Ecommerce Review Report · 2026
How review-request emails actually perform, how much a simple second reminder adds, and the latest online review statistics from across the industry, based on real activity across 227 Shopify stores.
Based on 227 live Shopify stores
Most stores collect reviews the same way, one automated reminder email after purchase. Fewer take the next step: a second reminder, sent a few days later, that meaningfully increases how many reviews come in.
75% of stores in our dataset send a 1st review-request email, but only 35% follow up with a second. It's a small addition, usually a couple of minutes to set up, but for the stores that do it, the difference is substantial.
First reminder
75% of stores send a 1st review-request email
+85.8%
more reviews from adding a second reminder
Median, among stores using both (n=75)
Stores offer reviewers several places to leave feedback, but almost all of the volume arrives in one of them. The surface a shopper lands on straight after a review-request email collects the overwhelming majority; everything else is a rounding error by comparison.
Open rate
56.3%
Review-request emails
Click-through rate
30.3%
Of emails opened
Conversion rate
2.6%
Email to review submitted
Nearly 3 in 4 reviews come from review request emails, not from shoppers stumbling onto a widget. Reviews don't just happen, they come from asking, which is exactly why the second reminder matters.
Where Reviews Actually Get Left
Share of all reviews collected, cumulative
Review request emails
74.1%
Product page widget
22.8%
Dedicated reviews page
1.7%
Remaining ~1.5% comes from smaller placements (reviews tab, ask extension).
Email performance figures are based on 69-74 stores with reported data. Adoption figures are based on all 227 stores. Placement figures are cumulative review counts across all 227 stores since tracking began, not a recent-window metric. The second-reminder lift compares each store's own review count with and without the second reminder, among stores using both (n=75).
Our data
Across 227 Shopify stores, 75% send a review-request email, but only 35% follow up with a second reminder. For stores that use both, review volume rises by a median of 86%.
Unlike survey-based industry reports, this data reflects actual review activity across 227 live Shopify stores.
Industry Data
Reviews influence nearly every purchase decision today. Below is a roundup of the latest data on how reviews affect trust, conversion, and revenue, alongside our own findings from analyzing review activity across 227 Shopify stores.
01
Social commerce, where reviews and community validation are built into the buying experience, is growing 3 times faster than traditional ecommerce, with 64% of social media users having made a purchase through social platforms.
Accenture
02
63% of customers are more likely to trust and buy from a company that features customer reviews.
BigCommerce, cited by Deloitte
03
270% higher conversion rate for products that have reviews, compared to products with none, with the lift growing even higher once a product has 50 or more reviews.
Medill Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University
04
95% of consumers use reviews when shopping, and 86% say reviews are an essential part of how they decide what to buy.
PowerReviews, via Medill Spiegel Research Center
05
A one-star increase in a business's rating leads to a 5% to 9% increase in revenue.
Harvard Business School (Michael Luca)
06
91.1% of consumers read at least one review before buying a product, and 54.7% read at least four.
Capital One Shopping Research
07
97% of consumers read reviews before choosing a business, and 41% now say they "always" read reviews when browsing, up sharply from 29% just a year earlier.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
08
The average consumer checks 6 different review platforms before making a decision.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
09
85% of consumers say they're more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews, while 77% say negative reviews put them off.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
10
31% of consumers now only use businesses rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from just 17% the year before, and 68% require at least 4 stars.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
11
47% of consumers won't consider a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
12
79% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
13
Google's share of review discovery dropped from 83% to 71% in a single year, as 45% of consumers now use AI tools like ChatGPT for business recommendations, up from just 6% the year before.
BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey
14
96% of consumers check reviews before buying a product or service they haven't tried, and 47% say they always check reviews before buying from an unfamiliar brand.
Clutch
15
Only 15% of consumers trust star ratings alone, but 72% won't consider a product rated below 4 stars.
Clutch
16
Consumers rank star ratings paired with written feedback (43%) or photos (34%) as what makes them feel most confident in a review.
Clutch
17
More than a third of Americans didn't make a big purchase in the past year, and reviews play an outsized role in the purchases they do make, especially amid lower consumer confidence.
ConsumerAffairs, The State of Online Reviews
18
Among consumers who've seen AI-written review summaries, only 9.3% say they trust the AI summary more than reading the reviews themselves.
ConsumerAffairs, The State of Online Reviews
19
Only about 5% of businesses respond to their online reviews, even though most consumers expect a reply.
WiserReview
20
73% of consumers say they only trust reviews written within the past month.
WiserReview
Used Sources
Growave Internal Research
Review program benchmarks across 227 live Shopify stores
Medill Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University
How Online Reviews Influence SalesFrom Reviews to RevenueHarvard Business School
Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.comCapital One Shopping Research
Online Reviews StatisticsBrightLocal
Local Consumer Review SurveyConsumerAffairs
The State of Online ReviewsWiserReview
Online Review Statistics