Product Reviews lets your customers rate and review the products in your store, and gives you full control over what appears on your storefront. Shoppers leave a star rating and a written review on a product page; you approve or reject each one from a Reviews area in your dashboard before it goes live. Approved reviews are shown back on the product page alongside an average rating and a breakdown of how many reviews fall under each star level.
The plugin is free to install and runs alongside your existing store with no changes to your products.
Features
- Star ratings — customers rate a product from 1 to 5 stars, and each product page shows its average rating to one decimal place.
- Written reviews — an optional review title and body let shoppers explain their rating in their own words.
- Moderation — every review is held for your approval by default. You can approve, reject or delete any review from the dashboard, so nothing appears on your storefront without your say-so.
- Storefront display widget — an embeddable reviews block shows the rating summary, a sortable list of reviews and a "Write a Review" form on your product pages.
- Rating summary — a summary panel shows the average score, the total number of reviews and a bar chart breaking down how many reviews each star level received.
- Verified buyer badge — reviews can carry a "Verified" badge to indicate the reviewer is a confirmed purchaser.
- Helpful votes — logged-in customers can mark a review as helpful, and a running count is shown on each review.
- Guest and customer reviews — both registered customers and guests can leave reviews; guests simply provide a name and email address.
- Dashboard summary widget — a compact panel on your dashboard home shows total reviews, average rating, and how many are approved versus pending.
- Sorting — shoppers can sort the review list by newest, oldest, highest rated or lowest rated.
Before you start
- You need an OrbitCommerce store with at least one published product.
- The plugin needs permission to read your products, customers and orders. These permissions are requested when you install it, and are used to attach reviews to the right products, show reviewer names and confirm whether a reviewer actually purchased the item.
- To show reviews on your storefront you must add the reviews block to your product page using the page builder. Installing the plugin alone does not change your storefront.
- Reviews left while the plugin is being set up are held as pending until you approve them, so nothing goes live unexpectedly.
Getting started
- Open the plugin store in your dashboard, find Product Reviews and select Install.
- Review the requested permissions and confirm. The plugin connects to your store automatically.
- Once installed, a Reviews entry appears in your dashboard menu. Open it to see the All Reviews management table and a Settings page.
- Add the reviews block to your storefront. In the page builder, edit your product page template and place the Product Reviews element where you want reviews to appear (typically below the product description or add-to-cart section).
- Save and publish the page. The reviews block will now appear on every product that uses that template.
- Visit a product page on your live storefront to confirm the summary and "Write a Review" button are showing.
How it works
Leaving a review. On a product page, a customer selects Write a Review, chooses a star rating from 1 to 5, enters their name and email, and optionally adds a title and a written review. Registered customers can be matched to their account; guests are identified by the name and email they provide. When they submit, they see a confirmation message letting them know the review will appear after moderation.
Moderation and approval. New reviews arrive with a status of Pending and are not shown on the storefront. Open Reviews in your dashboard to see every review in a table, with the product, reviewer name, rating, content and current status. For each review you can:
- Approve — the review becomes visible on the product page.
- Reject — the review is kept on record but hidden from customers.
- Delete — the review is permanently removed. This cannot be undone.
Each action asks for confirmation before it is applied. Only Approved reviews are ever shown to shoppers.
Where ratings show. Once a review is approved it appears in the reviews block on that product's page. The summary panel recalculates the average rating, the total review count and the per-star breakdown automatically. The reviewer's name is shown with their rating, the date, and a Verified badge where applicable. Logged-in shoppers can mark reviews as Helpful, and the helpful count updates immediately. Guests are prompted to log in before voting.
Dashboard summary. A Reviews Summary widget on your dashboard home gives an at-a-glance view of total reviews, average rating, and the number approved versus awaiting moderation, with a link through to the full management table.
Settings
Open Reviews then Settings in your dashboard to configure the plugin. Available options include:
- Auto-approve reviews — when turned on, new reviews are published immediately without waiting for moderation. This is off by default, so all reviews start as pending until you approve them.
- Reviews per page — how many reviews are shown per page in the storefront list before pagination. The default is 10.
- Reviewer name display — how a reviewer's name is shown (for example full name, first name only, initials, or anonymous).
- Minimum rating — the lowest star rating a customer is allowed to submit.
- Photo reviews — whether customers may attach photos to their reviews.
- Thank-you message — the confirmation message shown to a customer after they submit a review.
Settings are stored per store and are applied to the storefront widget. After changing a setting it may take a few minutes to take effect on the storefront, as settings are briefly cached.
Troubleshooting
Reviews are not showing on my product page. Check three things: the review has been Approved in your dashboard (pending and rejected reviews are never shown); the Product Reviews block has been added to the product page template in the page builder and the page is published; and you are viewing the correct product. Only approved reviews for that specific product appear.
A customer left a review but I cannot see it in the dashboard. New reviews appear in the All Reviews table with a Pending status. If the table is empty or seems out of date, reload the page. Make sure the plugin is still installed and active; if you see an "Access Denied" message, the plugin may need to be reactivated in your store.
The "Helpful" button asks customers to log in. Helpful votes are limited to logged-in customers so that each person can only vote once per review. Guests will be prompted to sign in before their vote is counted. This is expected behaviour.
New reviews are appearing on the storefront without my approval. Check the Auto-approve reviews setting on the plugin's Settings page. When this is on, reviews skip moderation and publish straight away. Turn it off if you want to approve every review first.
Support
For help with this plugin, visit the Orbit Commerce Help Centre, or use the Get support link on the plugin's store page.