Replying to reviews
A public reply shows under the review in your widgets, and the reviewer can be emailed about it. A private reply is a note only you can see.
Write a reply
- Open Reviews and find the review.
- Click Reply on its row.
- In the Reply menu, choose Publicly in widgets or Privately (only visible to you).
- Edit the text in Your reply. Up to 5,000 characters.
- Click Send reply.
The reply shows on the row, as Your reply or Private reply. A public reply appears in the widgets under the review, labelled as the store's reply, as soon as the review is published.
The ready-made draft
The reply box opens with a draft already written for you, tinted until you change it. It uses the reviewer's first name and the product, and it reads differently for a happy, neutral or unhappy review, based on the star rating.
- Tone of voice: Friendly, Professional, Empathetic or Enthusiastic.
- Additional Instructions (Optional): up to 500 characters, such as Apologize for the late delivery. This is added to the draft as a sentence.
- Click Generate Reply to rebuild the draft after changing the tone or instructions.
The draft comes from fixed templates, not an AI service. Read it before sending, and make it yours.
Does the reviewer get an email?
For a public reply, the reviewer is emailed when all of these are true:
- Merchant reply email is on in Email templates. It is on by default.
- The reviewer left an email address and has not unsubscribed.
A private reply is never shown on your store and never emailed.
Changing a reply
Each reply you send is saved. Your store shows the latest public one, so to correct a reply, send a new one.
Reply to unhappy reviews too, calmly and with a fix. Shoppers read how you handle a problem as closely as the problem itself.