Most stores collect far fewer reviews than they could. The typical Shopify store on Judge.me converts about 3.7% of review requests into reviews, while the top 10% reach around 10% RCR. The difference between those two numbers usually isn't the product, the audience, or luck. It's settings.

That's the good news: the gap is closable, and closing it doesn't take new tools or more orders. It takes a handful of changes you can make from your Judge.me admin, most of them in a few minutes. Here are the five that move the number most, drawn from our analysis of 212,051 Shopify stores and 664 million review requests.

(New to benchmarking? Start with what a good review collection rate looks like to find the target for a store like yours, then come back here to hit it.)

1. Ask sooner (and never too late)

Timing is the single biggest lever on your collection rate. Ask before the order has arrived and there's nothing to review; ask weeks later and the moment has passed.

Our data shows the sweet spot is 1 to 9 days after fulfillment. Requests sent 15 or more days out see a significant drop-off in responses, which is worth knowing because Judge.me's default sits at 14 days. That default is deliberately cautious, wide enough to cover slow shipping anywhere in the world, but for most stores it's later than it needs to be. Shortening it is often the quickest win available.

The right delay is delivery time plus enough time to actually use the product. Work out roughly how long fulfillment takes in your main market, add a day or two for the customer to form an opinion, and set your delay to that.

2. Set different delays for different products

A single delay rarely fits a whole catalog. A phone case can be reviewed the day it arrives; a supplement or a skincare product needs weeks before a customer has anything useful to say.

Judge.me lets you set per-product delays, so you don't have to compromise on one number. One merchant selling supplements set his sleep aid to request a review after a single day, because customers knew overnight whether it worked, while putting his slower-acting products on a 10-day delay. Group your products by how quickly they're experienced and set a delay for each group.

If you're not sure what works, the optimization tool can A/B test different delay windows on your own store and show you which collects more.

3. Turn on reminders

Most reviews you don't get aren't refusals. The customer meant to leave one, then the email slipped down the inbox. A reminder recovers a share of those, and it's one of the clearest differences between average stores and top performers: the best collectors simply ask again.

Our analysis points to setting up two reminders. And because a reminder can now send even when the first request was never opened, an unopened email isn't a dead end, it's usually just bad timing on the first attempt, which a second send fixes.

4. Offer coupons for photos and videos

If you want more reviews and richer ones, incentivize media. Offering a discount for reviews that include a photo or video has a measurable effect: in our data it produces roughly twice as many photo reviews, seven times as many video reviews, and lifts overall collection rate by about 7%.

Media reviews are worth more than the star rating alone. A photo from a real customer answers questions your description can't and reassures the next shopper in a way text struggles to. This matters most in visual categories like fashion and homeware, where shoppers actively look for real-world images before buying.

Two things to keep it clean. Reward the media, not the sentiment, offer the discount for any qualifying review, not only positive ones. And if you sell in the US, the FTC requires incentivized reviews to be disclosed, so make sure the arrangement is clear and your review platform flags incentivized reviews as such.

5. Protect your email deliverability

None of the above matters if your emails land in spam. Two settings quietly cost stores reviews here.

The first is your sending domain. If you send review requests from your own custom domain without fully verifying it, your deliverability suffers and more requests bounce. Unless you're sending at very high volume, Judge.me's shared sending domain is generally the safer choice, it's built on years of sending history and strong deliverability, and it takes the setup burden off you.

The second is your subject line. Discount and spam-style language, like "Get 20% off for leaving a review," trips spam filters and hurts the deliverability of every email you send. Keep subject lines plain and specific.

A note on multiple-product orders

When a customer buys several products at once, you can send one email per product (which Judge.me calls SRAP) or one combined email covering all of them (MRAP). Per-product emails collect more reviews, and it's the default for that reason. The trade-off is volume: a customer who buys five products could receive five separate emails, so weigh the extra reviews against the risk of feeling spammy, especially for large orders.

Apply these in one click

You don't have to hunt through settings to make these changes. Judge.me's analytics page identifies where your own store is leaking reviews and offers data-backed recommendations you can apply in a single click, so the fixes above become a short to-do list tailored to your store rather than a manual project.

If you'd like a hand, Judge.me also runs free one-to-one walkthrough sessions that diagnose your review funnel and show you exactly which settings to turn on.

What to do next

• Not sure what your target should be? See how Shopify stores benchmark by size, region, and category.

• Want better reviews, not just more of them? See how to get better reviews with Judge.me customization.

Both are part of our wider guide to collecting reviews on Shopify.

Frequently asked questions

How can I get more product reviews on Shopify?

The fastest gains come from timing and persistence: ask 1 to 9 days after fulfillment rather than weeks later, and turn on reminders so customers who miss the first email get a second chance. Offering a small incentive for photo and video reviews raises volume further.

How many reviews should I expect to collect?

The median Shopify store collects a review from about 3.7% of the orders it requests, and the top 10% reach around 10%. Your realistic target depends on your size, region, and category, so benchmark against stores like yours rather than the global average.

Do review reminders actually work?

Yes. Many customers intend to leave a review and simply forget, so a reminder recovers reviews you'd otherwise lose. Our analysis suggests two reminders, and they can send even to customers who never opened the first request.

Is it against the rules to offer a discount for a review?

Offering an incentive is allowed, but it must be for leaving a review, not for leaving a positive one, and in the US the FTC requires incentivized reviews to be disclosed. Reward reviews regardless of rating, and make sure incentivized reviews are labeled as such.