As we all know, there’s a massive problem with fake reviews on the Shopify App Store – and in my opinion, it’s only getting worse.
As an app developer who refuses to use fake reviews, I’m really struggling to keep up with competitors who are obviously doing so. For example, one competing app has over 70% of its reviews from users who appear to have used the app for less than 10 minutes. On top of that, I get at least 2–3 emails every single day to my partner account from people offering fake reviews. I’ve submitted reports, but nothing ever seems to be done.
Does anyone have any tips on how to actually get Shopify to take these reports seriously?
A couple of other review-related questions while I’m here:
If a review doesn’t have a recorded “time using app”, what do you think we can realistically infer from that?
Does anyone know why Shopify removed the direct link from a review to the reviewer’s store? That used to be such a helpful way to quickly verify if the store actually existed.
And finally – does anyone know if Shopify is actually doing anything at all about fake reviews?
Fake reviews are enraging, but they are, in my opinion, just a symptom of a much larger problem. In my experience, the majority of merchants who use fake reviews are also using other dishonest methods of commerce like P.O.D. drop-shipping. It became so easy to set up a Shopify account, and start selling thousands of products from places like AutoDS in a matter of hours, with no experience or legitimate business infrastructure. You don’t need a business license. You don’t need an official business email account. Shopify and others have made it pretty easy to commit fraud. Fake reviews is just another avenue to accomplish it. You don’t even need to import fake reviews. A simple star rating image block in the product card that’s not clickable can appear as though the product has reviews.
The good news is people are smart, and are becoming more aware of the tactics. GMC scouts seemingly fake reviews and bans accounts. But there will always be fraudsters. I think if Shopify took a tiny bit out of the Etsy compliance mandates, we would all see much less fraudulent activity.
I’ve noticed Shopify is taking some action. For example, a competitor’s reviews dropped from nearly 400 to about 300. The reviews weren’t deleted but moved under a “Show archived reviews” link, so they no longer count toward total reviews/ratings.
That’s a good start, but there’s room for improvement. For instance, app usage time is a straightforward signal to identify fraudulent or low-quality reviews. Some developers also incentivize reviews with discounts, which leads to skewed results - this behavior shouldn’t be encouraged.
I agree, that was a start — but now it feels like the dishonest apps have simply shifted tactics. I’m increasingly seeing what look like sophisticated, yet clearly fake, stores being set up by review farms.
I really hope Shopify is treating this seriously and actively exploring ways to address it. Fake reviews damage everyone: they undermine honest partners like us, and they mislead merchants who deserve a fair and reliable way to choose the best apps for their business. It’s almost always the weaker apps that resort to fake reviews, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating.