--- title: "Product reviews with moderation, verified purchases" description: "Collect verified-purchase reviews with star ratings. Merchant moderation queue, per-product averages, structured data for rich results." canonical_url: "https://mercemur.com/reviews" last_updated: "2026-09-15" --- # Reviews customers trust, moderation you control Verified-purchase reviews tied to real orders. Merchant moderation before anything goes live. Structured data for rich search results. Most ecommerce review systems are easy to game. A competitor can flood your product with fake one-star reviews. A friend of the founder can flood it with fake five-star reviews. Customers learn this and stop trusting the stars. The number becomes decoration, not signal. Mercemur's reviews engine ties every review to a real order. The verified-purchase badge is not a label, it is enforced at submission time based on order history. You moderate every review before it appears on the storefront. Per-product averages and review counts render as structured data so reviews can show up as rich results in search. Reviews become signal again. Customers see real opinions from real buyers, the rating reflects the product, and the moderation queue stops the noise. ### Verified Purchase Every review tied to a real order. No fake reviews, no gaming the system. ### Merchant Moderation Approve or reject before anything goes live. You control what appears. ### Rich Search Results Structured data for star ratings in Google search results. ## Verified-purchase reviews Reviews are tied to real customers who actually bought the product. A verified-purchase badge appears next to every qualifying review. ### How verification works: 1 Customer places order Order contains the product 2 Order completes Payment captures, fulfillment ships 3 Customer eligible Customer can now review the product 4 Review verified Submission marked as verified ### Why this matters: Competitors cannot review your product (they have to buy first) Friends and family who did not buy cannot post fake reviews The verified badge becomes a trust signal customers actually believe Aggregate ratings reflect actual customer experience, not manipulation ## Star ratings Each review carries a numeric rating from one to five stars. The platform computes: 4.7 Average rating per product 142 Total review count Star distribution 5★ 89 4★ 32 3★ 15 2★ 4 1★ 2 These render on every product page as structured data, so search engines can show star ratings in search results (where the search engine decides to feature them). ## Merchant moderation queue Reviews land in a queue with three states: PendingApprovedRejected ### Pending New reviews enter this state automatically. They are not visible to other customers yet. ## How reviews drive sales ### Build trust before purchase Customers see real opinions from real buyers, and they buy with more confidence. ### Appear in search results Star ratings in search results increase click-through rate. ### Surface in customer dashboard Returning customers see their own reviews and the products they have rated. ## How it works 1 Customer places an order 2 Order completes (payment captures, fulfillment ships, delivery confirms) 3 Customer receives a post-purchase email prompting a review (configurable timing) 4 Customer clicks through to the review form on the storefront 5 Customer writes the review with star rating, title, body 6 Review enters the Pending queue 7 Merchant sees the review in the admin 8 Merchant approves or rejects 9 Approved reviews appear on the product page with the verified badge 10 Per-product summary updates (average and count) 11 Structured data updates for search engines ## Use cases ### Fashion DTC brand Reviews tied to size and fit. Moderation queue catches spam. Average rating shows on product page. Search results display star ratings on product listings. ### Beauty brand Reviews include skin type or hair type as metadata. Moderation rejects reviews that make medical claims. Customer reviews drive social proof for new shoppers. ### Software vendor Reviews tied to license activation. Moderation rejects reviews that mention competitor product names with affiliate codes. Average rating shows on pricing page. ### Furniture brand Long-form reviews with detailed feedback on assembly, materials, and durability. Review-request timing set to ninety days after delivery so reviews reflect real use. ### Subscription box Reviews tied to specific boxes. Moderation catches reviews that mention contents shipped (to avoid spoilers for new subscribers). ### B2B industrial Reviews tied to verified business buyers. Moderation rejects reviews from anonymous accounts. ### Made-to-order furniture Long-form reviews highlight build quality and order experience. Reviews surface in product gallery and aid future custom-order buyers. ### Digital download seller Reviews tied to file downloads. Customers can review after the first download. Moderation rejects reviews that share pirated copies or links. ## Best practices for collecting reviews ### Time the request well Too soon and the customer has not used the product. Too late and they have forgotten the experience. Seven days after delivery is a good default for most products. ### Make the request easy The post-purchase email should include a one-click link to the review form, pre-populated with the order details so the customer does not have to find their order. ### Offer a small incentive (carefully) A discount code for the next purchase can lift response rates. The incentive must apply to all customers who write a review, not just positive ones. Otherwise you are buying fake reviews. ### Respond to negative reviews publicly A thoughtful merchant response to a one-star review can turn the review into a positive signal. The next customer sees that you take feedback seriously. ### Do not delete negative reviews Customers know when a store has only five-star reviews. The signal becomes "this is fake". A mix of positive and negative reviews (with the positive heavily outnumbering the negative) is the most trustworthy pattern. ### Refresh slow products Products with stale reviews (everything older than a year) lose ranking. Periodically re-request reviews from recent buyers to keep velocity going. ## Frequently asked questions Can I moderate before reviews go live? Yes. Every review enters a pending state until you approve or reject it. Are reviews tied to real orders? Yes. Verified-purchase status is set based on actual order history. Do reviews appear in Google search results? Reviews render as structured data on the product page, which is the format search engines read for rich results. Indexing and rich-result eligibility are up to the search engine. Can customers edit their reviews? Reviews are typically locked once approved. Customers can submit a new review or request changes through the contact channel. Can I import reviews from another platform? Yes. Through the admin API. What happens to rejected reviews? They are documented (for compliance) but never appear on the storefront. They do not count toward the average. Can I reply to a review publicly? Yes through merchant responses on the review. Customers see your reply alongside their review. Can I delete a review? Yes through the admin. Deletion is logged for compliance. Are reviews tied to specific variants? Reviews are tied to products. A customer's review of a "size large red shirt" applies to all variants of that product. Can customers upload photos with their reviews? Photo reviews are roadmap. Today, reviews are text plus star rating. Does Mercemur send review-request emails automatically? Yes. Configure the timing per product or per category. Can I incentivize reviews with discount codes? Yes through the promotion engine. Issue a discount code in the review-request email. Be careful to apply the incentive to all reviewers (not just positive ones) for compliance reasons. Are reviews region-specific? Reviews are tied to the product, not the region. A customer in India and a customer in the US see the same reviews on the same product. How do anonymous reviews work? Customers can opt to hide their name on display. The verified-purchase badge stays. The review is still tied to a real order on the backend. Can I filter out reviews mentioning competitors? Yes through manual moderation. Automated keyword filtering is roadmap. What if a customer leaves a fake one-star review? You can reject it from the moderation queue if you have evidence it is fake. Document your reasoning for compliance. Can I display reviews on collection pages or the homepage? Reviews currently surface on product pages. Cross-page review surfacing is roadmap. How do I get my first 100 reviews? Send review-request emails to recent customers. Offer a discount code as an incentive (apply to all reviewers, not just positive). Make the review form easy to find from the customer dashboard. Quality reviews compound over time. Are reviews required for SEO? Not required, but they help significantly. Star ratings in search results increase click-through rate. Review content adds keyword-relevant content to product pages. Can negative reviews hurt my brand? Yes if you have only negative reviews. No if you have a mix of positive and constructive negative. Customers trust a mix more than they trust 100% positive. Respond to negative reviews thoughtfully. ## Quick reference Verified-purchase reviews tied to real orders. One-to-five star ratings with per-product averages and total counts. Three moderation states: Pending, Approved, Rejected. Anonymous display option (badge stays). Structured data on product pages (AggregateRating and individual Reviews). Review-request timing configurable per product or category. ## Related ### [Optimize](https://mercemur.com/optimize) Experiments and conversion work on live traffic. ### [Customer accounts](https://mercemur.com/customer-accounts) Profiles, groups, and order history. ### [Marketing and email](https://mercemur.com/marketing) Campaigns, flows, and segmented sends. Turn reviews on for your store ## Start collecting verified reviews that drive sales. Start fast, compare plans, or talk through the details with us. [Enable reviews](https://mercemur.com/contact) [See pricing](https://mercemur.com/pricing) [Talk to sales](https://mercemur.com/contact) ## Sitemap - [Site index (llms.txt)](https://mercemur.com/llms.txt): every public page, described - [Sitemap (sitemap.md)](https://mercemur.com/sitemap.md): every public URL with its last-modified date - [AGENTS.md](https://mercemur.com/AGENTS.md): how to build against the platform - [Developer documentation](https://docs.mercemur.com/llms.txt): API reference, CLI, MCP