How to Add Reviews to WordPress eCommerce Sites

Most online shoppers trust customer reviews just as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. In the world of eCommerce, that kind of trust is pure gold. But figuring out the best way to add reviews to WordPress without bloating your site can feel like a challenge.

You need a solution that’s clean, reliable, and seamlessly integrated with your store. That’s where Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) comes in.

With the built-in Reviews feature, you can add a powerful, trustworthy review system directly into the eCommerce engine you already know and love. It’s the simplest, most effective way to leverage social proof for your digital products.

In this guide, I’ll show you why reviews are a non-negotiable asset for your online business and walk you through the exact steps to enable, manage, and display them using Easy Digital Downloads.

Why Add Reviews to WordPress?

Before diving into the setup process, let’s talk about why product reviews are so important for your digital product business. Understanding the benefits will help you make the most of EDD’s review features.

Build Customer Trust and Leverage Social Proof ⭐️

Reviews act as digital word-of-mouth recommendations from real customers. When potential buyers see that others have purchased and enjoyed your products, it removes much of the uncertainty around buying from you.

Think of reviews as having satisfied customers vouch for you 24/7. They provide unbiased endorsements that carry more weight than any marketing copy you could write yourself.

Increase Conversion Rates and Drive More Sales 🛍

Trust directly translates to sales. When customers feel confident about their purchase decision, they’re much more likely to complete the transaction.

Products with positive reviews consistently outperform those without reviews. The social proof element removes buyer hesitation and creates urgency when customers see others are already enjoying your products.

Boost Your SEO with User-Generated Content 🚀

Search engines love fresh, relevant content, and customer reviews provide exactly that. Each review adds new keywords and phrases that potential customers might search for.

Reviews also increase the time visitors spend on your product pages, which signals to search engines that your content is valuable. This can help improve your search rankings over time.

Gain Invaluable Feedback for Product Improvement 💬

Reviews give you direct insight into what customers love about your products and where you can improve. This feedback is often more honest and detailed than what you’d get from surveys or direct outreach.

Even negative reviews can be goldmines of information, pointing out issues you might not have noticed and giving you opportunities to turn unhappy customers into loyal advocates.

How to Add Reviews to WordPress with EDD

Now let’s go through the best and easiest way to collect and add reviews to WordPress using Easy Digital Downloads.

The Reviews extension transforms your EDD store into a complete review management system without adding bloat or complexity to your site.

Here’s why EDD’s integrated approach beats third-party review plugins every time:

• Native Integration: The Reviews extension was built specifically for EDD, so it understands your products, customers, and purchase data.
• Verified Purchase System: You can restrict reviews to only customers who actually bought your products, ensuring authentic feedback and reducing spam.
• Centralized Management: Everything happens within your familiar WordPress dashboard. No need to learn new interfaces or manage separate accounts.
• Automatic Display: Reviews appear automatically on your product pages without requiring shortcodes or manual placement.

Below, I’ll take you through each step so you can start collecting customer feedback right away.

If you already have EDD Pro (Extended or higher) installed and activated on your site, feel free to skip to Step 2.

Step 1. Get Easy Digital Downloads Pro

Easy Digital Downloads is the #1 WordPress eCommerce plugin for selling digital products.

The Lite version comes packed with powerful features for building and managing your online store. But once you’re up and running, you’ll likely want to take your eCommerce business to the next level with a Pro pass.

This gives you access to an expansive suite of premium tools and features to enhance your store and maximize conversions.

Our intuitive Reviews system is available to Extended Pass holders and above. If you currently have the Lite version or a Personal Pass, you’ll need to upgrade to Pro.

Once you have the right pass level, you can install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads (Pro) plugin on your WordPress site.

For guidance, refer to our Quickstart Guide or follow the video tutorial below.

Step 2. Install the Reviews Add-On

Once you have EDD activated, the process to add Reviews to WordPress is incredibly straightforward.

From your WordPress admin area, go to Downloads » Extensions.

Look for the Reviews extension in your available extensions list and click Install.

The addon activates automatically.

Step 3. Configure Your Review Settings

The magic happens in the settings area. Navigate to Downloads » Settings » Marketing » Reviews to configure how reviews work on your site.

Enable Review Breakdown shows visitors how many people voted for each star rating. This gives context to your overall rating – a 5-star average from 100 reviews means more than the same rating from just 2 reviews.

Disable Multiple Reviews by Same Author prevents individual customers from leaving multiple reviews for the same product. This keeps your ratings authentic and prevents rating manipulation.

You can set the order to display reviews, disable multiple reviews by the same author, and disable voting on reviews.

Further down on the settings page, you’ll find options to set Minimum Word Count and Maximum Word Count. This can be useful for encouraging thoughtful reviews without letting them become too lengthy.

You can enable guest reviews and disable the default EDD Reviews styling.

Don’t forget to click on Save Changes when you’re done.

Per-Product Review Options

EDD gives you granular control over which products can receive reviews. When editing any download, you’ll find review settings in the product options.

You can enable or disable reviews for individual products, which is useful if you have some products that don’t need reviews (like free downloads or bonus materials).

The product-level settings override your global settings, so you can have different review policies for different types of products in your store.

⚙️ Learn more about the Reviews settings.

Step 4. Collect & Add Reviews to WordPress

When you’re done configuring the various settings, you’re ready to start collecting and displaying reviews on your WordPress site!

When you’re ready, visit your store from the front-end of your site to preview and test the review form on a product page.

Once you start getting feedback from customers, you’ll have several options for displaying product reviews on your site.

The Reviews extension includes three helpful widgets:

• Featured Review: To highlight specific reviews
• EDD Reviews: To show recent reviews
• EDD Per Product Reviews: For single product pages

You can find these under Appearance » Widgets.

If there are specific reviews you want to embed on a page or post, you can use the reviews shortcode or Reviews block.

Choose the specific product and review from the drop-down menus, then select Insert Review.

Reviews automatically inherit your theme’s styling for comments. But you can customize the appearance with CSS or by modifying the review templates in your theme.

Step 5. Manage & Moderate Customer Reviews

Once customers start leaving reviews, you’ll manage them from Downloads » Reviews in your WordPress admin.

This dashboard gives you a snapshot of your reviews, including the reviewer’s name and email, review content, and date.

It works similarly to WordPress’s comment system, but with features specific to product reviews. You can approve reviews before they appear publicly, reply to reviews to engage with customers, edit reviews if needed, and delete spam or inappropriate reviews.

The moderation queue protects you from spam while still allowing legitimate reviews to appear quickly. I recommend approving most reviews unless they’re clearly spam or violate your community guidelines.

You can also manage all the reviews for individual products on the specific download product page. Beneath the editor and Download Details, locate the Reviews section.

Here, you can view, unapprove, edit, spam, and trash any review.

Tips for Getting More Customer Reviews

Setting up the review system is just the beginning. Here are three strategies I’ve found effective for encouraging more customers to leave reviews.

1. Send Follow-up Emails

EDD’s email system lets you automatically request reviews after purchases. Go to Downloads » Emails.

Locate and click on the Request a Review email template. Then enable it and select when to send the review request, such as hours or days after the purchase is made.

Timing matters – send too soon and customers haven’t had time to use your product, but wait too long and they might forget about their purchase. I’ve found 3-7 days works well for most digital products.

⚙️ Learn more about EDD automated emails.

2. Offer Incentives

A small discount on their next purchase gives customers a concrete reason to take time to write a review.

Easy Digital Downloads makes this easy. In addition to the built-in discount and coupon code system (Downloads » Discounts), you can also use the pre-made Reviewer Discount email template (Downloads » Emails).

Make sure to mention this incentive in your follow-up emails and on your product pages. Something like “Leave a review and get 15% off your next purchase” can dramatically increase review submissions.

3. Engage With Your Reviewers

Always respond to reviews, both positive and negative. Thank customers for positive feedback and address any concerns raised in negative reviews professionally.

This engagement shows potential customers that you’re actively involved with your community and care about customer satisfaction. It also encourages more people to leave reviews because they see you actually read and respond to them.

FAQs on Adding Reviews to WordPress

Let’s wrap up by answering some common questions surrounding how to add reviews to WordPress sites and the best strategies for doing so.

Easily Add Reviews to WordPress Today

Easy Digital Downloads makes adding reviews to WordPress simple and effective with its integrated Reviews extension. You get verified customer reviews, automated email requests, and complete management control all within your existing WordPress dashboard.

Ready to start building trust and boosting sales with customer reviews? If you have an Extended Pass or higher, log into your WordPress site now and activate the Reviews extension. You could be collecting your first reviews within the hour.

Don’t have an EDD Pass yet? Grab one today to unlock Reviews and dozens of other powerful features to help grow your digital product business!

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