Social proof is one of the most effective drivers of purchase confidence. ShopSTAR3 makes reviews and ratings a native capability — collected, moderated, and displayed through the platform with no third-party app required. Store admins control every aspect of the submission, moderation, and display experience.
Overview#
The Reviews module lets customers submit star ratings and written reviews for products and the store itself. Store admins control who can submit reviews, how they are moderated, and how they are displayed on the storefront.
Submission Eligibility#
Configure who is allowed to submit reviews:
- Open — any visitor with a store context can submit a review
- Registered customers only — the customer must have an account with the store
- Verified purchasers only — the customer must have a fulfilled order containing the product being reviewed
Moderation#
Three moderation modes are available:
- Auto-approve — reviews are published immediately on submission
- Manual review — reviews enter a pending queue and must be approved or rejected by a staff member before appearing on the storefront
- AI-assisted — low-risk reviews are auto-approved; flagged reviews are held for manual review
Staff can approve or reject any review from the moderation queue. Rejected reviews require a reason. A review that has already been approved can be taken down at any time.
Ratings and Aggregates#
Each review carries a 1–5 star rating. The platform calculates and displays:
- Average rating — the mean across all approved reviews
- Rating distribution — a breakdown of approved reviews by star count
A minimum review threshold can be configured — the aggregate is hidden from the storefront until that number of approved reviews exists.
Media Attachments#
Customers can attach images and videos to their reviews (up to a configurable limit per review). Attachments are stored securely and linked to the review.
Helpfulness Votes#
Shoppers can mark a review as helpful. Helpfulness vote counts are displayed alongside reviews and can be used as a sort option.
Display Settings#
Configure how reviews appear on the storefront:
- Minimum display count — how many approved reviews must exist before the aggregate is shown
- Show unverified — whether to surface reviews from non-verified purchasers
- Default sort order — Newest, Highest Rated, or Most Helpful
Storefront#
Product and store ratings are available to the storefront through the GraphQL API. The storefront can display review lists, aggregate ratings, and star distributions without a separate API call.
GDPR#
When a customer exercises their right to erasure, all reviews submitted by that customer are anonymized or removed as part of the erasure workflow in the Customer module.