You send the review request. A few hundred people get it. Four write something. So you open the template, decide the writing is the problem, make it warmer, add an exclamation mark, and get five next time.
The writing usually is the problem. Just not in the way people rewrite it. Requests get made friendlier when what they need is to ask for less. Nobody skips your email because it lacked charm. They skip it because answering meant opening a page, choosing a rating and typing on a phone with one hand.
The review request email examples below are the ones worth stealing outright. Each has a subject line, the body, and the reason it gets answered.
What makes review request email examples worth copying rather than admiring?
Plenty of review emails look good. Very few are worth copying, and the difference is not the design.
- One ask, not two. The moment an email wants a rating and a photo and a referral, the customer has to decide which to do. That decision is where they leave.
- Answerable from the inbox. A tap on a star is an action. "Click here to leave a review" is a task.
- Sent when the customer knows the answer. Ask about a mattress on day two and you are asking someone to guess. Ask on day twenty-one and they have an opinion.
- Honest about what happens next. If the review goes on a public page, say so. People write differently for other shoppers.
What each one does, and who it is for.
| Example | The ask | Best for | Send window |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. One-tap stars | A rating only | Everything, as the default | After delivery |
| 2. Single question | One answer about fit | Apparel, footwear, gear | After a wear or two |
| 3. Plain-text note | A reply to the email | Small catalogues, high value | After delivery |
| 4. Photo follow-up | A photo, nothing else | Anything visual | After a rating lands |
| 5. Consumable check-in | A rating plus effect | Supplements, skincare, coffee | Around three weeks |
| 6. Second reminder | The same rating, new reason | Everyone who ignored the first | A week later |
| 7. Post-resolution | A rating after a problem | Replaced or refunded orders | After the fix lands |
| 8. Repeat customer | A rating, no preamble | Second and third orders | After delivery |
Example 1: the one-tap star rating email
Subject: How did the Alder Jacket work out?
Hi Sam,
Your Alder Jacket was delivered on Tuesday. How is it?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Tap a star. That is the whole thing. You can add a sentence on the next page, but the rating alone helps the next person deciding.
Why it works: the five stars are five separate links, each carrying its rating to a review page that opens with it already selected. The customer does the hard part before the page loads.
It also removes the worst moment in a normal request: landing on a blank form. Somebody who has tapped four stars will often add a line they would never have volunteered from cold.
Example 2: the single-question email about sizing or fit
Subject: One question about your Alder Jacket
Hi Sam,
Quick one. Does the Alder Jacket fit true to size on you, or did it come up small or large?
[It runs small] [True to size] [It runs large]
Your answer goes straight onto the product page, where it saves the next person a return.
Why it works: it does not ask for a review at all. It asks a factual question anyone can answer without deciding whether their opinion is worth writing down. That doubt is the quiet reason most people never review anything.
Three buttons, three links, no typing. Fit is the doubt that stops apparel shoppers buying, so what you collect is what the page needs.
Example 3: the plain-text note from a named person
Subject: your order
Sam,
Anurag here, I run Edgecoms. You bought the Alder Jacket a couple of weeks ago.
I read every review that comes in and they change what we make next. If you have two minutes, tell me what you think. Good or bad.
Leave a review here, or hit reply and tell me. I will put it up myself.
Anurag
Why it works: no header image, no brand colours, no template. It looks like an email from a person, and it is the only one here where replying counts as answering.
Two warnings. Send it from an address a human reads, because some replies will be support tickets. And do not invent a name. It scales badly and works brilliantly on small catalogues.
Example 4: the photo-first follow-up sent after the rating lands
Subject: Would you add a photo?
Hi Sam,
You gave the Alder Jacket five stars yesterday. Thank you, that is genuinely helpful.
One more small thing: a photo of it on you. Yours would be the first for this colourway.
Why it works: it never asks a stranger for a photo. It asks somebody who already gave you something, one day later. Completely different conversation.
The sequencing is the trick:
- Ask for the rating first. One tap, no photo mentioned anywhere.
- Wait until the rating exists. The trigger is the review submitted, not a timer.
- Ask for the photo alone the next day. Reference the rating so it reads as a follow-up.
Bundling the photo into the first email is the common mistake. It raises the cost of the ask for everyone, including the majority who were never sending one. The guide to Shopify product reviews covers where those photos belong once you have them.
Example 5: the consumable check-in three weeks later
Subject: Three weeks in. Any difference?
Hi Sam,
You started the Magnesium Complex three weeks ago, which is when people tell us they notice something or decide they do not.
Which was it?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
If there was a change, even a small one, say what it was. That is the part other people read.
Why it works: the timing is the message. Two days after delivery you are asking someone to rate a bottle of capsules. At three weeks you are asking about an outcome.
It also asks for the right content. "Great product" persuades nobody. A sentence naming what actually changed sells the next bottle. Naming the kind of answer you want is legitimate. Naming the rating you want is not. Set the delay from where your product does its job. Coffee is a week. Skincare is nearer six.
Example 6: the second reminder that is not just a resend
Subject: Still curious what you made of the Alder Jacket
Hi Sam,
I sent this last week and you were probably busy, so this is the last time I will ask.
The Alder Jacket has four reviews. Yours would be the fifth, and on a product with four, the fifth one counts.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Why it works: it gives a new reason instead of repeating the old one. A resend says "in case you missed it", which reads as "we are sending this again".
"The last time I will ask" is doing real work, so keep the promise. Two asks per order is the ceiling. Do not resend to people who already reviewed. That is the most common broken flow I find when auditing a store, because nobody set the exit condition on the wait step.
Example 7: the email that still asks after a replacement or refund
Subject: Did the replacement sort it out?
Hi Sam,
We sent a replacement Alder Jacket after the zip failed on the first one. It was delivered Monday.
Is this one right?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
If it is not, reply and I will deal with it myself rather than sending you back round support.
Why it works: most stores suppress requests for any order that touched support. That is cautious and expensive. A customer whose problem you fixed properly is often warmer than one whose order was uneventful.
The rules that make it safe:
- Send only after the resolution lands. Trigger on the replacement being delivered or the refund clearing, never on the ticket closing.
- Reference the problem explicitly. Pretending the failure did not happen is what makes these read badly.
- Give an exit that is not a public review. Some of these customers want to tell you, not the internet.
- Never send on an open complaint. If the ticket is unresolved, this is provocation.
Example 8: the repeat-customer email that skips the introduction
Subject: Third order. What made you come back?
Sam, this is your third order with us.
No introduction needed then. What keeps you coming back to the Alder Jacket?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Anything you write goes on the product page.
Why it works: it drops every sentence written for a stranger. Sending a repeat buyer the same onboarding-flavoured request they got the first time signals that nobody is paying attention.
The question is better too. "What keeps you coming back" produces exactly what a hesitant first-time buyer needs to read. Segment on order count and route these into their own flow. One condition, and the cheapest improvement here.
Where does Edge Reviews fit in sending these?
Be honest about what you need before installing anything.
If you want the largest free tier, Judge.me is the app to beat. Its free plan is permanent with unlimited reviews including photo and video, and it sits at 5.0 stars across 43,884 reviews. Loox scores 4.9 across 9,051 reviews, but its free plan stops at 500 orders and the first paid tier is $49.99/mo.
| App | Rating and reviews | Free plan | Paid entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Judge.me | 5.0, 43,884 | Permanent, unlimited, photo and video | Awesome $15/mo |
| Loox | 4.9, 9,051 | Up to 500 orders | Convert $49.99/mo |
| Yotpo | 4.8, 4,392 | Up to 50 monthly orders | Starter $15/mo |
| Edge Reviews | New, no reviews yet | Free, imports existing reviews | Free |
Pricing and features checked on 22 August 2026. App Store listings change without notice, so verify on the listing before you commit to a plan.
Edge Reviews is new and has no reviews of its own yet, the position most of your product pages are in. It is free and imports what you already have, so switching costs you nothing you collected. It is built around the pattern in this post: rating first, photo asked separately once a rating exists, second ask that stops at two.
To assemble the eight into one sequence:
- Trigger on delivery, not on order creation or fulfilment.
- Send Example 1 to everyone as the default, stars live in the email.
- Branch to Example 5 for consumables, delay set to when the product does its job.
- Fire Example 4 on review submitted, one day later, only to people who rated.
- Send Example 6 seven days after Example 1, with an exit condition on review submitted.
- Route Example 7 off resolved support tickets, and Example 8 off order count.
Get the delivery trigger and the exit condition right and most of what was quietly wrong is fixed.
Questions people ask next
Should the review request come from a person or from the store?
Send it from a named person at an address that accepts replies. The from-name is the first thing read, and a human one changes how the rest is read. The practical cost is that you will get real replies, including support questions and complaints, so only do this if somebody is going to read that inbox.
How long should a review request email be?
Short enough that the ask is visible without scrolling on a phone. The strongest versions here are three or four sentences and one thing to click. Length is not really the variable though. The variable is how many decisions the customer has to make before they can act, and the answer should be one.
Can I put the star widget directly in the email?
Yes, and it is the biggest structural change you can make. Five clickable stars that each link to a pre-filled review page turn the ask from a task into a tap. The customer lands on the form with the rating already chosen, so the only thing left to do is the optional text.
Will asking for a review annoy customers who had a bad experience?
Sometimes, and that is useful. A customer who is unhappy and silent tells someone else instead. Asking gives you the complaint in a channel you control, before it lands on a public page. Route low ratings to a real reply from a real person rather than to an automated thank-you message.
Do review request emails belong in a flow or in a campaign?
In a flow, triggered by fulfilment or delivery rather than by order creation. A campaign blasted to everyone who ever bought asks people to remember a product they received months ago. Triggered timing is the difference between a customer recalling a purchase and a customer reconstructing one from memory.
Anurag Chandra
Founder, Edgecoms
Anurag runs Edgecoms, a studio of Shopify apps. He spends most of his week inside merchant stores working out why a number is lower than it should be.
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