Customer reviews help shoppers make informed decisions. To keep reviews trustworthy, only valid reviews based on real customer experiences should be published.
What is a valid review?
A valid review is a review that:
- is written by a real customer;
- is based on the customer’s own experience with the product;
- describes a product that the customer actually purchased or used;
- accurately represents the reviewer’s experience and opinion.
Both positive and negative reviews can be valid as long as they reflect a real customer experience.
What is a fake review?
A fake review is a review that does not represent a real customer’s experience. This includes:
- Fabricated or AI-generated reviews — reviews created by someone who did not purchase or use the product, including reviews generated by AI and presented as a customer’s own experience.
- Purchased or incentivized reviews — reviews that do not reflect a genuine customer experience. Offering a discount or other incentive for an honest review is not inherently prohibited, provided the purchase and experience are genuine and the incentive is not conditional on a positive review.
- Undisclosed insider reviews — reviews written by employees, owners, managers, agents, or their relatives without disclosing their relationship with the business.
- Misleading or copied reviews — reviews that describe a different product or an experience the reviewer did not actually have.
Fake reviews may violate consumer protection and advertising laws. In some countries, including the United States, publishing or commissioning certain types of fake reviews is prohibited and may result in civil penalties. Store owners are responsible for complying with the laws applicable to their business.
Why does review import require confirmation?
Reviews imported from a file or another platform usually carry no order link. Searchanise has no way to check who wrote them or whether they are real. For this reason, the app asks you to confirm that the imported reviews are genuine before you import them without order references.
The store owner is responsible for ensuring that reviews are valid and legally compliant before publishing them.
Before importing reviews
Make sure that:
- The reviewer is a real customer.
- The reviewer actually purchased or used the product.
- The review describes the correct product.
- The review reflects the customer’s real experience.
- Any material relationship between the reviewer and the business is properly disclosed.
- The review has not been fabricated, purchased, or created to falsely represent a customer experience.
If you cannot verify that an imported review is valid, we recommend not publishing it as a customer review. For more information about moderating customer reviews, read this article.
