Product reviews have become essential in online shopping, where customers can't physically examine items before purchasing. They provide authentic social proof that helps shoppers make confident buying decisions and reduce purchase uncertainty.
For businesses, reviews offer significant advantages: they improve search visibility, influence algorithms, and provide valuable feedback for product improvement. For consumers, they democratize information and answer critical questions that specifications alone can't—like durability, actual performance, and true value.
In a crowded digital marketplace, reviews build trust between brands and customers, ultimately shaping buying behavior and creating more transparent, competitive markets.
Submitting a Review
The process begins when Haru, a customer, navigates to a specific Product Details Page (PDP). He sees a dedicated "Reviews" tab below the product image. He can either click the section or the "Show Reviews" hyperlink to the right of the product image. He can see the total number of reviews and the average rating given by the customers who have already reviewed the product.
To submit a review, he must log in to his account, which helps prevent spam and ensures that the feedback is tied to a verified identity. Once he selects the option to write a review, he's presented with a submission form:
- Review Title: A brief headline that summarizes the customer's experience.
- Write your comments: A text area where the customer can offer detailed qualitative feedback regarding the product's performance, quality, or value.
- Rating: A quantitative assessment, on a scale of one to five stars, representing the customer's overall satisfaction.
- Reviewer name: This field is optional, where the reviewer can enter his/her name.
Managing Reviews in the Customer Support Cockpit
After the customer clicks the "Submit" button, the review isn't immediately visible to the public. Instead, it's stored in the SAP Commerce Cloud database with a status set to "Pending." A customer support employee must first approve the review before it becomes available on the storefront. This step is vital for filtering out inappropriate content, promotional spam, or reviews that violate the company‘s terms of service.
Approving a Review
Customer Support Agents then come into action and can access the Customer Support Cockpit to work on reviews submitted by customers.
In this specific case, Sarah, the Customer Support Manager, logs in using the Customer Support Agent Role. She locates the Reviews node and finds the list of reviews.
She can search the list using the Search box at the top or refine the search using the Advanced Search functionality. By default, the reviews list is sorted by the Last Modified attribute.
Sarah finds the pending review that Haru submitted. She opens the review and navigates to the bottom, where she opens the dropdown menu to get three options. The review can be left in status Pending, Approved, or Rejected.
Note
Additionally, a Backoffice Administrator can log in to the Administration Cockpit, navigate to Marketing > Product Reviews, and approve the review. Alternatively, reviews can also be approved by Administrators via the product entry in either the Administration or Product Cockpit.
Once approved, the review appears on the respective Product Details Page in the storefront, where it is now visible to other potential buyers.
Reviewing Products Demo
This video will show us an example of how a product review is written on the storefront and then approved in the Customer Support Cockpit.
Summary
- Reviews build customer trust and give them a tool to check a product’s qualities.
- Reviews must be reviewed before they are published to the storefront, giving companies a tool to manage compliance with company policies.
- Reviews are usually approved via the Customer Support Cockpit. Under reviews, customer support staff can accept or reject submitted reviews.
- Approved reviews are visible on the Product Details Page.