How To Set Up Customer Reviews For WooCommerce: Beginner’s Guide (2023)

Are you looking to set up customer reviews for WooCommerce on your eCommerce store?

From Amazon to Etsy, nearly every eCommerce store displays customer reviews. Reviews from existing customers are a powerful way to show potential customers that your products are top-notch and that they can trust your business to deliver on its promises.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to quickly and easily collect and display customer reviews on your eCommerce store with the default reviews setting in WooCommerce and by using a review plugin. To wrap up, we’ll also cover the top tips to help you set up a successful customer review system on your eCommerce store.

This guide covers:

1. What are customer reviews?
2. Why add customer reviews to your eCommerce store?
3. How to add customer reviews to WooCommerce
4. How to set up customer reviews for WooCommerce with the default settings
5. How to set up customer reviews using a WooCommerce reviews plugin
6. Tips to successfully set up a customer review system on your eCommerce store
7. Conclusion

Ready? Let’s get started.

What are customer reviews?

Customer reviews are the evaluations of customers’ experiences with your products, services, and interactions with your business and its employees.

Customers’ reviews are based on their individual experiences, so they can be either positive, negative, or neutral.

Why add customer reviews to your eCommerce store?

Whether your business is new or established online, displaying customer reviews on your website is an effective way to showcase social proof, which helps to build trust with potential customers and increase the likelihood that they buy from you.

Reviews also tell you what customers really think of your products and services, and their overall feelings about their interactions with your business, which can help you identify what’s working and what needs to be fixed.

In addition, collecting customers’ reviews helps with your eCommerce store’s SEO. This is because search engines such as Google can index customer reviews on your website, helping boost its rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

When you consider all these benefits, it’s a no-brainer to collect and display customer reviews on your eCommerce store.

How to add customer reviews to WooCommerce

WooCommerce runs on top of WordPress’ content management system (CMS). This means that on the back-end of your eCommerce website, customer reviews are captured and stored as comments, just like any other type of website built on WordPress.

However, on your website’s front-end, i.e, the home page, product pages, and any other page on your site that you choose to display customer reviews, the reviews are formatted as reviews, not comments.

Before you can set up your WooCommerce store to accept customer reviews, you need to ensure that your site’s theme can save and display comments.

It’s easy to find this out: simply check through the theme’s list of features, ask your WooCommerce developer to confirm if it does, or reach out to the theme developer directly. If your theme can’t save and display comments, you’ll need to switch to a different theme that can.

After you’ve confirmed that your theme can save and display comments, it’s time to choose how to set up your review system. There are 2 main methods to set this up — with the default settings within WooCommerce and by using a product reviews plugin.

Below, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of each method, and the steps to set up your review system using each. Let’s get into it.

How to set up customer reviews for WooCommerce with the default settings

By default, WooCommerce includes a built-in review system that you can easily set up and customize to fit your needs.

To set up customer reviews using the default settings in WooCommerce, you’ll first need to configure the settings within the WooCommerce plugin module, then update the settings within WordPress and on each product page.

Pros of this method: It’s easy to set up a review system to collect customer feedback and doesn’t add more code to your website.

Cons of this method: This method doesn’t support advanced features, such as such as collecting reviews via SMS and email, offering discounts to customers in exchange for reviews, advanced integration with Google Services to reap maximum SEO benefits from customer reviews, and more. Also, it can be time-consuming if you have a lot of products or constantly add new products to your store.

Recommended for: Small eCommerce stores with less than 10 products that are looking to set up a basic customer review system on WooCommerce.

Let’s look at how to set this up within WooCommerce.

Steps to set up customer reviews for WooCommerce with the default settings

Step 1: Go to your WordPress dashboard. From the left menu, select “WooCommerce” > “Settings”.

Step 2: Click on the “Products” tab within the WooCommerce module.

Step 3: Scroll down to the “Reviews” section on the “Products” tab and click on the “Enable product reviews” checkbox.

Step 4: Selecting the “Enable product reviews” option will unlock additional settings related to reviews and ratings.

Step 5: Check the box next to the “Show “verified owner” label on customer reviews” to display a “verified owner” label on reviews left by customers that have made a purchase from your eCommerce store.

Step 6: Tick the “Reviews can only be left by ‘verified owners'” checkbox to allow only customers that have already purchased a product from your store to leave their reviews.

Step 7: Select “Enable star rating on reviews” to allow customers to leave a star rating in addition to their review comments, similar to how reviews are displayed on Google, Amazon, Yelp, etc.

Step 8: Select the “Star ratings should be required, not optional” checkbox to make it compulsory for all customers to add a star rating with their review comments.

Step 9: Next, click on the “Save Changes“ button at the bottom of the page.

Step 10: After you’ve set up WooCommerce to accept reviews, it’s time to configure WordPress. Head to the main WordPress dashboard and select “Settings” > “Discussion”.

Step 11: The “Discussion Settings” tab houses several settings relating to comments and notifications for your website. Depending on how you previously configured your site, you may have already selected some settings on this page.

Although there are several settings on this page, only three are most impactful for collecting customer reviews. Tick the checkboxes below:

1. Allow people to submit comments on new posts
2. Enable threaded (nested comments)
3. Anyone post a comment

Step 12: Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Save Changes“.

Step 13: So far, we’ve set up WooCommerce and WordPress to accept customer reviews. Now, it’s time to enable customer reviews on each product page. Head back to the main WordPress dashboard and select “Products” > “All Products“.

Step 14: Hover over the first product on the list and select “Edit“.

Step 15: Scroll down to the “Product data” module and select “Advanced“. 

Step 16: Tick the “Enable reviews” checkbox. Note: Depending on your WooCommerce theme, this may have already been auto-selected.

Step 17: Scroll back to the top of the product page and select “Update“.

Step 18: Finally, repeat steps 14 to 17 for all the products on your eCommerce store.

That’s it! You’ve enabled WooCommerce to collect and display customer reviews. Now it’s time to test your review system. Head to the front end of your eCommerce website, open up a product page, locate the reviews section and leave a review.

How to set up customer reviews using a WooCommerce reviews plugin

The built-in review feature within WooCommerce is great for setting up a basic system to collect and display customer reviews on your eCommerce store. But if you want to set up a sophisticated review system, similar to established eCommerce stores like Amazon, you need to install a product review plugin that’s compatible with WooCommerce.

Pros of this method: It’s easy to set up and configure on your website. In addition, most review plugins have tons of useful, advanced features and automation that can make it easy to customize your review system and help you save time over the long run.

Cons of this method: Even though most plugins include automation features that help you save time in the long run, the initial setup can be time-consuming. Also, installing an additional plugin adds more code to your website, which may increase its page load time and reduce its conversion rate.

Recommended for: eCommerce stores with 10 products or more that want to set up an enhanced customer review system.

Although there are several product plugin options available, we recommend that you use the “Customer Reviews for WooCommerce” plugin by CusRev. Here’s why:

• Although there’s a paid tier, the free version of the plugin is quite generous. It’s packed with tons of valuable features to help you set up a robust review system.
• You retain full ownership of customers’ reviews on your eCommerce store forever, even if you delete the plugin.
• It has over 50,000 active installations and is highly rated — more than one thousand customers have given it a 5-star rating on the WordPress plugin directory.

Let’s look at how to collect customer reviews with the Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin by CusRev.

Steps to set up customer reviews using the Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin by CusRev

Step 1: From your WordPress dashboard, select “Plugins” > “Add New“.

Step 2: Enter the plugin name “Customer Reviews for WooCommerce” into the search bar in the top right corner.

Step 3: Locate the “Customer Reviews for WooCommerce” plugin from the search results. Ignore other plugins with the same name. Select the one with the developer name “By Cusrev” and click on “Install Now“.

Step 4: Click on “Activate“.

After the plugin is activated, the page will automatically redirect to the “Installed Plugins” page. Here you’ll see all the plugins that are installed on your eCommerce website.

Step 5: From your WordPress dashboard, select “Reviews” > “Settings“.

Step 6: Configure the plugin settings. The “Settings” page houses multiple tabs that you need to configure for the plugin to work as you need.

Note: The way you configure the plugin depends on your overall customer review strategy. So, we won’t recommend what options to choose for the remainder of this tutorial, as the same ones may not be suitable for every eCommerce store.

We’ll share a run-down of each tab that you need to configure to orient you to choose the right settings for your eCommerce store. In addition, the plugin developer has also included detailed explanations of each setting to help you choose the ones that work best for your eCommerce store.

Here’s an overview of each tab on the settings page:

• Review reminder: This tab is where you can configure the plugin to send manual and automated emails to customers to collect their reviews. You can choose to send reminders to customers depending on if they created a customer account or not, whether their orders are under processing or are completed, select the frequency of sending email requests to customers, and more.
• Review Extensions: This tab contains settings to enhance how reviews are displayed visually on your eCommerce store. You can choose to enable customers to attach images to their reviews, enable reCaptcha to prevent fake reviews, a table with a summary of reviews, and more.
• Review for Discount: Here, you can configure the plugin to send discount coupons to customers in exchange for their reviews. You can also create custom discount coupons and parameters for the coupons to be used.
• License Key: A license key is a unique set of numbers and characters to unlock features in a plugin. CusRev offers users two types of license keys: free and pro. It’s compulsory to request a license key to use the plugin features. This page contains links for you to sign up for a free or paid license key and enter it on this page to use the plugin’s features.
• Trust Badges: Displaying a trust badge next to customers’ reviews can make them seem more authentic and boost your eCommerce store’s conversion rate. This tab includes several shortcode options to choose from and customize to display the review trust badges on your site.
• Referral Program: CusRev has a referral marketing program that allows you to set up a dedicated page on its website to display your business’ customer reviews. This tab includes settings to sign up your store for CusRev’s referral program and track successful referrals from their website to yours.
• Q & A: This tab is where you can add and customize a “Question” and “Answers” tab to be added to the reviews section of your website. You can also enable a reCaptcha form to prevent spam and enable notifications to alert you every time a customer asks a question.
• Shortcodes: This tab includes shortcodes and Gutenberg blocks that you can use to display reviews in numerous places on your website in addition to your product page.
• Emails: One of the top features of the CusRev plugin is the ability to send automated emails to collect customer reviews. Here you can customize the emails sent to customers to remind them to leave a review for your online store, share a discount code in exchange for a review, and notify them that you have responded to questions they asked on the Q & A tab. Simply click on “Manage” next to each email template to customize it.

Step 7: After you’ve configured the main plugin settings, it’s time to configure it to reap SEO benefits from customers’ reviews. From your WordPress dashboard, select “Google“.

Here too, the settings you select will depend on your overall customer review strategy, so we won’t recommend what to choose.

Here’s an overview of each tab on the “Integration with Google Services” settings page:

• Overview: This tab includes the settings to enhance the structured data markup functionality that enables Google to crawl and index customer reviews on your website. This enables review stars to be displayed on Google Shopping and Organic Search Listings.
• Categories and Products: Here you can exclude products (for example, products that are out of stock) from being crawled and indexed by Google’s crawlers. You can also map products according to their category, increasing the chances that they are displayed on prime spots on Google.
• Product identifiers: A product identifier is a number that’s attached to a specific product in your store to help WordPress and WooCommerce identify it. This tab includes additional fields to maintain product identifiers in WooCommerce and map product fields to Google Shopping product identifiers.
• Product attributes: Here, you can match product information in WooCommerce with Google Shopping product attributes for specific categories, as required in some countries.
• Reviews: Google Shopping is a service that allows merchants to list their products by uploading a product feed in the Merchant Center. Here, you can use XML Product Review Feed to enable star ratings for your products in Google Shopping.

Tips to successfully set up a customer review system on your eCommerce store

It takes more than configuring the settings in WooCommerce for your review system to be successful. Here are our top tips for you to keep in mind while creating your customer review strategy 

1. Give customers solid reasons to leave reviews: The first key tip for setting up a successful review system isn’t directly related to collecting and displaying customer reviews. However, in the long term, it’s the most important one. Here’s why: if your products, services, or offers are underwhelming or not compelling enough, the chances of customers leaving positive reviews are low. However, if you match or exceed their expectations, you can drastically increase their willingness to leave positive reviews whenever they buy from or interact with your business.
2. Make it easy and quick for customers to leave reviews: The easier and quicker it is for customers to leave reviews, the more likely that they will. To begin, set up your review system so that it’s as smooth and straightforward as possible for customers to leave reviews. Provide customers with clear instructions on how to leave their reviews. Finally, use simple language throughout, especially on your review form so that it’s abundantly clear to customers how to leave a review.
3. Encourage customers to leave reviews in multiple formats: Customers can leave their reviews in many formats, such as written text, audio, or video — or a combination of all these. Text is the default method for collecting customer reviews. However, alternative formats such as audio and video can be more effective because they allow customers to bring your products and services to life, making them more impactful overall.
4. Add a “Question and Answer” section: The “Q” and “A” section is a tab that’s part of the “reviews” section on your website, where potential and existing customers can ask questions for your business or other customers to answer. Adding a “Q” and “A” tab in the “reviews” section makes it easy for customers to engage with your business and answer questions that potential customers may have had with your product or service, leading to an improvement in conversion.
5. Respond to customer reviews, both positive and negative ones: This shows that you value customers’ feedback and are willing to engage with them, which prompts them to respond similarly. Positive reviews can help build your business’ credibility and highlight its strengths. Even though most business owners are terrified of negative reviews, they’re valuable because they humanize your business and provide an opportunity for you to improve your products, processes, and services. The way you respond to negative reviews is crucial because it shows you’re willing to take criticism as an opportunity to improve.

Conclusion

Collecting customer reviews is a great way to collect valuable feedback directly from the people that matter the most to your business — its customers. It also helps you to boost your business’ credibility and convert new customers who may have been sitting on the fence.

You can set up customer reviews for woocommerce using any of the methods outlined in this blog post so that your business can start reaping the benefits of reviews.

Check out the rest of our blog for more content to help you make the most of WordPress.