A web review is a review that a customer writes and submits themselves directly on your store, using either of the following widgets:
The Review Widget collects product reviews on your product pages.
The Happy Customers Widget collects store reviews.
Web reviews can also be submitted through our API.
How it works
For customers to leave web reviews on your store, you'd first need to install either the Review Widget for product reviews, or the Happy Customers Widget for store reviews.
Once installed, collecting a web review happens in three stages:
You decide who can write a review. You control who can see the button to write a review, so only customers who can see it can write one directly on your store.
The customer writes and submits the review. Customers who can see the button can open the review form, fill it in, and submit it. The review is then published or hidden based on your moderation settings.
We confirm the customer. We email the customer to confirm it's them who are writing the review. Once they confirm and the email matches a customer of your store, their review will be verified automatically.
Stages 2 and 3 can happen in either order — depending on your settings, we confirm the customer before they write the review, after they submit it, or not at all. See Review confirmation emails for the full flow.
Considerations
Web reviews that are not confirmed by the reviewers won't be verified.
It's not possible to prevent only a specific customer from submitting a web review. Web reviews can only be restricted globally by limiting who can see the Write a review button.
Who can leave a web review
Available on the Free plan
To write a web review directly on your store, a customer needs to see the Write a review button on the Review Widget (or the Write a store review button on the Happy Customers Widget) and click it to open the review form.
You can control who sees this button to cut down on spam, fake reviews, or competitor attacks.
To set who can see the Write a review button:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Collection flow.
Scroll down to the Review collection section at the bottom.
Open the Who can see a button to write reviews in widgets dropdown.
Select one of the following options:
Everyone (no restrictions) — Anyone visiting your store can see the Write a review button and submit a review through the Review Widget or Happy Customers Widget.
Customers who signed-in to their Customer Account in Shopify — Only customers who are logged into their Shopify customer account can see the Write a review button.
Logged-in customers can write a review on any product page, even one they haven't purchased.
Because they're signed in, we already know the review is theirs, so no confirmation email is sent.
Verification depends on purchase history, not sign-in: if they purchased that product, the review is automatically verified; if they didn't, it can still be submitted but won't be marked as a verified buyer.
No one — the button is hidden from the Review Widget and Happy Customers Widget, so no customer can start a review directly on the store, even if they've purchased. For products with no reviews yet, the Review Widget itself may be hidden if there's no content to display.
Click Save.
This setting applies only to the Review Widget and Happy Customers Widget. It doesn't affect the other ways customers can leave a review — they can still use the link in a review request email, and QR codes and review links stay public by design.
Which review form to use
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!
When a customer clicks the Write a review button on the Review Widget (or Write a store review on the Happy Customers Widget), you choose whether they write their review directly on your store or on our hosted page. Both options use the same form content and styling — see the two review forms for what each one looks like.
To choose which form customers see when clicking the Write a review button:
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.
How web reviews are verified
A web review is marked as verified once we've confirmed it's really the customer who wrote the review and their email matches a customer of your store.
We confirm the customer's identity by emailing them to confirm it's them who writes the review. Once they confirm, and their email matches a customer of your store, the review is automatically verified. Reviews that aren't confirmed are still published based on your moderation settings, but they stay unverified.
If you've set the Write a review button visibility to Customers who signed-in to their Customer Account in Shopify, no confirmation email is sent — signing in already confirms the review is theirs. Whether it's verified then depends only on their purchase history.
For the full confirmation flow and settings, see Web review confirmation emails.