WooCommerce product reviews: how to set them up, moderate them and reply to customers
You turn on WooCommerce product reviews in WooCommerce → Settings → Products, and you moderate them on a separate reviews screen in the Products menu. Accepting reviews only from verified buyers cuts down spam. Reply to critical reviews calmly instead of hiding them, and tell shoppers in your store whether and how you check that reviews come from customers.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for WordPress site and WooCommerce store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 5 min read
Review settings in WooCommerce
All the review settings are in one place: WooCommerce → Settings, Products tab. The WooCommerce documentation on product reviews describes each field.
| Setting | What it does | What to watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Enable product reviews | shows the reviews tab on the product page | without it the other options are hidden |
| “Verified owner” label | marks reviews from people who bought the product | builds trust well, doesn't block anyone |
| Verified owners only | only a logged-in customer who bought the product can leave a review | cuts spam the most, but shuts out buyers without an account |
| Star ratings | turns on stars with each review | you can require a rating on every review |
| Reviews on a single product | turns reviews off on a chosen product page only | set in the product data, on the Advanced tab |
Reviews also follow the WordPress settings in Settings → Discussion. If manual approval is on there, every review waits in a queue before it appears on the product page.
Barn2's post on reviews from verified buyers only covers the pros and cons of the “verified owners only” option in more depth. The key point: it's the best spam block, but if your store allows guest checkout, some customers won't be able to leave a review.
Spam in reviews and how to filter it out
Spam in reviews looks different from spam under blog posts. More often it's short, generic praise unrelated to the product, reviews in a foreign language, or text with a link in the name. These reviews don't help customers, and on a product with only a few genuine reviews they drag down the average rating.
To separate them from genuine ones:
- Open the reviews screen in the Products menu and switch the view to pending.
- Check whether the author is a verified owner. A review from someone who bought the product is rarely spam.
- Read the text with the product in mind. A genuine review of a lamp talks about the light, fitting or delivery. Spam fits anything.
- Mark spam with the Spam button, not just the bin. The spam filter learns from these markings.
- Approve genuine reviews, including critical ones.
If the problem is bigger and spam is flooding comments on posts too, we compare ways of blocking it in our post on WordPress comment spam, and our guide to WordPress comment moderation describes a routine for working through the queue.
Replying to reviews, and what not to do
Your store's reply under a review is read by future customers, not just the reviewer. So reply especially to critical reviews:
- say thank you and name the problem, without arguing,
- say what you did, or how the customer can contact you,
- don't share order details or customer data in a public reply,
- don't promise things your store doesn't do.
What not to do: don't hide genuine negative reviews and don't add reviews on behalf of customers. Under the rules implementing the EU Omnibus Directive, a store that shows reviews must say whether and how it checks that they come from people who bought the product. Osborne Clarke's overview of implementing the Omnibus Directive (in Polish) discusses these rules. This isn't legal advice. It's worth checking the wording of that notice in your terms or next to the reviews with a lawyer.
Stars from reviews can also appear in Google results as structured data. Google describes the rules in its documentation on review snippets. Stars are not guaranteed to show, and the data in the code must match what people see on the page.
How the chat helps with reviews
The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce shows your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) comments together with product reviews. In the free TellMyShop Free version the chat only reads: it tells you how many reviews are waiting for moderation, which look like spam and which products have critical reviews without a reply.
In TellMyShop Pro the chat approves, rejects and marks as spam up to 50 reviews at once, and suggests store replies. This works straight after the licence is activated, with no switches.
You: Check the product reviews. Are there any without a reply?
Your chat: 9 reviews are waiting for moderation, and 5 of them look like spam: generic text with a link, no purchase. Under the Oslo pendant lamp there's an approved 2-star review with no reply: the customer says the bulb was missing from the parcel.
I suggest marking 5 reviews as spam, approving the 4 genuine ones and replying to the lamp review. How did you sort out the bulb?
You: We sent a bulb separately. The bulb isn't included, and the description says so.
Your chat: Preview of the reply under the review:
The last sentence needs a change to the product description. Shall I prepare a preview?
You: Yes, the description first, then the reply.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: (no reply)
new version: Thank you for your review. The bulb isn't included, but we've sent you one separately. We've made this clearer in the product description.
The names and text in this conversation are examples. The chat doesn't make up facts about the product or about what you did for the customer. It asks you.
Every change has a preview and waits for your approval, and you can undo most of them from the change history. The reply appears under the review on the product page. TellMyShop doesn't send anything to customers: no emails asking for a review and no messages after a reply.
What the chat won't do: it won't write reviews for customers. If you ask it to hide a genuine critical review, it will explain the risk and suggest a reply instead. You can change the WooCommerce review settings yourself in a minute. The chat can read them in Pro, and change them only with the Plugins switch on for 24 hours, with a database backup from today.
You can read more about what the chat does in your store on the TellMyShop for WordPress and WooCommerce page. Compare licences in the pricing, and find the free version on the free review page.
Questions and answers
Where do I turn on product reviews in WooCommerce?
In WooCommerce → Settings, on the Products tab, in the reviews section. Tick the option to enable reviews, then choose below whether to show the “verified owner” label, whether only buyers can leave reviews and whether a star rating is required. You can also turn reviews off for a single product, on the Advanced tab of the product data.
Where are product reviews waiting for moderation?
Since WooCommerce 6.7, reviews have their own screen in the Products menu, separate from comments on posts. You moderate them like comments: approve, reply, mark as spam or move to the bin.
How do I stop spam in WooCommerce reviews?
The most effective step is accepting reviews only from verified owners, meaning logged-in people who bought the product. Add a spam filter and manual approval in the Discussion settings. The downside of verification is that shoppers who aren't logged in can't leave a review.
Can I delete negative reviews?
You can delete spam, abusive language and reviews unrelated to the product. Hiding genuine negative reviews misleads shoppers and may breach consumer protection law. It's better to reply calmly and show how you solved the problem.
Will the chat write product reviews?
No. Reviews must come from customers, and fake reviews are banned in the EU. In TellMyShop Pro the chat helps you moderate genuine reviews and suggests store replies, which it publishes only after your approval.
WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation. WooCommerce is a trademark of Automattic Inc. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.