Review Requests

Understand email request settings, the request funnel, workflow recipe, email previews, and the customer's order review link.

Screen: Settings → Moderation → Review requests, or Moderation → Reviews → Review requests, in classic (v1) and new (v2) admin. These features require moderation.review_requests; customer notification emails require moderation.customer_emails.

Configure the plain request setting

Under Notifications, Merchant email digest has Instant, Daily digest, and Off; Email recipients (one per line) supplies recipients. Send customer email notifications is separately gated. These controls do not confirm an active sending service.

Use the workflow recipe

The new admin provides extensions → Workflows → Ask for a review after delivery → Use template. The classic sidebar's Extensions → Workflows screen can list saved workflows, but does not have this static recipe gallery. The direct admin path is /workflows.

This recipe uses an ORDER_DELIVERED trigger and the same request scheduler as the plain setting. Both paths share one request per order; the first schedule wins, so enabling both does not create two initial request emails. A later timing change does not rewrite an already-created schedule. An active recipe can request scheduling independently of the plain setting, but still requires the request entitlement.

The plain scheduler also checks fulfilled pickup orders and completed appointments linked to an order. Cancelled, returned, refunded, unfulfilled, or product-less orders do not provide an eligible request. Products already reviewed by that customer are excluded; orders with nothing left to review are completed or skipped instead of sending an empty request.

Scheduled requests are picked up by the background sender, which checks for due work when it starts and every minute while enabled. The scheduled time makes a request due; it is not an exact inbox-arrival promise. Moderation → Reviews → Review requests → View funnel and queue → Refresh (or Retry after a load error) reloads the queue/statistics without sending or rescheduling email.

Read the funnel and queue

Go to Moderation → Reviews → Review requests → View funnel and queue. Hide funnel and queue collapses it. A plan lock shows the upgrade path without fetching request data.

If the card shows an error or a plan lock on an eligible paid tier, see troubleshooting. Retry retries a failed load; it does not change entitlement access. A failed load is not a zero-delivery result. A Sent count records successful sending-service acceptance, not inbox delivery. Open rate is opened requests divided by sent requests; review conversion is opened requests with a request review divided by opened requests. A missing denominator shows a dash.

The displayed PDP views count records Write a review clicks, starts records Share your photo clicks, and submissions records successful product-form or email-link review submissions. They are distinct actions, not page impressions or three guaranteed stages of one shopper journey. Repeated identical actions for one device/product on the same day are counted once. Tracking runs silently and never blocks the shopper's review/photo action; a failed event is not shown as a customer error. A card showing an error or plan lock does not prove that tracking succeeded or failed.

The Sent / scheduled column distinguishes the initial send from its due time. Sent: local time uses the recorded initial-send time for sent, reminded, completed, or unsubscribed requests, and any row with a recorded send time. Other rows use Scheduled: local time. A sent row with a missing or invalid send time shows Sent: —; it does not substitute a reminder schedule or invent a delivery time. These times use your browser's local timezone, not a separate store-timezone control. If a time appears shifted, refresh and compare it in the same browser timezone; ask support to check the recorded timestamp if it still differs. Do not manually add a timezone offset. Refresh, Request status, and paging reload the returned data without editing dates.

The underlying initial schedule is retained for new sends and retries; requests send no earlier than it. A reminder becomes eligible after the initial send plus its saved delay, with the other eligibility/expiry rules still applied. A transient send failure waits at least one minute before another attempt without changing that schedule. Older records can retain a schedule overwritten by earlier reminder behaviour; the queue uses the actual sent timestamp instead and does not repair historical records. If the date seems wrong, check the row's Sent/Scheduled label, refresh, and ask support about a missing actual-send timestamp rather than treating a reminder date as delivery proof.

Preview the moderation emails

Classic: Settings → Templates & Documents → Email & SMS Templates. The classic sidebar has no direct Templates entry; you can also open /templates. New admin: storefront → Templates → email & sms. In Orders, the gallery includes Review request, Review request reminder, Review replied, Question answered, and Customer photo approved.

Use Preview to compile the starter email with sample customer/product details; Edit opens the email builder. An upgrade prompt can block a locked template. Request previews include Write a review and Unsubscribe from review requests; reply/answer/photo previews include View product.

A starter preview is not your delivered email, and sample links are not real review tokens. Edit lets you change a template in the visual builder, whose edits autosave as a local draft. Its save acknowledgement does not publish that draft into live email sending.

The sending service uses five seeded templates with the corresponding keys: Review request (review_request), Review request reminder (review_request_reminder), Review replied (review_replied), Question answered (question_answered), and Customer photo approved (ugc_photo_approved). Existing saved templates with the same key/language are preserved when starter templates are seeded. This screen does not currently activate your local builder draft as the live seeded template.

With Send customer email notifications enabled and its paid entitlement active, reply mail requires a public, visible, non-imported review with reply text; question mail requires a published question and answer plus the shopper's notification address, and is sent for the first qualifying answer. Photo mail requires an approved, visible photo and active product; review-derived photos also require a public linked review. Missing addresses, removed products, hidden content, and email opt-outs prevent sending. This setting is separate from merchant bell notifications and merchant email digests.

Follow the customer's review link

A request email's Write a review link opens /review/:token without login. The form is tied to that order, so treat the link as private: forwarding it lets its recipient attempt to review those products. The live request link expires 30 days after the initial send; a reminder uses the same expiry and does not extend it.

Stop review reminders unsubscribes that request when the service succeeds, producing You’re unsubscribed. The request email's Unsubscribe from this review request link opens the order form; the shopper still uses Stop review reminders to confirm the opt-out. An invalid, expired, or unresolved token shows This review link is unavailable and asks the shopper to request a new link. A request that is completed or unsubscribed cannot accept another review. A completed link shows Thank you for sharing and You’ve reviewed every eligible product in this order. If another tab completes the order while this form is open, submitting the stale form shows that same completed view. It does not offer a duplicate retry form; for other submission failures, follow the displayed error and retry guidance.

Each moderation email also includes Stop moderation email updates. To stop these emails:

1. Open that link in the received email. The confirmation page is headed Stop moderation email updates; merely opening it does not opt out.
2. Select Unsubscribe. A successful confirmation shows You are unsubscribed and You will no longer receive moderation email updates from this store.
3. Confirming suppresses future moderation emails and review requests to that address for this store. It is separate from Stop review reminders for one order, and does not opt the address out of other stores. Repeating confirmation with a valid link leaves it unsubscribed.

If the confirmation link is invalid, expired, or belongs to another store, it is refused. Use the link from a recent email from the intended store and ask support if it still fails. An error or simply opening the page is not confirmation that the opt-out succeeded.

Why does a review link in email open the wrong site?

Review-request Write a review links and review-reply, question-answer, and approved-photo View product links use the store's saved storefront address. A verified/active custom domain takes priority; otherwise the resolver uses the saved storefront/branding address or assigned store domain. A media-image link can use the API gateway while the customer-facing product link uses the storefront.

Open Online Store → Domains in classic admin or storefront → Domains in new admin (see Domains) and check the store's Store URL, Custom domain, and connection status. Confirm the intended custom domain shows DNS Verified or Active and that the saved store/branding address belongs to this store. Compare the address in the received email with those saved settings; a starter preview is not a sent-link check. Reload the settings after a save and ask support if a newly generated link still uses the wrong host. An already-delivered email contains its original URL; changing settings does not rewrite that message. If the store has no usable address, the fallback configuration can be used or sending can fail, so ask support to check domain/branding configuration rather than changing the customer's review form.

Why didn't a customer get the review-request email?

• Check the saved enabled request setting or an active request workflow, plus the paid request entitlement. A draft or greyed value does not schedule a send.
• Check fulfillment and the delay. No eligible products remain when all have already been reviewed; a cancelled/returned/refunded purchase cannot be reviewed.
• If a request remains Scheduled beyond its due time, refresh the queue and ask support to check the background sender. Refresh/Retry do not run the sending job; recreating a workflow or changing delay does not replace the order's first schedule.
• The recipient needs a valid customer or guest-order email address. A missing or invalid address is skipped.
• Unsubscribed can mean the customer stopped that request or opted out of moderation emails for this store. Do not restart their opt-out by making another workflow.
• A reminder is sent at most once, only if Send one reminder was selected, the delay has elapsed, the initial request was sent, products remain unreviewed, and its 30-day link has not expired. No reminder is due after completion or unsubscribe.
• The sender retries transient failures up to five attempts; an exhausted send becomes Skipped. Delivery requires the store's sending service and valid storefront links. Ask support to inspect send failures if timing, eligibility, and recipient details are correct.
• If the card shows a plan lock on STARTER, GROWTH, PRO, or MAX, ask support to check entitlement access. If it shows a load error, use Retry and ask support if the error persists. Neither result proves delivery failure. Successful send acceptance also cannot guarantee an inbox rather than spam/junk.

Why don't customers receive or complete a request?

• A saved workflow or starter preview is not evidence that the scheduled email was sent.
• Check the request entitlement and effective enabled setting, rather than greyed saved values.
• A failed request queue load gives no evidence of send counts.
• A customer moderation email is separately gated and requires eligible public content, a usable address, and no store email opt-out.
• A token form needs a valid order-scoped link and supported token upload/submission services.
• An unavailable link cannot be repaired by changing the customer form; ask for a new supported link.
• A submitted review still follows the store's approval policy; it is not necessarily public immediately.