Do visitors see the reviews on your Shopify product pages

Store Decode counts how many of your Shopify product page sessions had the reviews block on screen. It shows the number as Saw the reviews, for phones and computers apart, on the Product pages view of Explore. Beside it, a table sets the added to cart rate of sessions that saw the reviews against sessions that did not, and says plainly that this does not show the reviews were the reason.

Type it in Find

• How many product page sessions saw the reviews?
• Do visitors see the reviews?
• Do sessions that saw the reviews add to cart more?

Type it in Find on Home or Explore and Store Decode opens the view with your numbers.

Where to find it

1. Open Explore and pick Product pages.
2. Choose Mobile or Desktop in the card header. Reviews often sit lower on a phone, so the two devices rarely match.
3. Read the Saw the reviews tile beside Product page sessions, Added to cart and Changed a variant.
4. Scroll to the behaviour table. The Saw the reviews row has its Share of sessions, then Added to cart: did it vs didn’t as two dots on one scale, then the Difference in points.

Every tile and row covers the device and window you chose. A session is one visit, so a visitor who opens five product pages in one visit counts once.

What the numbers mean

Saw the reviews is the share of product page sessions in which the reviews block came into view. Store Decode finds the block from your theme’s markup, by names such as “review” and those of common review apps. It does not read the reviews or the stars.

The table compares two groups of the same product page sessions: those that saw the reviews and those that did not. For each group it prints how often the session added to cart. The app prints this caveat under the table, word for word:

“Added to cart” compares product-page sessions that did the behaviour with those that didn’t, same period and device. This describes who added to cart; it doesn’t show that the behaviour caused it. Visitors who already intend to buy do more of everything.

The caveat matters here more than anywhere. A visitor who scrolls down to read reviews is often a visitor already deciding to buy, so the group that saw them adds to cart more for that reason alone.

The table holds back until the numbers can bear it:

• Percentages and the comparison need 300 product page sessions in the window. Below that you see counts.
• Each side of the comparison needs 30 sessions, or the cell reads “Too few to compare”.
• Days summarised before the comparison existed show a dash, with a note saying so.

The row can also carry a signal, a plain-words label from its own numbers. Working well means sessions that saw the reviews added to cart at least 3 points more often, and at least 20% of sessions saw them. Worth a look is the same gap with under 20% seeing them. Rarely used means under 2% of sessions saw the block, on a store that has one. The glossary lists every signal.

In the sample store

Tidewell Home is an invented sample store, and every number here is made up. Its product pages on phones, over one week:

Mobile · 7 days · n=2,950 product page sessions	Sessions	Added to cart
Saw the reviews	1,840 (62%)	11.2%
Did not see the reviews	1,110 (38%)	6.9%

So 1,840 of 2,950 mobile product page sessions had the reviews on screen. Those sessions added to cart at 11.2%, against 6.9% for the 1,110 that did not see them: a difference of 4.3 points. Both groups are well over 30 sessions, so the app would print the comparison, and by its rule the row would read Working well. The caveat printed with the table still holds: it says who added to cart, not why.

You could

Store Decode makes an observation on product pages when under 40% of sessions get to a block lower on the page, such as the reviews, the size guide or the trust badges. It also needs the sessions that got to it to add to cart at least 1.5 times as often as the rest, with at least 20 sessions that added to cart. It looks at 14 days on one device and needs 300 sessions on the smaller side. The card reads, for example, “Only 31% of mobile visitors see reviews.” Its option:

You could: move reviews up or add a link to it near the price, then compare the two rates again after two weeks.

The sample store’s 62% is over 40%, so it gets no such card. If you move the reviews anyway, there is no card to mark done, so compare by hand. Use the same device and the same number of days before and after, on Saw the reviews and Added to cart. Compare your Shopify store before and after a change explains why that is a date split, not a test.

Common questions

Do reviews on product pages increase add to cart?

Store Decode cannot tell you, and nobody can from this table alone. It shows that sessions which saw the reviews added to cart more or less often than sessions which did not. The visitors in the two groups differ in more than the reviews.

How can I track whether visitors scroll down to my reviews?

That is Saw the reviews: the share of product page sessions in which the block came into view. Type “How many visitors scroll to the reviews?” in Find on Home or Explore, and the Product pages view opens with your numbers.

Where should the reviews go on a product page?

Store Decode does not prescribe a place. It shows how many sessions get to the block on each device. When under 40% of sessions get to it, Store Decode’s product page observation can fire, and its option is to move the reviews up or link to them near the price.

Why does Saw the reviews show nothing for my store?

There are two usual reasons. The window may have under 300 product page sessions, so a count shows instead of a share. Or your reviews app builds its block with names Store Decode does not recognise. Store Decode not working? covers the checks.

Related

• Explore: Shopify page analytics, section by section covers the other product page behaviours in the table.
• How many Shopify carts reach checkout is the same kind of comparison, one step later.

The sample store’s homepage map and its section numbers are on the home page.