Review Moderation
Find product reviews, approve or reject them with a reason, reply as your store, and understand what shoppers can see.
Go to Moderation → Reviews in the classic admin (v1) or Moderation → Reviews in the new admin (v2). Use Moderation settings to open the store's approval and contribution settings.
Key points
- A store without saved settings uses automatic review approval. Reviews do not all wait for a decision.
- Public reviews must be approved, visible, and not deleted. Hiding or rejecting a review removes it from the public rating calculation.
- Basic moderation, merchant replies, helpful votes, reporting, and shopper filters do not require a paid entitlement. Advanced settings and history require their plan entitlements.
Find reviews that need attention
The classic tabs are All Reviews, Pending, Approved, and Rejected. The new admin also provides Flagged and Reported tabs alongside its status tabs.
Both themes show Hidden and Flagged text beside the review's status when those states are active. Featured appears only when featured priority is active and the review is not hidden. Use the row's corresponding action to change a state, then check the refreshed row. If a chip still appears unexpectedly, reload the queue before repeating the decision; the chip describes the returned state, not an unsaved choice.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search reviews in v1; Search by reviewer or content… in v2 | Searches the review queue. |
| Rating → All ratings, 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, or 5 stars | Narrows the queue by rating in either admin theme. |
| Flagged | Shows reviews marked for attention. A flag by itself does not hide a review. |
| Hidden | Shows reviews removed from the public feed without deleting them. |
| With photos | Shows reviews with attachments. |
| Reported (N) | Shows reported reviews; the number comes from review analytics. |
| Clear filters | Removes search and active filters. |
| Refresh reviews in v1 | Reloads the queue and analytics. |
| Page controls and page-size selector (Per page in v2) | Move through results and change how many are shown. |
The header's average, totals, and Reported (N) count depend on review analytics. If the card shows an error, see troubleshooting; a blank/error card is not a zero-review result. A removed product is displayed as (product removed) so you can still moderate its review. Sidebar badges show pending counts; the Questions badge includes pending customer answers. A zero count or failed count request can both hide a badge, so inspect the queue before assuming it is empty.
The review date uses your browser's local timezone. The classic table includes the time; the new admin card shows the date. If a date seems shifted, refresh and compare it in the same browser timezone before asking support to check the recorded timestamp. Do not manually add a timezone offset to the displayed date.
Customer text is plain text
Review titles, comments, and merchant replies are plain text. Special characters such as & stay readable; typing <b>Great</b> displays literal text rather than bold formatting. Write your reply through Reply → Merchant reply, then use Save changes in classic admin or Save reply in new admin and check the refreshed review.
If a customer sees encoded characters such as & in an older review, ask support to inspect that saved text. New submissions do not automatically repair older records; do not delete a review merely to change its formatting.
Approve or reject a review
Read the review
Open More actions → Review details in the classic admin, or the review's action menu → Review details in the new admin. Details shows the current rating, title, comment, merchant reply, and Report reasons with counts. Close dismisses the drawer.
Choose the decision
Approve publishes an eligible review. Reject opens Reject review and requires Reason: Spam, Offensive content, Personal information, Not about the product, Fake review, or Other.
Record the reason
Use Internal note for an explanation, up to 500 characters. Other requires a non-empty note. Reject stays disabled until the reason and required note are supplied; Cancel leaves the review unchanged.
Check the refreshed queue
After a successful decision, the queue reloads and the screen attempts to reload analytics. A review may disappear because it no longer matches the current filter. An analytics reload failure does not prove that the decision failed; inspect the review before making the same decision again.
Use policy reasons consistently across ratings. A low rating alone is not a rejection reason. Pending reviews can show Auto-publishes in N days or Auto-publish due; the default deadline is 14 days unless changed or turned off. See Moderation settings.
Reply, feature, hide, flag, and delete
| Classic action | New admin action | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Reply | Reply | Opens Merchant reply with the existing text. The limit is 2,000 characters. Classic Save changes and v2 Save reply are disabled until the text changes. |
| Clear reply | Save an empty Merchant reply with Save reply | Removes the existing reply. Cancel discards unsaved text. |
| Feature / Remove featured | Mark as featured / Unfeature | Adds or removes featured priority. Only published, visible reviews can be featured; the limit is ten per product. |
| Hide / Unhide | Hide / Unhide | Removes or restores public visibility. Manually hiding also removes featured status. |
| Flag / Remove flag | Flag / Unflag | Adds or removes an internal attention marker. |
| Delete | Delete | Opens a confirmation. Cancel dismisses; Delete removes the review from active lists. Only owner/admin users see this action. |
Deletion immediately removes the review from active/public lists. Deleted reviews and customer photos become eligible for permanent cleanup after 30 days; the background job also cleans unreferenced stored images. Cleanup can retry after a failure, so 30 days is a retention threshold, not an exact deletion appointment. This screen has no restore control.
The Review details drawer shows the review's photos under its comment. Select a thumbnail (Open review photo N) to open Review photo. A thumbnail that cannot load shows Photo unavailable; the drawer then reloads the review once to fetch fresh photo links, so an expired link usually recovers without closing it. Previous and Next move between attachments; Escape or Close exits. A review without attachments has no thumbnails.
Moderate several reviews
Select the reviews
Use a row checkbox or the page checkbox. When a search or filter is active and results exceed the page, Select all N matching selects the matching result set rather than only the visible rows.
Choose a bulk action
Classic actions are Approve, Reject, Hide, Feature, and Delete; v2 uses Approve all, Reject, Hide all, Mark featured, and Delete. Clear in classic, or the v2 clear control, removes the selection.
Confirm and inspect the result
Rejection uses the same reason dialog. Deletion requires confirmation and is disabled for users without owner/admin access. Selected-ID requests accept up to 100 reviews; matching-result actions accept up to 5,000. Partial failures report the unsuccessful items; inspect the reloaded queue before retrying.
Review details, history, and proposed edits
Open Moderation → Reviews → More actions → Review details in classic admin, or the row's action menu → Review details in new admin. Details → Report reasons shows reasons and counts, or No reports. when no reasons are supplied. If that is unexpected for a reported review, reopen the drawer and check the queue; a failed detail load needs Retry.
Select History, which requires the paid moderation.audit_history entitlement. Events use readable labels such as Review approved, Merchant reply saved, Review hidden, and Customer edit awaiting approval, with an actor and time.
Changed Status, Featured, Hidden, Merchant reply, Reject reason, Reject note, and Reports are shown as old → new values. Yes/No describe recorded booleans; None means cleared/empty, and Not recorded means that snapshot value was missing. Unsupported or nested fields are omitted; No displayable field changes. means no supported differences were supplied, not that no event occurred.
Recorded admin names identify new admin actions; an identified actor without a recorded name can appear as User or Admin. System means no actor was supplied. Purchase verification lost explains that the linked order no longer qualifies as a verified purchase: the review was flagged for moderation and its content kept. If an actor label is unexpected, reload History and compare the action and timestamp; a generic historical label does not identify a particular staff member. An empty returned list shows No history events yet.; Previous and Next page the events. Retry reloads a failed history request. A plan lock or error is different from an empty event list; see the access troubleshooting in Moderation settings.
Edited marks an applied customer edit. If a Pending customer edit is supplied, the drawer compares Field, Published, and Proposed, including Rating, Title, Review, Photos, and the Submitted timestamp. In the Photos row the Published and Proposed columns each show thumbnails you can select to open the same viewer, so you can compare the photos before Approve edit; an empty side shows a dash. Approve edit and Reject edit require owner/admin access; rejection opens the same reason dialog.
With automatic approval, an eligible edit can apply immediately. Manual review, four-plus approval, or a content-filter hold sends material edits for a decision. The existing approved rating, text, and photos remain public while its proposal is pending. Approving the edit applies the proposal; rejecting it keeps the published version. Edited appears only after an edit is applied.
Hidden after reports is a separate System history event when the configured report threshold automatically hides a review. It is distinct from a customer's Review reported event and from a manual Review hidden action. Compare the action and timestamp before attributing it to the administrator whose decision appears nearby. If an older event lacks supported values, Not recorded does not mean the old value was false.
What shoppers see and how they write a review
On a product page with reviews, Sort reviews offers Newest, Most helpful, Highest rated, Lowest rated, and Photos first. Featured reviews retain priority. With photos and All ratings or a specific star rating filter results; Load more reviews loads another page. A failed request shows Try again. A product with no reviews has no review filter/sort bar; an eligible signed-in shopper can still use Write a review. A filter that matches no reviews keeps the controls available: clear the star/photo filter to see other reviews. Reaching the end of Load more reviews does not remove controls for reviews already loaded.
A merchant reply appears as Response from the store only when there is reply text. Verified Purchase depends on purchase verification; Imported reviews never receive that badge. Edited and variant details appear only when provided. The product's public review count and average exclude pending, rejected, hidden, and deleted reviews.
Open the review form
A guest uses Sign in to review. An eligible signed-in shopper uses Write a review: either with a qualifying purchase, or without a purchase when Require a verified purchase is off. Disabled reasons can read Only verified buyers can review, Review after your order is delivered, You've reviewed this product, The review window has closed, or Review eligibility is unavailable, according to the returned eligibility reason. With no public reviews, a signed-in customer sees Customer Reviews once eligibility has returned, even if it refuses a review. For a non-buyer with purchase verification required, the disabled button reads Only verified buyers can review and the empty area reads No reviews match these filters yet.; no star/photo/sort bar appears. A guest with no public reviews retains the existing empty product-page presentation. Without a returned eligibility response, the section can remain hidden; a load error needs Try again.
Fill in the review
Select Your rating from one to five stars (Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent). Review title is optional, up to 120 characters; Your review is required, up to 2,000 characters and subject to the store's minimum length.
Submit or cancel
If Photos is available, attach up to five images and wait for Photo uploaded. Remove a failed image with Remove photo. Submit review cannot finish without rating/comment validation or while photos are unfinished. Cancel closes the form. Submission success does not override the store's approval policy.
Set who may review
In either admin theme, open Moderation → Reviews → Moderation settings → Reviews (also available at Settings → Moderation → Reviews). Set Require a verified purchase, choose Save settings, and check Settings saved and reloaded. before relying on the policy.
On/default requires a fulfilled purchase linked to the signed-in customer: delivered orders, completed pickup, or completed linked appointments qualify. Cancelled, returned, and refunded purchases do not establish that verification. Off allows the review service to accept a signed-in store customer's review without a purchase; it is unverified and receives no Verified Purchase badge. A real fulfilled purchase is still linked and verified when available. Off does not permit guest submission, bypass approval/content filters, or grant Share your photo eligibility.
Save the optional-purchase policy
Set Require a verified purchase off and select Save settings. Confirm Settings saved and reloaded.
Open the product as a signed-in customer
Sign in to the storefront and open the product. Once eligibility loads, choose Write a review. A non-buyer does not need a linked order to open or submit this form.
Submit an unverified review
Complete Your rating and Your review, optionally add Review title, then choose Submit review. Follow the form's validation and photo-upload feedback described above. The review follows the saved approval/filter policy and has no Verified Purchase badge unless a qualifying purchase is verified.
If a non-buyer still cannot open the form, reload the saved policy and product page, confirm sign-in, and check the returned eligibility message. You've reviewed this product means use My Reviews → Edit; Review eligibility is unavailable needs a fresh load or support investigation. Turning the switch off does not bypass these checks or unlock direct Share your photo contributions.
An existing active review prevents another new product-page review. For a repeat purchase, use My Reviews → Edit; an order's review flow updates the newest active review for that product instead of adding another active customer review. If eligibility fails to load, the button can remain hidden without proving that the shopper never purchased.
The Maison product template's Write a review button opens this same guarded review/sign-in flow. In the review dialog, Tab and Shift+Tab stay within the controls; Escape closes it and restores focus to the opener.
Signed-in shoppers can open the desktop or mobile account menu → My Reviews at /my-reviews. All, Pending, Published, and Rejected filter their reviews; rejected rows show Reason. Previous reviews and Next reviews page the list, and Try again retries loading.
Edit exposes rating/title/comment, Add photos, Remove photo, Save changes, and Cancel. A review that already has photos can be edited and saved; its existing photos appear as thumbnails, each with a Remove photo (×) button, and a photo you add shows a preview immediately. New photos still need an eligible purchase and the photo allowance. A successful save can queue a proposal rather than replace published content immediately. Delete asks Delete this review? This cannot be undone. A successful deletion removes the row; a failure keeps it available with an error. Saving, uploading, and paging disable the corresponding controls while busy.
Why do I see an older review marked superseded?
Historical orders could produce several reviews by the same customer for the same product. Those older records are kept, with an internal superseded link to the newest review; this does not add a Superseded badge or control to these screens. Existing approved duplicates can remain in storefront/admin lists and rating totals under the usual visibility rules.
Only the newest active, non-superseded review is the update target. Editing an older superseded record fails; use the latest review in My Reviews. Deleting the latest review permits a fresh review after another eligibility check, but does not promote an older superseded review into the update target.
Check review photos and editor previews
Review forms show Up to 5 JPG, PNG, WebP, or HEIC photos. Images are prepared as JPEG with a maximum 2,048-pixel long edge before upload. If conversion fails, Please upload JPG or PNG. This browser cannot convert HEIC photos. asks the shopper to use another format; Each photo must be 5 MB or smaller. applies to the prepared upload.
Published thumbnails open Review photo viewer with Previous photo, Next photo, and Close photo viewer. Arrow keys navigate, Escape closes, and directional navigation follows the page's text direction.
The store editor's review previews can show Verified Purchase, Imported, variant text such as Size: L, Edited, photo thumbnails, and Response from the store when those sample fields are supplied. An imported sample never receives the purchase badge. Optional fields are omitted when absent; sample content is not proof of a saved or published customer review. Landing review sections also need their configured selection and public feed.
Product search metadata
After a storefront product finishes loading, its page supplies Product structured data. A positive rating value with a non-zero review count adds the aggregate rating; a zero count omits it. The supplied review entries include at most five approved, non-hidden reviews. This adds no moderation control and does not guarantee a search-engine rating display. If a rating is missing from search results, first check the loaded product's public rating/count and review visibility; showing a review in the page body alone does not prove its search metadata or indexing.
Understand the Unanswered review metric
Open Analytics → Reviews in classic admin, or Analytics → Reviews analytics in new admin, and select the date range. Unanswered counts public reviews without a merchant reply: approved, visible, non-deleted reviews created in that range for the selected store whose reply is empty. Use Moderation → Reviews to find a review and save a merchant reply; reload analytics to check the selected period. This is a review-reply metric, separate from the Unanswered sort in Moderation → Questions.
If the number is unexpected, check the store, date range, review visibility, and saved reply. A pending, hidden, rejected, or deleted review does not count. If the card shows an error or a plan lock, see troubleshooting and plan access before relying on the number.
Customer removal and moderation history
Customer removal/anonymization and customer account deletion also remove the customer's moderation identity links. Reviews can remain as Former customer with order/contact links and pending edits cleared. Photo credits are anonymized, question notification addresses are cleared, and pending email/request identity snapshots are cleared so erased requests are not recreated by polling. This does not erase all review or question text.
The customer's review/question/answer votes and reports are removed and affected counts are reconciled. Separately, vote/report records older than 90 days are eligible for retention cleanup, so helpful/report counts can change without a new vote or report. These background effects do not add a new control to Moderation → Reviews.
Why is a hidden review still marked Featured in admin?
Automatic hiding after reports can preserve the stored featured state for restoration. Hidden still excludes that review from the storefront and product rating, even when its stored featured state is retained. In both admin themes, the Featured chip is suppressed while hidden; Flagged can remain visible. A Featured change in History is a recorded state change, not proof of present public visibility.
Open Moderation → Reviews → Review details → History and check Hidden after reports versus a manual Review hidden action. Manual Hide clears featured priority. Use Unhide only when you intend to restore visibility, then check the refreshed row and public product page. If a hidden row still shows a current Featured chip, reload the queue and ask support to investigate; do not infer that it is publicly featured from historical data alone.
Why don't customers see a review or reply?
- If the analytics card shows an error, inspect the review queue and reload before relying on its counts. Ask support to investigate a persistent load error; it does not mean your store has no reviews or that a moderation decision failed.
- Check Approved plus Hidden: approval and visibility are separate.
- On the new admin, a store with no reviews yet shows no reviews yet with a Share store button. It opens your storefront in a new tab, using your active custom domain, then your BillionBiz address, then the Website URL saved under Online Store → Theme → Look & Feel → General. If none of those exists, nothing opens: the page takes you to Online Store → Pages and shows Storefront URL is being set up. Add a domain or Website URL, then come back.
- Check the store's saved and effective approval policy, flagged content, and pending deadline.
- If a non-buyer's review button remains disabled with Require a verified purchase off, see Set who may review. Sign-in and the separate verified-purchase requirement for direct photos still apply.
- Clear the shopper's star/photo filters and use Load more reviews.
- A reply on a non-public review does not make that review public.
- A stale or failed image needs a fresh load; do not mistake an upload preview for a published image.
- Report → Why are you reporting it? offers Spam, Offensive content, Off topic, Looks fake, Other, optional Extra details (optional), and Submit report. The acknowledgement Thanks. Your report has been received. follows a successful response; failures stay retryable. Close dismisses the dialog. Reports can hide a review once the store's configured threshold is reached.
- A report does not automatically hide a review below Reports before automatic hiding. Qualifying distinct reports count toward the threshold; a signed-in report is not counted twice, and repeat reports from the same customer/device are rejected. Automatically hiding also flags the review while preserving its featured state; it remains outside the public feed while hidden. After Unhide, protection against immediate re-hiding can make the lifetime report total differ from the qualifying threshold count. Inspect Review details → History before treating that difference as a failed report.
- Helpful? → Yes / No saves a vote; selecting the same vote undoes it, and selecting the other changes it. A failed vote displays an error and rolls back the optimistic count.
Coming soon
AI reply suggestion — Coming soon, AI reply suggestions, Sentiment tags, and AI review summary are teasers. They do not generate replies, classify reviews, or produce a customer summary.