How to Add Rating Stars to WooCommerce Products: A Beginner’s Guide
Adding star ratings to your WooCommerce products is a fantastic way to boost social proof and increase sales. Think about it: when you’re browsing a website, don’t you instinctively gravitate towards products with lots of positive reviews and a shiny row of stars? That’s the power of visual feedback!
This guide will walk you through how to add and manage rating stars on your WooCommerce products, even if you’re a complete beginner. We’ll cover the basics and explore some easy ways to get those stars shining on your store.
Why Add Rating Stars to Your WooCommerce Products?
Imagine you’re looking for a new coffee maker. You see two options:
- Option A: Just a product description and price.
- Option B: A product description, price, *and* a 4.5-star rating based on 50 reviews.
- Build Trust and Credibility: Star ratings instantly show potential customers that others have had positive experiences with your product.
- Increase Click-Through Rates: Products with star ratings stand out in search results and product listings, attracting more clicks.
- Improve Conversion Rates: When customers see positive ratings, they’re more likely to purchase.
- Provide Valuable Feedback: Customer reviews and ratings offer valuable insights into your product’s strengths and weaknesses. You can use this information to improve your products and customer service.
- Leave a star rating: They can select a rating from 1 to 5 stars.
- Write a review: They can provide more detailed feedback about their experience with the product.
- Submit their review: After filling out the required fields (name and email), they can submit their review.
- Approve: Make the review visible on the product page.
- Unapprove: Hide the review from the product page.
- Reply: Respond to the customer’s feedback.
- Edit: Modify the review (use this cautiously!).
- Delete: Remove the review entirely.
- Theme Dependent)
While enabling reviews allows customers to leave ratings on product pages, displaying those ratings on product listings (like your shop page or category pages) often depends on your theme.
- Many WooCommerce themes automatically display star ratings on product listings once you’ve enabled reviews and have some reviews. Check your theme’s documentation to see if this is the case.
- If your theme doesn’t support this, you might need to use a plugin or manually edit your theme’s files. Be very careful when editing theme files.
Using Plugins to Enhance Star Ratings
If you want more control over how your star ratings are displayed or want to add extra features, consider using a plugin. Here are a few popular options:
- YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews: Offers advanced review features like image and video attachments, voting on reviews, and more.
- Product Reviews for WooCommerce: A free plugin that allows for enhanced review management and display.
- Judge.me Product Reviews: A comprehensive review platform with features like automated review requests and social proof widgets.
These plugins often provide options to:
- Customize the appearance of the star ratings.
- Display the number of reviews alongside the stars.
- Show aggregated ratings on product listings.
- Send automated review request emails.
Which one are you more likely to click on?
The answer is almost always Option B. Here’s why rating stars are so beneficial:
Enabling Product Reviews in WooCommerce
First things first, you need to make sure product reviews are enabled in your WooCommerce settings. Here’s how:
1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Click on the Products tab.
3. Scroll down to the General section.
4. Make sure the checkbox next to “Enable product reviews” is checked.
5. You can also choose to “Show ‘verified owner’ label on customer reviews” to further enhance credibility.
6. Click “Save changes” at the bottom of the page.
Now, customers will be able to leave reviews and ratings on your product pages.
How Customers Leave Ratings
Once reviews are enabled, customers will see a “Reviews” tab on each product page. Here, they can:
Important: Make sure your products are high quality and your customer service is excellent to encourage positive reviews!
Managing Product Reviews
You’ll need to moderate and manage the reviews that customers leave. Here’s how:
1. Go to Comments in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Here, you’ll see all the comments and reviews that have been submitted on your website, including product reviews.
3. You can:
Tip: Be proactive in responding to reviews, both positive and negative. Addressing concerns shows that you care about your customers. For example, if someone leaves a negative review about shipping delays, you can reply and explain the situation and offer a solution.
Displaying Rating Stars on Product Listings (Optional
Example: Judge.me is a great choice if you want to automatically send emails to customers asking them to leave a review a few days after they’ve made a purchase. This helps you gather more reviews and improve your product ratings.
Conclusion
Adding star ratings to your WooCommerce products is a simple yet powerful way to boost trust, increase conversions, and gather valuable customer feedback. By enabling reviews, managing them effectively, and potentially using a plugin for enhanced features, you can make your products stand out and attract more customers. Remember to focus on providing high-quality products and excellent customer service to encourage those positive reviews to roll in! Happy selling!
