When a customer leaves a review, they fill it out using one of our two review forms. This article covers both forms, the screens a customer goes through, and how to customize the form's fields, styling, text, and what happens after a review is submitted.
Customers can reach the review form through several channels — the Review Widget on your storefront, QR codes, shareable links, and review request emails. Each channel is covered in its own article; here we focus on the form customers land on.
How it works
Reviews are collected through one of two review forms:
1. In-store review form
In-store review form is a popup embedded directly on your page, so customers stay on your storefront while writing their review.
The in-store review form can be used on the following channels:
When clicking the Write a review button in the Review Widget
When clicking the Write a store review button in the Happy Customers Widget
When scanning a QR code
When opening a review link
When clicking the link from the review request emails
The in-store form can be displayed in two layouts:
Multi-step layout (default)
The multi-step layout of the in-store review form guides customers through a step-by-step flow with up to 4 screens:
Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating. Once selected, the form automatically moves to the next screen.
Review content screen – The customer writes their review. They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
Customer information screen – The customer provides their email address and display name (required). They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
Reviewer media screen – The customer can upload photos or videos. They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
After submitting, the customer sees a Review submitted screen confirming their review with a "Thanks for your review!" message. This screen can optionally also show follow-up prompts — asking the customer to review other products from the same order and/or leave a store review.
Compact layout (Early Users)
Stores in the Early user program can switch the in-store form to a compact layout that condenses the flow into 2 screens:
Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating, the same as in the multi-step layout.
Review details screen – Review content, email address (required), display name (required), an option to post the review as anonymous, and media upload are combined onto one screen. The customer can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
After the second screen, the customer sees the same Review submitted screen as the multi-step layout.
2. External review form
External review form is a separate Judge.me-hosted page that customers are redirected to.
The external review form is can be used on the following channels:
When clicking the Write a review button in the Review Widget (available for stores in the Early user program)
When clicking the Write a store review button in the Happy Customers Widget (available for stores in the Early user program)
When scanning a QR code
When opening a review link
When clicking the link from the review request emails
The external form can be displayed in two layouts:
Multi-step layout (default)
The multi-step layout of the external review form guides customers through a step-by-step flow with up to 4 screens:
Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating. Once selected, the form automatically moves to the next screen.
Review content screen – The customer writes their review. They can click Next to continue.
Customer information screen – The customer provides their display name (required). They can click Next to continue.
Reviewer media screen – The customer can upload photos or videos. They can click Next to continue.
After submitting, the customer sees a Review submitted screen confirming their review with a "Thanks for your review!" message. This screen can optionally also show follow-up prompts — asking the customer to review other products from the same order and/or leave a store review.
Compact layout (Early Users)
Stores in the Early user program can switch the external form to a compact layout that condenses the flow into 2 screens:
Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating, the same as in the multi-step layout.
Review details screen – Review content, email address (required), display name (required), an option to post the review as anonymous, and media upload are combined onto one screen. The customer can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
After the second screen, the customer sees the same Review submitted screen as the multi-step layout.
Considerations
In the In-store review form:
The X icon to close the form only shows on the Star rating screen. After that screen, customers can either continue through the form or refresh the page to exit.
In the external form:
The light mint green background color of the Judge.me-hosted page cannot be customized.
At the bottom of the Review content screen in both forms, we show this GDPR statement: "We'll only contact you about your review if necessary. By submitting your review, you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy". This disclaimer cannot be removed or edited, as it ensures transparency and compliance with data protection requirements.
An email address is required when submitting a reviews and can’t be made optional.
Set which form to use
Review Widget and Happy Customers Widget
Available on the Free plan for stores in the Early user program — if your store isn't enrolled, you won't see these settings yet.
Join the program to get early access to this and other new features!
To choose which form customers see when clicking the Write a review button on the Review Widget (or Write a store review on the Happy Customers Widget):
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Collection flow.
Scroll down to the Review collection section at the bottom.
Open the Where customers write reviews dropdown.
Select one of the following options:
In-store popup (Default) – Customers write their review directly on your store, in the popup form on the page.
External form in a new tab – Customers write their review on our hosted page, which opens in a new tab.
Click Save.
Review request emails, QR codes, review links
Available on the Free plan
To choose which form customers see when clicking the link from the review request emails, scanning the QR codes, or clicking the review links:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Collection flow.
Scroll down to the Review collection section at the bottom.
Open the Where customer gets redirected when writing reviews from emails dropdown.
Select one of the following options:
In-store review form – Customers write their review directly on your store, in the popup form on the page. You'd need to install either the Review Widget for product reviews, or the Happy Customers Widget for store reviews. If neither is installed, use External form instead.
External form (Recommended) – Customers write their review on our hosted page, which opens in a new tab.
Click Save.
Customize the review form
On the Collection flow setting page, you can manage:
Write a review flow
Verification process for reviews from widgets, QR codes and links
Review collection
To customize the review form, from your Judge.me admin, you can either:
go to Settings > Collection flow and click Customize flow, or
go directly to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review
Both paths open the same Write a review form settings page.
1. Which review details to collect
Review content
Available on the Free plan
By default, we ask for both the star rating and review content which accepts up to 5,000 characters.
To allow customers to submit a review with only star ratings without needing to write a comment (The Review content field remains visible in the review form but becomes optional):
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
Click the checkbox next to Enable quick star ratings.
Click Save.
Review title
Available on the Free plan
To allow customers to add a review title when writing a review:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
Click the checkbox next to Ask for review title.
Click Save.
Once review title is enabled enabled:
An optional Review Title field (up to 100 characters) will be added below the Review Content field.
As the customer types their review content, the Review Title field will be automatically filled with the first 50 characters of the content.
The customer can manually edit the title if they wish.
Review media
Available on the Free plan
To allow customers to review images and/or videos when writing a review:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
To allow image upload, click the checkbox next to Ask for review images.
To allow video upload, click the checkbox next to Ask for review videos.
Click Save.
Note:
Videos: max 1 video per review (file size limit: 100 MB)
Images: max 5 images per review (file size limit: 10 MB each)
2. Form layout
Available on the Free plan for stores in the Early user program — if your store isn't enrolled, you won't see these settings yet.
Join the program to get early access to this and other new features!
To switch between the multi-step and compact layout for the review form:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, scroll down and open the Flow settings section.
Open the Form theme dropdown.
Select one of the following options:
Multi-step (Default) — customers go through separate screens for star rating, review content, customer information, and media upload.
Compact — after selecting a star rating, all remaining fields (review content, customer information, and media upload) appear on a single screen.
Click Save.
3. Store reviews
Available on the Free plan
After a customer submits a product review, you can prompt them to also leave a review about your store.
This prompt works on all channels — web, QR codes, shareable links, and review request emails — and with both the in-store and external forms.
To turn it on:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, scroll down and open the Post review submission section at the bottom.
Click the checkbox next to Request store review after product review is submitted.
Click Save.
4. Reviews for other products
Available on the Free plan
After a customer submits a review, you can prompt them to review other products from the same order.
This prompt appears for web reviews (Review Widget and external form) and for reviews started from review request email links. It does not appear for reviews submitted via QR codes or shareable links — QR code reviews use a separate flow where customers choose which purchased products to review earlier in the process. It isn't restricted by form type.
To turn it on:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, scroll down and open the Post review submission section at the bottom.
Click the checkbox next to Ask reviewer to review other products in the order.
Click Save.
5. Color scheme
To choose a color scheme for the review form:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Open the Styling tab.
For Color scheme, select one the following options:
Default colors (from your brand settings) – to use the same Primary color from your Branding setting.
Custom colors – to pick colors for these elements of the form:
Star color (available on the Free plan)
Text color (available on the Awesome plan)
Form background color (available on the Awesome plan)
Field background color (available on the Awesome plan)
Button color (available on the Awesome plan)
Button text color (available on the Awesome plan)
In-store page overlay color (available on the Awesome plan)
Click Save.
6. Corner style
Available on the Awesome plan
To adjust the corner style of the review form (applied to background card, input fields, and buttons):
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Open the Styling tab.
Open the Background card, input field and button dropdown.
Select one of the following options: Square, Soft, Round, Extra round.
Click Save.
7. Texts
Available on the Awesome plan
To customize the texts in your Write a review form:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Go to the Text tab.
Under each section below, adjust the texts to your liking.
Click Save.
Review content
Review content
Field | Default texts |
Screen title | How would you rate this product? |
Introduction | We would love it if you would share a bit about your experience. |
1 star review guidance | Poor |
5 star review guidance | Great |
Review title | Review title |
Review title placeholder | Give your review a title |
Review content | Review content |
Review content placeholder | Start writing here... |
Customer information
Customer information
Field | Default texts |
Screen title | About you |
Introduction | Please tell us more about you |
Reviewer display name | Display name |
Reviewer display name placeholder | Display name |
Reviewer email address | Email address |
Reviewer email address placeholder | Your email address |
Label for hidden customer name | Anonymous |
Reviewer media
Reviewer media
Field | Default texts |
Screen title | Share a picture or video |
Introduction | Upload a photo or video to support your review. |
YouTube URL placeholder | Paste your YouTube URL here |
Custom questions
Custom questions
Option | Default text |
Screen title | Your experience in more detail |
Introduction | Here are a few questions to help us understand more about your experience. |
Store review
Store review
Option | Default text |
Screen title | Would you like to share your experience of shopping with us? |
Introduction | We value your feedback and use it to improve. Please share any thoughts or suggestions you have. |
Note: You can enable the option to collect a store review after a product review in the Submission flow.
Review submitted
Review submitted
Field | Default texts |
Review submitted screen title | Thanks for your review! |
Thank you message | We are processing it and it will appear on the store soon. |
Email verification message | Please confirm your email by clicking the link we just sent you. This helps us keep reviews authentic. |
Negative review resolution
Negative review resolution
Field | Default texts |
Screen title | Tell us more |
Negative review resolution | Your experience matters to us. If there were issues with your purchase, we're here to help. Feel free to reach out to us, we'd love the opportunity to make things right. |
Button text | Contact us |
Advanced settings
Advanced settings
Field | Default texts |
Next step button text | Next |
Close review button text | Close |
Troubleshoot
"This field is required" error
"This field is required" error
When writing a review, if your customer run into the "This field is required" error even though they have filled in the star rating and the body of the review, it might be because the Review Widget is duplicated on the product page, which causes form conflicts and prevents proper validation.
To avoid the "This field is required" error from showing when both the star rating and body have been filled in, double-check and remove the duplicated Review Widget.
"inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText" error
"inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText" error
If the preview of your external review form looks like the screenshot above (showing placeholder texts such as reviewPageText.whatDoYouThinkAboutProductText or inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText instead of the proper field labels and buttons), or if customers see the inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText texts when trying to upload a photo or video, it usually means you're using the Legacy styling template together with the external form.
To check if you're using the Legacy styling template:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Email templates.
Under Review request and reminder emails, check if the Legacy styling template is "On".
The Legacy styling template doesn’t work well with the external review form. To fix this, you can either:
Keep using the Legacy styling template, but switch to the in-store review form instead of the external form.
Keep using the external form, but change your email templates to the Smart styling template (recommended).
Star icons not showing in the Star rating screen
Star icons not showing in the Star rating screen
In the Star rating screen of both your In-store review form and Judge.me external review form, if you only see the “Poor — Great” labels without any clickable star icons, it's likely that the star icons were set to the same color as the form background.
To make sure the star icons are visible in the Star rating screen of both your In-store review form and Judge.me external review form:
First, check which color scheme you're using for your review form:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Go to the Styling tab.
For Color scheme, check whether "Default colors (from your brand settings)" or "Custom colors" is selected.
If "Default colors (from your brand settings)" is selected, make sure your Primary color is not set to white:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Branding.
In the Color section at the top, if the Primary color field is set to white, change it to a more visible color.
Click Save.
If "Custom colors" is selected, make sure your Star color is not set to the same color as your Form background color:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Open the Form Styling section.
For Custom colors, set a different color for either the Star color or Form background color
Click Save.