Reviews and approval

Markdown

The Awaiting approval, All reviews and review details screens; approving, rejecting, hiding, removing, seller replies and resolution notes.

The Reviews group in the menu contains two screens: Awaiting approval (reviews waiting for a moderator’s decision) and All reviews (all reviews regardless of status). Clicking a row in the list opens the review details in a side panel. If a channel is selected in the top bar, both screens, together with their counters, show only that channel’s reviews; filtering by channel is done with this selector (Channel and market). The number next to Awaiting approval in the menu is also the selected channel’s; with All channels selected it is the total for all channels. While a channel is selected, if reviews or seller replies are waiting for approval in other channels, a pill such as “Other channels +1” appears next to the Waiting number on the Awaiting approval screen; clicking it switches to All channels. On phones the pill shows only the number.

Deciding on reviews requires the “Can decide on reviews” permission (the Moderator and Administrator roles).

Awaiting approval

Reviews waiting for a moderator’s decision before publication are listed on this screen. Which reviews are added to the list is determined by the publishing method:

Method	Reviews added to the list
Manual	All reviews
Automatic	Reviews that do not pass the automatic checks cleanly
Hybrid	Reviews that do not pass cleanly, and reviews with photos or videos

The publishing method is chosen on the Publishing tab of the Settings screen; see Settings.

Each row shows the review’s rating, product and market, and how long it has been waiting. For a review imported from a marketplace, the marketplace’s name (for example Trendyol) appears as a badge next to the review text. The waiting time counts from the moment the review last entered the list; a review the customer corrected and sent again re-enters the list and starts waiting from the beginning. If the automatic checks suggested a rejection, the suggested reason is also shown in the row. The suggestion is not binding; the decision rests with the moderator.

Counters: Waiting, Flagged, With photos or video, Seller replies awaiting approval and Waiting longest. The Flagged and With photos or video counters filter the list. The Seller replies awaiting approval counter scrolls to the Seller replies awaiting approval list on the same screen; the list only shows while a reply is waiting, shows at most 50 replies (if there are more, the button below it opens all of them on the All reviews screen), and opening a row shows the seller reply with its approval buttons at the top of the review’s side panel. Counters other than Waiting are not shown as boxes when at zero; they are listed on the At zero line below the boxes. Visitors can only report a published review; reported reviews are tracked on the All reviews screen with the “Only those reported by customers” filter.
Filter bar: search (title, review text, product name or code, order number, the author’s name or email address; a review ID from the audit report file can also be pasted), rating and market. Product, photo/video, “Only those flagged by the automatic checks” and date in the Filters panel. The “Only those flagged by the automatic checks” filter looks only at the review’s latest check result; if a corrected review passed cleanly, the earlier flag is not taken into account.
Sorting: “Waiting longest first” or “Newest first”.
Keyboard: the ↑ and ↓ keys move between rows, the space bar selects the row for a bulk action and Enter opens the review details. The shortcuts do not work while you are typing in a search or filter field.

Making a decision

Approve: The review is published in a single step and included in the average rating.
Reject: Reject… opens the list of reasons; pick one and confirm with Reject, or close it with Cancel without doing anything. The author is informed of the rejection reason by email; the email contains a link to correct the review and submit it again.
Ask for a correction: Shown in the details of a rejected review. The button first opens a confirmation step that says what will happen; once confirmed, the review’s status becomes “Correction asked” and a new email with the same rejection reason goes to the customer. The new correction link in the email is valid for the correction link lifetime set on the Settings › Automatic checks tab; use it, for example, when the link in the first email has expired.
Review again: Shown in the details of a rejected review or one with a correction asked. If the rejection was a mistake, after a confirmation step the review goes back to Awaiting approval for a new decision; nothing is sent to the customer, and a rejection notice that already went out cannot be taken back.

When the customer corrects the review and sends it again, it goes through the checks again and back to approval if needed.

Rejection reasons are selected from a fixed list; free text cannot be entered, and the list contains no reason such as “negative”:

Reason	When to use it
Not about the purchase	The review has nothing to do with the product, delivery, packaging, the seller, the return or the price, or any other part of the purchase. A review about delivery or the seller is not rejected for this reason.
About another product or seller	The review concerns a different product or seller
Contains personal information	The review contains details such as a phone number, address, email or ID number
Contains swearing or insults	The review contains swearing or insults
Contains a health claim	The review contains a health statement that breaches the regulation
Repeated or unwanted content	Repeated text, advertising or meaningless content
Not understandable	No meaningful content can be derived from the review
Suspected to be fake	The review is suspected not to be based on a genuine experience
Legal request	A decision by a competent authority or a legal request

Bulk actions

Several reviews can be selected and approved or rejected in a single action. The box in the header selects every review on the page (25 reviews per page). A reason is required for bulk rejection, and the same reason is applied to all selected reviews. The selection is limited to the page displayed and the filter applied. The bulk action bar appears at the bottom of the screen once at least one review is selected and disappears when the selection is cleared. Reject… and Approve sit side by side on the bar: Approve approves the selected reviews at once; Reject… opens the list of reasons, and the rejection is confirmed with a button that shows the number selected (for example “Reject 3 reviews”). Reviews that are no longer awaiting approval because someone else decided on them after you selected them are skipped; when the action finishes, it says how many reviews were handled and how many were skipped (for example “18 reviews handled · 2 reviews skipped because they are no longer waiting”). If the action fails, the list is refreshed. When a review is opened, the decision buttons sit at the top of the detail panel, right below the summary; every action that needs a reason (Reject, Hide for now, Remove) opens the list of reasons first.

All reviews

This screen shows all reviews in a single list, regardless of their status. Product, delivery and seller reviews appear in the same list without being split into tabs.

Filter bar: search (title, review text, product name or code, order number, the author’s name or email address; a review ID from the audit report file can also be pasted), status, rating, market and Came from (invitation email, the site, entered by hand, imported from a marketplace). Product, language, photo/video, proof of purchase, seller reply (Yes, No, Awaiting approval), “Only those reported by customers”, “Only those flagged by the automatic checks”, “Only those flagged by a check after publishing” and date in the Filters panel.
Badges: The review column shows the marketplace name of a review imported from a marketplace (for example “Trendyol”), the number of photos or videos (“2 photos or videos”), the number of open customer reports (“1 customer report”) and, on reviews with an automatic check finding that is waiting for a decision, the Caught by checks badge: reviews awaiting approval whose latest automatic check flagged them, and published reviews caught by a check again that have not been kept with Keep it live. Once a decision is made (approval, rejection or Keep it live), the badge goes away. If a published review is caught by a check again, for example after a return made after the review, you can find it with status “Published” and the “Only those flagged by a check after publishing” filter in the Filters panel. The review’s details then show a box explaining this and a Keep it live button: after reviewing it, if the review should stay live, confirm and it leaves this list and the Overview alert, and the decision is written to the review’s history. If the review is caught by a later check, the alert comes back.
Sorting: “Newest first”, “Oldest first”, “Highest rating first”, “Lowest rating first”.
Keyboard: the ↑ and ↓ keys move between rows and Enter opens the review details.
Saved views: Frequently used filter combinations can be named and saved. Saved views are personal.
Columns: The columns shown in the table can be selected.
Download: Pick CSV, Excel or JSON from the menu; the list is downloaded in that format with the current filter applied. All three carry the same fields; in Excel the rating is a number, in JSON whether the purchase was verified is written as true or false. This requires the “Can download reports and files” permission (Analyst and Administrator); every download is recorded in the Activity history.

Review details

When a review is clicked, the following sections are shown in the side panel:

Section	Content
Review summary	Below the rating, title and text: Written by (the name the author entered, always in full; when the author asked for the name to be hidden, a Name hidden on the site badge appears next to it and, on hover, says that the site shows only the first letter of every word followed by `*`), Email (the author’s email address; the All reviews by this customer link next to it opens the All reviews list searched by this address (only the reviews in the channel selected in the top bar, if one is selected); after a personal data erasure request, “Personal data erased (data request)” appears instead of the address), Product, Market and channel, Where it came from (where the customer reached the form: an invitation email or the site; Imported from a marketplace for a review imported from a marketplace) and Rules applied** (for example “TR rules, version 3”)
What would you like to do	The actions available in the review’s current status
Seller reply	The live or pending reply, its actions and the box to write a new reply; details below (Seller reply)
Reports	Reports visitors have submitted about this review, and the Close the reports button that closes the open ones. A closed report also shows the note written when closing it, if there is one.
Topic ratings	The additional ratings the customer gave
Proof of purchase	The order and line the review is based on, and the verification method. This section is always shown; a review without proof shows the “No proof of purchase” warning. If the order line, or the order’s payment, was refunded after the review, the “Returned after the review” mark is shown; it is not used on process experience reviews.
Photos and videos	Each file and its state. Files still being processed, or quarantined by the security scan, are also shown together with the reason; a quarantined file has no preview. With the “Can decide on reviews” permission, the Remove… button under a file removes only that file: choose a reason (Contains personal information, Contains swearing or insults, The customer’s own request, Court or official order) and confirm with Remove photo or Remove video.
Automatic check result	The result of each check and the suggested reason
Review history	Every action: the person who took it, the time, the reason and the rules version applied. The Download menu at the top of the card downloads the history as CSV, Excel or JSON (“Can download reports and files” permission); for details see History of one review
Resolution note	See the section below

The action buttons are determined by the review’s status; actions that cannot be taken in that status are not shown.

The Copy link button at the bottom of the review summary copies a link that opens the panel with this review open. A colleague who receives the link opens the review without searching; they need access to the same brand.

A review written by a customer whose order was cancelled or who returned the item is marked with the “Cancelled or returned: process experience” badge at the top of the details. These reviews go through the same approval process; see Invitations and emails.

On the details of a review imported from a marketplace, next to the rating and the status there is a badge such as Purchase verified by Trendyol instead of “Verified buyer”. In the review summary, the Source row shows the marketplace’s name, the review’s date at the source and an Open at the source link; if the review was removed at the source, a Removed at the source badge appears. The Proof of purchase section shows Review number at the marketplace instead of the order, and the method is Verified by the marketplace. For details, see Marketplace reviews.

Actions on a published review

Action	When to use it	Can it be undone
Hide for now	To remove the review from publication temporarily while it is under review. Reasons: Under review · Waiting for legal review · Reported, decision pending	Yes, with Show again
Remove	When the review is found to be misleading or must be removed. Reasons: Found to be misleading · Court or official order · The seller stopped trading · The customer’s own request	No

A hidden or removed review is not shown on the site and is not included in the average. The review is not deleted; its record, history and reason are retained for audit purposes.

A review’s photos and videos are at the public address the site uses only while the review is published. The files of a review that is awaiting approval, rejected, hidden or removed do not open from that address; they stay visible in the panel in the review’s details. When the review is published again with Show again, the files return. The photos and videos of a review removed with the reason “The customer’s own request” or “Court or official order” are deleted permanently.

A single photo or video can also be removed from a review without removing the review (the Photos and videos row above). The file is deleted permanently, including from the public address; the review’s text, rating and status do not change. The removal is written to the review’s history as “Photo or video removed”, with its reason, and to the Activity history.

Seller reply

You can write a reply of up to 2,000 characters on behalf of your brand to a published review.

The reply is checked before it is saved. A reply containing personal information (an email address, phone number, ID number, IBAN, card number or address), abusive language, or a sentence steering the customer into changing the review or rating is not saved; the panel shows the reason.
The reply goes through approval first; once approved, it is published under the review. Replies awaiting approval are listed in the Seller replies awaiting approval list on the Awaiting approval screen and on the All reviews screen with the “Seller reply: Awaiting approval” filter.
A review can have only one reply that is awaiting approval, published or hidden. A new reply can be written once the earlier reply has been rejected or withdrawn. The site shows the newest published reply.
A reply can be rejected for the following reasons: Contains personal information · Misleading or unproven claim · Steering the customer to change the review · Not about the review · Legal request.
Withdraw: A reply that is awaiting approval, published or hidden can be withdrawn without a reason; for example, to fix a typo. The button first opens a confirmation step. A withdrawn reply no longer shows in the store and stays in the review’s history as “Withdrawn”; a new reply can then be written to the review.

The reply follows the review’s status:

When the review is hidden for now or removed, its published reply is hidden too, with the reason “The review is no longer live”. When the review comes back with Show again, that reply is published again automatically. A reply a moderator hid with another reason stays hidden.
While the review is hidden, a reply awaiting approval cannot be approved; it can be approved once the review is published again. In the meantime the reply can be withdrawn.
When the review is removed, a reply awaiting approval is withdrawn automatically.

Resolution note

A record, shown together with the review, stating that the customer’s problem has been resolved (up to 2,000 characters). A resolution note does not change the review’s status; on the site it is shown next to the review under the heading “Resolution”. The note goes through the same check as a seller reply: a note containing personal information, abusive language or steering is not saved. A note can only be added to a review that is published or hidden for now. More than one resolution note can be added to a review: once a note is added, the Add a new note field stays open on the card, for example to fix a typo. The site shows the latest note; earlier notes stay in the review’s history.

Reported reviews

Visitors can report a review on the site for one of the following reasons: Not backed by a real purchase · Contains personal data · Contains abusive language · Not about the purchase · Unwanted content · Other. A reported review stays published; it can be tracked on the All reviews screen with the “Only those reported by customers” filter, and on the Overview screen through the number of reviews with open reports; a review reported by several visitors counts once. Reports from the same visitor about the same review count once while their report is open.

After assessing the report, hide or remove the review if necessary. While you look into it, you can hide the review temporarily with the reason “Reported, decision pending”.

Reports are closed in these cases:

When Close the reports is pressed in the review details; for example, when the review is to stay published after the assessment. An optional note (up to 1,000 characters) can be written in the panel that opens; the note is only shown in the panel, next to the closed report, and nothing is sent to the customer.
When the review is removed, or hidden for now with any reason other than “Reported, decision pending”; the review’s open reports are then closed automatically. The reports of a review hidden with “Reported, decision pending” stay open until a decision is made.

Closed reports drop out of the open report count. The time between a report being opened and closed is tracked on the Statistics › Compliance tab as “Time to handle reports”.