following status”: the order status that triggers the email; the default is “Shipped.”
- “Email review request after x days”: the waiting period from the last change to the order; the default is 3. If set to 0, the store does not send a request.
- Email template: Under CMS → Emails & Marketing / Automations, in the “Emails” tab, select the “Product Review Request” template. The placeholder
{PRODUCTS_TO_REVIEW}inserts the items with the “Rate Now” button; see CMS Manager & Emails.
Order status and waiting period for the review request under Settings → Interfaces → Email Marketing / CRM → Email Options. Click to enlarge.
When the email is sent
- When logging in to the backend: The store sends out pending requests as soon as someone logs in to the backend. If no one logs in for days, the requests remain pending.
- A maximum of 200 orders per login, with the most recently updated ones sent first. The rest will follow during subsequent logins.from 4.9.21
- Only reviewable items: The email lists each active item in the order once, provided the customer is still eligible to review it. If none remain, no email is sent.
- Once per order: After the email is sent, the order history displays “Review request sent to customer (store).”
- Orders from the checkout: Orders you create in the backend will only receive the request if consent is set to “
false” (see Consent). Imported orders do not receive one.
In the Order
Under Orders → Orders, each order shows in the top right corner whether the customer has given consent, for example, “Review email: no consent (opt-in missing—no email will be sent).” Click “Disable review request” to prevent the email from being sent for this order.
Consent for Review Emails
You can specify whether a review request requires consent under Settings → Privacy → General → Privacy Consents for Review Portals (eKomi, Trusted Shops, Google Customer Reviews). This setting applies to the store’s email, emails for Trusted Shops and eKomi, and the Google dialog.
| Value | What the customer sees | Who receives a request |
|---|---|---|
opt-in (Default) | A checkbox during registration, when placing a guest order, and under My Account → My Personal Information | Only customers who have checked the box |
advise | A message without a checkbox | all customers |
false | Nothing | All customers |
- If Trusted Shops or Google Customer Reviews are enabled, the text in the checkbox lists these recipients because the email address is sent there.
- If a customer with an account has not given consent, they can do so on the order confirmation. This also applies to the order just placed.
- The status at the time of the order is decisive. Subsequent consent in the customer account applies only to new orders. Withdrawing consent in the account also stops any pending requests.
- The store saves consent and revocation as proof, including the date.
- Settings → Privacy → General → Privacy Notice for Review Emails displays a note below the checkbox stating that the customer can withdraw consent at any time.
advise or false, the store sends requests without consent. Have such a change reviewed by a legal professional. This guide is not legal advice; more information on promotional emails can be found in the Newsletter Guide.Guests and Retrospective Reviews
Guests do not have a customer account and therefore do not leave reviews on the product page. They use the personal review link, which is provided for each item and order.
Link from the email
The review request is also sent for guest orders if the guest gave consent when placing the order or if consent is not required. The link takes the customer to the form without requiring login and remains valid until the customer uses it.
Review Link from the Order
In the order, the item table displays a “Review Link” column. Copy the link using the button next to it and send it to the customer, for example, in response to their inquiry. If a review isn’t currently possible, the reason will be listed there.
Account Created Later
A guest order remains in the guest account. If the customer creates an account afterward, that account will not see the order, and the product page will display the message “only possible after purchase.” Send them the review link from the order.
In the order, the “Review Link” column shows the copyable link for each item or the reason why a review isn’t currently possible; in the top right corner, you’ll find the consent option and “Disable review request.” Click to enlarge.
“No Hash” in the column means: The item has no link, such as for orders created or imported in the backend. The store generates the link during checkout or via the review request. Customers with accounts can review such orders on the product page.
Approving and Responding to Reviews
You can manage all reviews under Products → Product Reviews. Once approved by an admin, you’ll receive an email with a link for each new review from your customers.
List and Approval
- The filter displays “All Reviews,” “Approved Reviews Only,” or “Pending Reviews Only.”
- Clicking the status icon approves or blocks a review.
- Deleting permanently removes the review. The form does not allow you to create your own reviews.
Edit and Reply
- You can change the star rating, “Review Title,” and text. The store removes HTML.
- “Your reply to the customer” appears publicly below the review as “Reply from the … team.”
- "Notify the customer via email about your reply" sends the email "Reply to your review at …" to the email address associated with the corresponding order once the review is published. Reviews without an associated order—such as those that have been taken over—do not receive an email.
When editing a review, you can change the title, text, and star rating, toggle the status and promotion status, and write a public response to the customer. Click to enlarge.
Additional Fields and Tabs
| Field or tab | Function |
|---|---|
| “Promotion Status” | Adds the rating to the rating slider; see display in the store |
| "Order Number Association" | The order from which the rating originates, with a link |
| "Product Overview" tab | For each item: number of reviews, including those pending approval, average rating, latest review, and status of the AI summary |
| "Admin Tools" tab | For the main administrator only: Delete “Reviews without product assignment” or assign them to another item using “Assign Product,” along with the AI summaries |
Where Reviews Appear in the Store
The store displays approved reviews in several places. Locked reviews are visible only in the backend.
The “Customer Reviews” section on the product page, featuring the average rating, star distribution, sorting options, a “Helpful” button, and a response from the store team. Click to enlarge.
Product page
The “Customer Reviews” section shows the average rating, the star distribution (clickable as a filter), the “Newest” sort option, “Most Helpful,” and “Best,” the “Helpful” button for each review, your responses, and the “Authenticity of Customer Reviews” link.
Product Lists
Tiles display stars and the number of reviews. The store stores these values for each item and synchronizes them when the product page is loaded. After approval, the stars therefore appear in lists as soon as the product page has been loaded once.
Reviews Page
The page store-reviews.php (“What Others Are Saying”) lists all approved reviews. The “Reviews” box links to “All Reviews.”
“Reviews” Box
Under CMS → Box Manager, you can enable the box (disabled by default). It displays a random review from the most recent ones, or one specific to that item on the product page.
Review Slider
The “Reviews” product block in the Product Presentation and Marketing Configurator (Settings → Design → Product Listing) displays reviews with “Promotion Status” enabled, showing the best and newest ones first. It truncates long texts to 100 characters; the rest expands when clicked. For instructions on how to create blocks, see the “Designing the Home Page” guide.
Login Page
Once there are three or more published reviews, the info panel on the login page displays stars, the average rating, and the number of reviews, along with a link to the reviews page. You can enable this panel under Settings → Checkout → Customer Details → Login Page: Info Panel with Customer Account Benefits.
The review slider displays only reviews in the visitor’s language, unless “Foreign-Language Reviews (Preselection)” is selected at true. Reviews for news articles are called “News Comments” and are covered in the “News Articles” guide.
AI Summary “What Customers Say”
Above the reviews, a card appears with a short summary and three to five keywords. Below that, it always says “Generated by AI from N reviews.”XONIC Premium: Marketing / Automatisierungen & Künstliche Intelligenz
Requirements
- The activated add-on module
- an AI provider with login credentials under Settings → Interfaces → Artificial Intelligence, such as OpenAI (ChatGPT) or Claude (Anthropic)
- “Product Reviews: Show AI Summary” set to
true - at least as many approved reviews as specified under “… Minimum number for AI summary,” set to 3 by default
When the text is generated
- when you approve or edit a review, in the active store language
- via cron job for the inventory and for latecomers
- When a page is loaded, the store does not call upon AI. It displays the saved text.
Set up a cron job
- Go to Products → Product Reviews, “Admin Tools” tab. There you’ll find the completed cron job line with your store’s address. The same line is listed in the help section for the setting “Product Reviews: Show AI Summary.”
- Enter the line into your hosting provider’s cron job management; we recommend setting it to run hourly. We can handle this for you upon request.
- Each run processes up to 10 items with new or updated reviews. Items with no changes do not trigger an AI call.
You can generate a summary individually in the “Product Overview” tab using “Generate AI Summary for This Product (New)” or in bulk in the “Admin Tools” tab using “Update Now (max. 10 products).” If the cron job reports “ xoai_licence_inactive,” the add-on module is not activated.
Authenticity of Reviews and Display Name
Customers should understand how your reviews are generated. To this end, the store includes its own information page.
Information Page
You can manage the CMS page “Information on the Authenticity of Customer Reviews” under CMS → CMS Manager. The review section of the product page links to it; new stores also include a link in the footer labeled “Authenticity of Customer Reviews.”
The default text describes the verification process via personalized links after an order is placed. Customize it if your store operates differently: If “Product Reviews Only After Purchase” is not selected, customers can also leave reviews without making a purchase. Reviews from Trusted Shops, ShopVote, or eKomi come from the respective service.
Which name appears
- the customer’s alias, if “User Alias” is enabled and the customer has one
- otherwise, the first name and the first letter of the last name, such as “Erika M.”
- for reviews without a customer account, “(Guest)” and the saved name
The store displays names and text as plain text. HTML within them does not appear as formatting.from 4.9.135
Integrate Trusted Shops
Under Settings → Interfaces → Review Portals → Trusted Shops, you can set up the Trustbadge, buyer protection on the order confirmation, review requests, and the review widget. You’ll need a Trusted Shops account beforehand; as long as no ID is entered, the page will link to the registration page.
- Enter your Trusted Shops ID for each language under “Trusted Shops IDs.” There is one field for each active shop language; Trusted Shops supports German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, and Czech. When you save, the shop will enable customer reviews from Trusted Shops.
- Under “Display Options,” configure the Trustbadge: “Show Trust Badge,” “Trust Badge Display Option” (“Standard” or “With Reviews”), position on the left or right, spacing for desktop and mobile, width, color scheme, and automatic hiding.
- Under “Review Links,” specify where customers are prompted to leave a review (at the bottom).
- Optionally, set up the “eTrusted Widget Tag (Reviews Banner).”
The Trusted Shops page with IDs for each language, Trust Badge display, review links, and eTrusted Widget Tag (all IDs are placeholders). Click to enlarge.
Trust Badge and Buyer Protection
- The Trustbadge appears on all pages in the languages for which an ID has been entered.
- On the order confirmation page, the store transmits the order number, email address, amount, currency, payment method, and items to the Trustbadge. This allows Trusted Shops to offer the customer buyer protection (Trustcard) there.
- “Display Trustcard inline (thank-you page)” embeds the Trustcard directly into the order confirmation instead of displaying it in a pop-up window on top of it.
- The Trustbadge, Trustcard, and widget load only if the visitor has consented to “Trusted Shops GmbH” in the cookie banner. Those who decline will not see them.
Requesting Reviews
- “Display review link on the order confirmation page” displays the question “Were you satisfied with your purchase at …?” and the button “Rate our store!”.
- “Send review link via separate email [ ] days after the order status changes to [ ]” sends the email “Review Request (Trusted Shops)” with a link to the Trusted Shops form. The email address and order number are already included there.from 4.9.135
- New stores have 3 days selected by default, along with the statuses “Shipped” and “Returned/Canceled.” Exclude canceled orders.
- The same consent and sending settings apply to this email when configured in the backend as for the store’s email. If both are active, the customer will receive two emails.
Review Widget (eTrusted)
Enable “Activate Widget Tag” and, under “Widget IDs (per language),” enter the IDs in the format wdg-… from the Trusted Shops Control Center (under “Widgets”). The store will fill in empty language fields with the ID of the default language when you save.
For “Position,” choose between “Directly before the footer (full width),” “In the footer (top, in the container),” and “In the footer (bottom, before the subfooter).” The widget also requires consent for “Trusted Shops GmbH.” The cookie banner displays this entry only in languages with a Trusted Shops ID.
Import Product Reviews
With “Show Product Reviews” and the “eTrusted API Client ID” and “eTrusted API Client Secret” fields, the store retrieves new product reviews from Trusted Shops every time you log in to the backend and creates them as product reviews. It maps them using the item number and order number; if there is no matching order in the store, it does not import anything. Reviews verified by Trusted Shops are immediately visible; all others are hidden.
Google Customer Reviews and Store Widget
You can enable both using your Merchant Center ID: Settings → Interfaces → SEO/SEA → Google Services → Google Merchant Center ID (Store Widget & Customer Reviews). Full details are available in the Google Merchant Center & Product Feed guide.
Customer Reviews
On the order confirmation page, a Google dialog box asks whether Google may request a review from the customer after delivery. The store provides the order number, email address, country of delivery, and a delivery date set to five days after the order was placed. In “ opt-in ” mode, the dialog appears only for customers who have consented to receive review emails. It does not check the cookie banner.
Store Widget
The widget displays your merchant rating on Google in the lower-right corner. It replaces the previous rating badge. Where it appears is determined by “Google Store Widget: Display On”: checkout_success (order confirmation only) or all (every page). On smartphones, it is hidden by default; you can adjust the spacing yourself.
The widget loads only after you consent to the “Google Store Widget” in the cookie banner. New stores start with checkout_success.from 4.9.144
Review Feed
The Google feed provides your product reviews with the suffix &export_type=reviews. The Google Merchant Center & Product Feed guide describes the requirements and setup in Merchant Center.
Integrating ShopVote
The fields are located under Settings → Interfaces → Review Portals → ShopVote. Without a token, nothing from ShopVote will appear in the store, not even the seal. The import of product reviews runs independently of this.
| Field | Function |
|---|---|
| “Shopvote EasyReviews: Shopvote Token” | You can find the token in the ShopVote backend under EasyReviews. On the order confirmation, the store provides the email address, order number, and product details (link, image, name, GTIN, item number, brand) for the ShopVote review invitation. |
| “ShopVote Votes API: ShopID” | Displays the ShopVote seal on all pages except the order confirmation. Also requires the token. |
| “ShopVote Votes API: ApiKey” and “… ApiKey Secret” | Together with the ShopID, the store retrieves product reviews from the last 14 days each time it logs into the backend and assigns them by item number or EAN, even for variants. Whether they appear immediately is determined by “Product Review Requires Admin Approval.” |
- The badge and data transfer only load after consent to “ShopVote” is given in the cookie banner. The data transfer on the order confirmation depends on this consent, not on consent for review emails.
- Checkout URL: If ShopVote asks for the address of your order confirmation, it is the page
checkout-step6.php, i.e.,https://ihr-shop.example/checkout-step6.php.
Other review services
Under Settings → Interfaces → Review Portals, you’ll also find eKomi and authorized.by.
eKomi
Under “eKomi API Data,” enter the login credentials for each language. The store will then report every order in these languages to eKomi. After “eKomi email review request after x days” appears in the status list under “eKomi reviews with the following statuses,” it will send the review email with the text from your eKomi account. It imports product reviews from eKomi into the product reviews section. Consent and delivery settings configured during backend registration apply as they do for emails sent by the store. The integration requires the SOAP PHP extension on the server.
authorized.by
“authorized.by Seal: Status” enables the seal; “authorized.by Seal: Mode” selects live or sandbox (Test). Your store’s address must be activated with authorized.by; you can configure the design there. The seal appears on product pages for items with an EAN. The script loads on every page without prompting in the cookie banner.
Stars in Google Search Results
To ensure search engines can read your reviews, the store embeds them as structured data (JSON-LD) on the page. You don’t need to configure anything for this.
- Product page: Average rating and number of published reviews, as well as each review with display name, date, text, stars, and title. For product families, all variants are counted.
- Reviews page: The “What Others Are Saying” page also displays the reviews, organized by product.
- Reviews imported from Trusted Shops, ShopVote, or eKomi count as your own as soon as they’re published.
- If there are no reviews, this information is missing. Whether Google displays stars is up to Google. You can check the status in Search Console under the “Product Snippets” report.
Stars in Google Shopping are generated via the review feed; see Google.
Troubleshooting: Email or seal missing
The most common causes, in the order you should check them.
The review request isn’t being received
- "Product Reviews On/Off" is set to "On" at
true, and the status and days under Email Options are configured. - The email status settings are also configured under “Product Reviews Only After Purchase.” Otherwise, the store displays a notification after login.
- The number of days since the last change to the order has passed, and someone has logged in to the backend since then.
- The order does not show a missing consent in the upper right corner, and no one has clicked “Disable Review Request.”
- The history does not yet contain an entry for “Review request sent to customer (store).”
- The order contains at least one active item that the customer has not yet reviewed.
- If the email does not arrive in the inbox, check the spam folder and delivery settings in general; see CMS Manager & Emails.
Seal or widget missing
- The visitor has given consent in the cookie banner for “Trusted Shops GmbH,” “Shopvote,” or “Google Store Widget.” Test in an incognito window and agree to everything.
- A Trusted Shops ID is entered for the visitor’s language; for the eTrusted widget, a widget ID is also required.
- For Trusted Shops, “Show Trust Badge” is enabled.
- A token and ShopID are entered for the ShopVote seal. It does not appear on the order confirmation.
- The Google Store Widget appears with “
checkout_success” only on the order confirmation and does not appear at all on smartphones out of the box. - An ad blocker in the browser can also hide seals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t a customer rate a product?
How can a customer without an account leave a review later?
The customer placed the order as a guest and later created an account. Why can’t they leave a review?
Why isn’t the review email being sent without consent?
opt-in,” which is the default. As a result, only customers who have checked the box will receive a request. The order shows in the upper right corner whether consent has been given. Before making any changes, please read the legal notice under “Consent.”When exactly is the review request sent out?
Can a customer rate an item more than once?
How do I enable the review slider with customer reviews?
Where do I set up the cron job for the AI summary of reviews?
How do I activate Trusted Shops reviews and the Trustbadge?
Why don’t some visitors see the Trusted Shops seal or widget?
What information does the Trusted Shops widget in the footer require?
wdg-… from the Trusted Shops Control Center, and the position, such as “In the footer (top, in the container).” A Trusted Shops ID must also be entered for the same language.How do I offer Trusted Shops buyer protection after an order is completed?
Why isn’t Google displaying the opt-in for customer reviews?
opt-in ” mode, the dialog appears only to customers who have consented to the review email, and only on the order confirmation page. Whether Google then displays the dialog also depends on your settings in Merchant Center.Why don’t Google reviews appear in their own window anymore?
checkout_success,” it appears only on the order confirmation. Additionally, it loads only after consentis given via the cookie banner. from 4.9.144Why isn’t the ShopVote seal appearing, and which checkout URL applies?
https://ihr-shop.example/checkout-step6.php.Why doesn’t the category page show any stars yet?
Can I create reviews myself?
Will the customer know that I’ve responded to their review?
Additional Guides
We’ll set up reviews and seals with you
We’ll help with approval and review emails, with Trusted Shops, Google, and ShopVote, and with any questions about why an email or seal is missing.
Contact Support Now