Questions & Answers
Answer product questions, moderate customer answers, and understand the question form and helpful votes shoppers use.
Screen: Moderation → Questions in the classic (v1) and new (v2) admin. Q&A is available on free plans. Use Moderation settings for Question approval, Allow customer answers, and Customer answer approval; advanced approval selectors require moderation.rules.
Find and answer questions
Open the Questions tab
The Status filter starts at Pending. Choose All, Pending, Published, or Rejected. Sort questions offers Newest, Oldest, Most upvoted, and Unanswered; Upvotes shows each question's count.
Search for a question
Enter Search questions and, optionally, Product ID, then choose Search. These fields do not apply until you submit the search.
The customer cell shows a returned name or email, Customer for an identified customer without those details, or Guest without customer identity. Upvotes remains the vote count; question metadata still includes the answer count. Customer is a fallback label, not an answer count. If a name seems missing, reload and ask support to check the supplied profile details rather than expecting an internal customer ID to appear.
Write and publish an answer
For a pending question, enter text in Type a helpful answer, up to 5,000 characters. Publish answer remains disabled while the row is busy or the answer is empty. It saves your answer and publishes the question. Reject keeps the question off the storefront.
Check the refreshed queue
The queue and sidebar counts refresh after a decision. A published question leaves the Pending filter. Page controls and the page-size selector move through results; Retry reloads a failed queue.
Published rows show answer text, Merchant answer or Customer answer, and status. Moderation complete is a status message when there is no displayed answer; it is not a button for creating one.
Question and answer text is plain text: special characters stay readable, and literal markup such as <b>Helpful</b> does not apply formatting. After Publish answer or Save answer, reload the published row and check the product page. If an older answer shows encoded characters, ask support to inspect the saved text; saving a different answer does not repair other historical answers.
Edit or unpublish an answer
As an owner/admin, open Moderation → Questions → Status → Published. Find the Customer answer or Merchant answer, then choose Edit answer; both published answer types support editing in this main queue. The dialog's Answer accepts up to 5,000 characters; Save answer is disabled for empty or unchanged text and while saving. Cancel discards the draft.
Unpublish answer opens a confirmation. Confirming returns it to pending moderation and removes it from the storefront; Cancel keeps it published. A failed update keeps an error and a retryable action. Reload before deciding again if the answer may already have been saved.
Moderate Customer answers
Open the separate queue
Select Customer answers. Answer status offers Pending, Approved, and Rejected; the queue is separate from question status.
Decide on an answer
Approve answer publishes an eligible answer; Reject answer keeps a customer answer off the storefront. Published answers also offer Edit answer and Unpublish answer. Decision controls are disabled without owner/admin access or while busy.
Check public visibility
A question and its answer must both be public for customers to see the answer. Previous and Next move through the answer queue; Retry reloads a failed request. An empty queue is shown separately from a load failure.
The sidebar Questions badge combines pending questions and pending customer answers. Unpublished merchant-answer drafts do not add to the customer-answer count. To reconcile the badge, open Questions → Status → Pending, then Customer answers → Answer status → Pending. It can be omitted for zero counts or a failed count request; open both queues before concluding nothing needs attention.
Turn on product-page Questions & answers
Open the product-page controls
In the v3 Store Editor, open Product Detail, select the Reviews region, then choose Content in the inspector. Expand the Reviews group.
Enable the Q&A block
Turn on Questions & answers. Searching the inspector for question also finds this switch; matching groups expand during search. A control labelled Not supported by this template cannot be changed for that template.
Save and publish
Use Save in the top bar when changes are unsaved, then Publish to make the configuration live. Check the published product page as well as the editor preview. Turning the switch off removes the configured Q&A block; it does not change question/answer approval settings.
If Q&A is still missing, clear inspector search/changed-only filters, check template support and the saved/published configuration, and verify public question/answer data in Moderation → Questions. A disabled control or an editor preview alone does not establish the published result; ask support if the saved configuration and published page disagree. Use Moderation settings to configure contributions and approval separately.
Ask and answer product questions
On a product page, signed-in shoppers use Ask a question. Guests can use it when public question data already exists; without that data the entry point is Sign in to ask a question. The question form itself supports guest submissions.
Complete the question form
The dialog is titled Ask about product name. Enter Your question, up to 2,000 characters. Your name (optional) identifies the asker. The form permits 120 characters, but the current submission service accepts only 100; keep the name within 100 characters. Email me when it’s answered (optional) collects a notification address; leaving it blank shows Add your email to get notified.
Submit the question
Choose Submit question; Cancel closes the dialog. Empty question text cannot be submitted successfully. A failed request stays in the dialog so the shopper can retry.
Read published answers
Select a question to expand its answers. The product page displays published answers labelled Store or Customer, or No answer yet. Helpful with a count saves/removes an upvote on a question or supported published answer. Failed votes show Your vote could not be saved. Try again.
Contribute an answer
When signed in and the store permits customer answers, use Your answer → Submit answer. Guests can see Sign in to answer when contributions are enabled. A pending submission shows Thank you. Your answer was submitted. without publishing it immediately. An approved response can appear immediately. A failure remains retryable.
Send an answer notification
Leaving Email me when it’s answered (optional) blank keeps Add your email to get notified visible and does not subscribe the shopper. A supplied address can receive the first qualifying published answer when Send customer email notifications is saved on and moderation.customer_emails is active. The question and answer must both be published and the product active. No mail is sent after a store moderation-email opt-out, and later answers do not trigger another first-answer email. A preview or answer acknowledgement does not confirm inbox delivery.
Why don't customers see a question or answer?
- Check the question's Published status and the answer's public status separately.
- A rejected or unpublished answer stays off the product page. After Unpublish answer, check Customer answers → Answer status → Pending for a customer answer; merchant drafts do not inflate that customer queue count. If editing or unpublishing fails, use the displayed retry action or refresh before deciding again.
- The customer composer requires sign-in and an enabled effective Allow customer answers capability. If that capability cannot load, the composer stays hidden.
- A pending answer acknowledgement is not a publication confirmation.
- A guest who leaves the notification address blank cannot receive an answer email.
- For missing answer mail, check the saved notification setting, paid entitlement, public question/answer, active product, and the customer's email opt-out. A previously notified question does not send another first-answer notification.
- If the admin queue failed to load, use Retry rather than interpreting the empty area as no submissions.