# Product reviews

URL: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/product-reviews/

## What are product reviews?

Product reviews are the ratings and comments buyers leave on a particular product, and the next buyer reads them before deciding. A shop has to say whether it checks that a review comes from a real buyer, and how; ordering fake reviews, or publishing only the favourable ones, is a banned practice. Reviews are gathered after delivery, usually with a single email that opens one rating screen.

**Example**

A shop with 500 orders a month sends one email seven days after delivery. Twelve per cent answer — 60 reviews a month. After three months that is about 180 reviews: the twenty best sellers carry five or six each, and the rest one or two.

Whether that changes sales is the next question, and it is answered with an A/B test on a specific product page rather than by feel: some visitors see the reviews high on the page, the rest see it as before, and the orders are compared.

One two-star review saying the item runs a size large is worth more than ten five-star ones, because it prevents returns. The text field matters more than the stars.

**Why it matters for a business**

Reviews are the only content on a product page the seller did not write, which is exactly why buyers read them. They take doubt out of the decision and hold returns down when they say what the description does not — the fit, the weight, the noise, the real colour.

The rules are settled: hiding negative reviews and ordering favourable ones are banned commercial practices, and a shop has to explain how it checks that a review comes from a buyer. The simplest check is the order itself — a review can be left only from it.

Ratings can also appear as stars in Google results when they are marked up on the product page; reviews about the company itself, published on its own site, do not earn those stars. The markup, the email and the rating screen are part of online store development.

**How to improve it**

- One screen, no account needed, reached from the email: fewer steps, more reviews.
- Time the email to the product — seven days for a garment, a month for an appliance.
- Answer negative reviews in public, briefly and to the point.
- Show the spread of ratings, not only the average.
- Check that reviews can be exported if you change platform; they are your content.

- Services: [Online store development](https://tnb-tech.com/en/services/online-store-development/)
- Glossary: https://tnb-tech.com/en/glossary/