How to moderate product reviews: what to publish and what to reject

Review moderation means checking each review before it shows up in your store and deciding whether to publish or reject it based on rules you set in advance. It does two jobs at once: it protects your customers from abusive or irrelevant content, and it keeps the rating you display believable.

The common mistake is treating moderation as a way to protect your average score. It isn't. If moderation only lets the good reviews through, it stops being moderation and becomes editing your customers' opinions, and shoppers notice: a store with all five stars and near-identical comments creates suspicion, not trust.

You should publish every authentic review from a real buyer, positive or negative, as long as it doesn't break your content rules. The reason is practical: people comparing products are looking for what could go wrong, and a specific, reasonable complaint helps them decide.

That includes one- and two-star reviews with concrete complaints (sizing, delivery time, material), reviews that criticize your service, and mixed reviews that praise and complain in the same breath. For how to answer them, see our guide on how to respond to a negative product review.

There is also regulatory risk. In the US, the FTC issued a final rule against fake reviews that also treats suppressing reviews as a deceptive practice, and an earlier agency case centered on a retailer that hid reviews below four stars while presenting the rest as the view of all buyers. Every country has its own rules; if you sell across borders, confirm them with legal counsel.

You can reject a review when the problem is its content, not its opinion. Review platforms such as Klaviyo describe the same logic: publish valid reviews and reject inappropriate or irrelevant ones, and hide images that are inappropriate or contain confidential information.

A reasonable list of rejection reasons: insults or harassment aimed at people, obscene language, threats, personal data (an employee's phone number, a customer's address), content that isn't about the product (a complaint about another brand, ads, a link to another store) and spam. A harsh but respectful opinion is not on that list.

A separate case is reviews about shipping or billing when the product itself is fine. They aren't irrelevant: they are real information about your operation. Publish them, and let your public reply explain what happened.

In borderline cases, the deciding question is whether the text describes the customer's experience or attacks someone. A review saying "the product arrived broken and nobody answered my messages" is experience; one that insults a named person is an attack.

Three cases come up again and again. The first is a review from someone who doesn't seem to have bought: before rejecting it, check whether the order exists, because sometimes the customer bought with a different email or a relative placed the order. The second is a review about an incident that was already resolved: publish it and let your reply say how it ended. The third is a photo or video that shows third-party faces or personal information: hide the file, not necessarily the whole review.

A useful rule: when in doubt, publish. An unjustified rejection costs more than an uncomfortable review, because the first is your decision and the second is a customer's opinion.

Photo and video reviews need an extra check because the file can show things the text doesn't say: other people, addresses, screens with personal data. Still, don't make moderation so slow that the customer who uploaded the photo has forgotten they wrote anything.

A workflow that works for a small store: review in batches, once or twice a day, with the same criteria for every review. If a file has a problem, hide the file and publish the text. For ideas on collecting more of this material, see how to get photo reviews from customers.

A concrete example: a cosmetics store gets a four-star review with a photo in which the customer's daughter is visible in the background. The review is good and the product looks great, but the file shows a minor. The right call is to hide the image, publish the text and let the customer know if there's a way to reach them.

One last point on judgment: moderation is also information. If several reviews rejected as "irrelevant" are really about the same shipping problem, the content isn't irrelevant to you, it's a signal. Log your rejection reasons and review them once a month: they will tell you what your operation should fix, not just what text to hide.

And decide who decides. In a small store one person is enough, but someone else should look at the rejections from time to time. Two sets of eyes keep the standard from quietly getting stricter, and make it clear that the rule belongs to the store and not to the mood of the day.

heysteff Reviews is the heysteff Shopify app that asks for the review over WhatsApp (rating, comment and photo or video) and sends it to moderation before showing it in your store through widgets. That way you can look at each review, with its rating, comment and files, before deciding whether it shows.

Because the request goes out in a WhatsApp conversation with someone who bought, and not through a form open to anyone, the problem of reviews from people who never bought shrinks from the start. See how it works on heysteff Reviews and check the usual questions on the FAQ page.

What matters is that you set the criteria. Write your rejection reasons in a short document, share it with whoever moderates and apply it the same way every time. Then, the next time someone asks why a review isn't live, you'll have an answer and not just an opinion.

Can I reject a review just because it's negative? It's not advisable. An authentic, respectful negative review is valuable information for other shoppers, and systematically suppressing them can be a legal problem in several markets. Reject based on content (insults, personal data, spam), not on the rating.

Should I moderate before or after publishing? Before, if your volume is manageable: it keeps offensive content from showing, even for a few hours. If volume grows, define clear rules and review in batches so legitimate reviews don't wait.

What do I do if I suspect a review is fake? First check whether it matches a real order. If there's no purchase behind it and the text is generic or promotional, you can reject it; if you're unsure, publish it and write down your reasoning.

• heysteff Reviews: WhatsApp reviews for Shopify
• How to respond to a negative product review
• How to get photo reviews from customers
• heysteff Reviews FAQ