Which Reviews Should You Approve or Reject? A Moderation Policy

Approve every review that is a genuine customer's account of the product, whatever its star rating. Reject only spam, abuse, personal data, off-topic content and reviews left on the wrong product. Write those rules down as a short policy, so the decision does not depend on who is moderating that day or how the review made them feel. This guide sets out what belongs in the policy, how to handle the awkward cases, and what records to keep, and ends with a template you can adapt.

Why write a moderation policy at all?

Because moderation without written rules drifts towards removing what stings. Nobody sets out to hide negative reviews. It happens one reasonable-sounding decision at a time: this one is unfair, that one is really about the courier, this customer was difficult. A written policy gives the moderator a test that has nothing to do with the rating.

It also gives you something to show. Suppressing negative reviews is now unlawful in several markets, as the guide to verified product reviews on Shopify sets out, and a policy with a rejection log is the simplest evidence that your store does not do it. Check the rules for the markets you sell in.

Which reviews should you reject?

Reject a review for what it contains, never for what it concludes. Five grounds cover nearly everything:

• Spam. Links, promotions, text pasted across many products, gibberish.
• Abuse. Threats, hate speech, insults aimed at staff or other customers. Blunt criticism of the product is not abuse.
• Personal data. Phone numbers, addresses, emails, order numbers, or the full name of a staff member or another person.
• Off-topic content. Text that says nothing about the product or the experience of buying it.
• Wrong product. A review that clearly describes a different item from the one it was left on.

For each rejection the moderator should be able to name one of the five. If none fits, the review is published.

Which reviews should you never reject?

Anything that is a real customer's real opinion. In practice that means you publish:

• one-, two- and three-star reviews;
• reviews you believe are unfair or mistaken, with a reply giving your side;
• short reviews with little detail;
• complaints about delivery, packaging or service. They describe the experience of buying from you, and the next shopper has a right to that as well.

The public reply is the right place to correct a mistake or explain what happened. There is a separate guide on how to respond to negative reviews.

What about the awkward cases?

Decide them in advance, because they are where a policy is tested.

• A genuine review that includes personal data. Do not rewrite it yourself. Ask the customer to resubmit without the detail, and keep the original on file.
• A review on the wrong product. Ask the customer to post it on the right one. Do not delete it and leave it at that.
• A review that mentions a safety problem. Publish it, reply, and pass it to whoever is responsible for the product the same day.
• A review from a customer who has since been refunded. Publish it. The refund does not undo the experience.
• A review you cannot tie to an order. It can still be published if it meets the policy, but it should not carry a verified label. The guide on what a verified purchase badge means explains the distinction.

Do not edit the wording of a review, not even to tidy it. Once the store has changed the words, it is no longer the customer's review.

Should you approve first or auto-publish?

Approve first while volume is low; move to auto-publish with moderation by exception once the flow is steady and you trust it.

Approve-first has one risk: the queue. If five-star reviews are approved the same day and one-star reviews wait a fortnight while someone works out what to do, the result is suppression by delay. Set a time limit that applies to every review regardless of rating. Two working days is a workable rule of thumb.

Auto-publish removes that risk and adds another: spam or personal data may be live for a while before anyone sees it. If you auto-publish, check new reviews daily.

Marka Reviews supports both: every review waits for your approval before it appears on the store, or you switch on auto-publish and moderate by exception.

What records should you keep?

Keep a log of every rejection. It needs four things: the date, the original text, which of the five grounds applied, and who decided.

The log has two uses. When a customer asks why their review did not appear, you can answer with the reason. And once a quarter you can read it for patterns. If rejected reviews are mostly low-star, the policy is not being followed, however good each individual reason sounded.

A short policy template

Adapt the wording and publish it where shoppers can find it, such as on your reviews or help page.

We publish all reviews from customers, positive and negative, that describe the product or the experience of buying it. We do not edit reviews.

We reject a review only if it is spam, is abusive, contains personal data, is unrelated to the product or purchase, or was left on the wrong product. When we reject a review for personal data or wrong product, we invite the customer to resubmit it.

Every review is checked within two working days, whatever its rating. Reviews marked as verified are those we have matched to an order. We keep a record of each review we reject and the reason.

The wider obligations are covered in fake review rules for Shopify merchants.

A short checklist

1. Write down the five grounds for rejection and nothing else.
2. State plainly that negative reviews are published.
3. Set one time limit for moderation that applies to every rating.
4. Decide the awkward cases before they come up.
5. Log each rejection with date, text, ground and moderator.
6. Read the log every quarter for a skew towards low ratings.
7. Publish the policy on the store.

A policy needs a tool that makes it easy to follow. Marka Reviews holds each review for approval or publishes automatically, as you choose, and marks a review verified only when it matches an order.