Reviews

Reviews written on the storefront are ordinary WooCommerce product reviews. The Companion plugin adds what a modern review section needs on top: photo and video attachments, threaded replies, “helpful” votes and shopper reports. You moderate all of it where you already work, under Products → Reviews, and approving, unapproving, spamming and trashing still use WooCommerce’s own buttons.

Before you start

• Check WooCommerce’s review settings under WooCommerce → Settings → Products. The storefront respects both:
  • Enable product reviews: when off, the storefront refuses new reviews and uploads (“Reviews are disabled for this store.”).
  • Reviews can only be left by “verified owners”: when on, shoppers who have not bought the product are refused (“Only verified buyers can review this product.”).
• To use the Turnstile check on reviews, set up Turnstile first. See Sign-in and security.

How storefront reviews arrive

• Every review posted on the storefront starts as Pending. The shopper sees “Thanks! Your review has been submitted and is awaiting approval.” Nothing goes live until you approve it.
• Shopper replies to a review, or to another reply, are held for moderation too. Replies never count towards the product’s star rating. Threads are two levels deep.
• Your replies from wp-admin are shown with a Seller mark on the storefront. Any reply written by a user who can manage the shop (administrators and shop managers) gets the mark.
• Shoppers can sort reviews by most recent, highest, lowest or most helpful, and filter by star rating or by “with photos” and “with video”.

Approve or reject reviews

Products›Reviews

1. Go to Products → Reviews and click Pending to see what is waiting.
2. Read each review. The Media column shows any photos and videos attached.
3. Hover a row and click Approve, Spam or Trash, or tick several rows and use Bulk actions.
4. To look more closely, click Edit on a review. The Review media & reports box shows each attached file at a larger size, plus any reports.

Approved reviews appear on the storefront within a few minutes.

Reply as the store

1. In Products → Reviews (or Comments), hover the review and click Reply.
2. Type your answer and click Approve and Reply (or Reply if the review is already approved).

Your reply shows under the review on the storefront with the Seller mark, so shoppers can tell it came from you.

Columns and views added to Products → Reviews

The plugin adds three columns right after the Review column:

Column	What it shows
Media	A thumbnail for each photo (click to open the file in a new tab), and a film icon with the clip length for each video. “—” when there are none. Always blank for replies.
Helpful	How many shoppers marked the review helpful. Click the heading to sort.
Reports	A red badge with the number of shopper reports. Hover it to see the last five reasons. Click the heading to sort.

A Reported (N) view is added beside All, Pending, Approved, Spam and Trash. It lists every review and reply with at least one report, in any status, so you can work through flagged content in one place.

Handle reported reviews

Shoppers can report a review or a reply privately, with a reason (such as spam, offensive or off-topic). One shopper counts once, however often they press Report; a repeat replaces their reason.

1. Click the Reported (N) view in Products → Reviews.
2. Hover the red badge in the Reports column to see the reasons, or click Edit to see them all.
3. Decide what to do:
   • If the review breaks your rules, Unapprove, Spam or Trash it.
   • If only one photo or video is the problem, remove that file (see below) and keep the review.
   • If the review is fine, click Clear reports in the Review media & reports box.

The Review media & reports box

Products›Reviews›Edit

On a review’s Edit Comment screen, the Review media & reports box has two parts:

• Attached media: each file as a tile (a photo thumbnail, or a video icon with its length). Each tile has a Remove link. Removing a file deletes it permanently from the Media Library and keeps the review text. The browser asks you to confirm first. With no files it reads “This review has no photos or video.”
• Reports: “Reported by N shopper(s).” with a list of the reasons given (each up to 200 characters), and a Clear reports button that deletes the count, the reasons and the list of reporters. With no reports it reads “No shopper has reported this.”

After an action you see “The file was removed from the review.” or “The reports were cleared.” Only users who can moderate comments can remove files or clear reports.

Caution

Deleting a review permanently may leave its photos and videos behind in the Media Library. Before you delete a review that has media, open it, remove each file with Remove in the Review media & reports box, and then delete the review.

Review settings

StoreFront›Settings›Product page

Three cards on the Product page tab control reviews. Press Save Changes after editing them.

Review photos & video

Lets shoppers attach photos (JPG, PNG, WebP) and short clips (MP4, MOV, WebM) to their reviews. The fields are hidden while the card is switched off.

Setting	What it does	Default
Card toggle	Lets shoppers attach media to a review.	On
Files per review	The most photos and videos one review can carry (1 to 10).	6
Largest photo (MB)	The largest photo allowed (1 to 10).	10
Largest video (MB)	The largest video allowed (1 to 500).	50

Size limits are also capped by your server’s own upload limit: the storefront is never offered more than WordPress can accept. HEIC photos are not accepted.

How uploads work:

• Files are uploaded while the shopper writes the review, then attached when they submit it.
• Files are stored in the Media Library, attached to the product.
• Uploads that nobody submits are deleted automatically after a day.
• A file on a review still awaiting approval is not listed anywhere on the storefront, but, like any file in the Media Library, it can be opened by someone who has its exact address.

Review moderation

Setting	What it does	Default
Hold after this many reports	When an approved review or reply reaches this many shopper reports, it goes back to Pending until you look at it. 0 means never. One shopper counts once, however often they report. Up to 100.	0 (never)

Require Cloudflare Turnstile

Setting	What it does	Default
Require Cloudflare Turnstile	Asks shoppers to pass the Turnstile check before a review is posted, and guests before a reply is posted.	On

The switch only takes effect while Turnstile is set up and switched on for the whole store. Until then the card shows “Turnstile is off for the whole store, so this form is not checked yet.”

Tip

On a busy store, set Hold after this many reports to a small number. A review that several shoppers flag is then hidden automatically until you have checked it, even overnight.

Helpful votes

Shoppers can mark an approved review or reply as helpful. It is a toggle: pressing it again removes the vote. A signed-in shopper counts once per account and a guest once per network address. The count appears in the Helpful column, and shoppers can sort reviews by “Most helpful”.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
A new review is not on the storefront	Storefront reviews always start as Pending.	Approve it under Products → Reviews.
Shoppers see “Reviews are disabled for this store.”	Enable product reviews is off in WooCommerce.	Switch it on under WooCommerce → Settings → Products.
Shoppers see “Only verified buyers can review this product.”	The verified-owners rule is on.	Expected; switch it off if anyone should be able to review.
Shoppers see “Photos and videos can’t be added to reviews right now.”	The Review photos & video card is off.	Switch it on and save.
Uploads are rejected as too large below your limit	Your server’s upload limit is lower than the setting.	Ask your host to raise PHP’s upload limit, or lower the setting to match.
No Turnstile check appears on the review form	Turnstile is not set up store-wide, or this card’s switch is off.	Set up Turnstile under Authentication → Turnstile.

Next steps

Reviews featureWhat shoppers see: summary, filters, media and threads.

Sign-in and securitySet up Cloudflare Turnstile for the whole store.

Shop and product pagesThe rest of the Product page tab.

Customers and engagementWishlist, compare, stock alerts and newsletter.