Here's how to allow your users to submit product reviews

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Web shop users, most of the time, rely on other users’ reviews about products. Users trust the personal experiences of people who bought and used the products more than the site’s product description. Others also use product reviews to discover other information about the product.

User-generated product reviews seem to greatly influence a user's purchasing decision. Thus, product reviews should be treated as an important part of the product details page.

Here are the implementation guidelines for product reviews:
1) A simple review submission form

• Allow guest users, not requiring them to log in, to submit a product review
• Only have a few fields to fill out and only require minimum information

^{(Figure 1: There are only 4 fields to fill out, and it does not require the user to log in.)}

2) Show the rating distribution summary

^{(Figure 2: The average rating and breakdown show that the product has more 4 and 5 stars than 2 and 1 stars.)}

3) Display 8 – 10 reviews to be seen initially by users and have a load more button to display all reviews submitted.

4) Reply to the negative reviews. Users will not only look for the good reviews; they will also read the negative ones to see if the product they want to buy has defects. Replying to negative reviews will show that you are concerned with the quality of product your customer received.

5) Display the average rating at the top of the product page that indicates the number of reviews. This average rating should have a link that leads users to the product review section.

^{(Figure 3: Below the product name is the average rating (in stars) and the number of reviews.)}