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Today’s shoppers rely heavily on reviews of products and services before purchasing. As a result, reviews play a crucial role in the success of an online store, not only for driving sales but also for enhancing the quality of the products.
However, not all reviews are trusted. Most shoppers look for signs that those reviews are genuine. A verified user tag is an effective way to ensure genuine customer reviews.
Over time, as your store accumulates reviews and user tags, they become increasingly valuable. Potential buyers often read these reviews to get a fair picture of the product before deciding to buy. Therefore, when migrating your store to another platform, transferring these reviews along with all other data is crucial.
If you plan to migrate your WooCommerce store from one store to another, you can use the free WooCommerce Product Import plugin to migrate product reviews and user tags from your store.
In this article, we will first highlight the importance of migrating product reviews and then walk you through the detailed steps for importing product reviews and their verified user tags using this plugin.
Let’s get started.
Key Takeaways
- Product reviews, especially those from verified users, greatly influence purchase decisions and build trust with potential buyers.
- Migrating product reviews alongside other data preserves brand credibility, improves conversations, and derives valued customer insights.
- WebToffee’s Product Import plugin is best suited for migrating product reviews as it automates the process, reducing manual effort and enhancing accuracy and speed.
As mentioned, reviews can influence the purchase decisions of your customers. So, you should consider moving your product reviews and ratings alongside a data migration to a new website for several other reasons. Here’s why:
- Upkeep Trust: Transferring reviews allows customers to continue viewing their previous experiences and feedback, which helps to strengthen their trust in the brand.
- Informed Decision Making: By using a pool of existing reviews on various products, your customers will understand the product and make informed decisions about purchasing it.
- Historical Data: Customer reviews leave behind valuable historical data you can rely on to better understand customer sentiment and identify the latest trends. It is imperative to preserve these reviews and transfer them.
- Enhancing SEO: Transferring existing reviews during a store migration does help maintain the relevant keywords and backlinks contained in reviews, which can help enhance and retain your store’s current search rankings.
- Improve Conversions: With all the existing reviews migrated, you can maintain the social proof of your product lineup, which directly encourages potential buyers to purchase and drives conversions.
Did you know?
Nine out of ten shoppers say they consider reviews before making a purchase. Source – Power Reviews
To migrate WooCommerce product reviews, you need a CSV file to import product reviews.
You can export the product review CSV file using the same Product Import Export plugin. However, using any other plugin may make it difficult since you may need to edit the CSV file to match the verified fields.
Export WooCommerce Product Reviews
Follow the below steps to export WooCommerce product reviews using the Product Import Export Plugin by WebToffee.
Step 1: Install and Activate WebToffee Product Import Export Plugin
- From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for the “Product Import Export” plugin by WebToffee.
- Once you’ve found the plugin, click on Install Now. Then, activate the plugin.
Step 2: Select Product Reviews for Export
- Go to WebToffee Import Export (Basic) and select Export.
- Now, from the dropdown, select Product Review as the post type to export.
Then, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Set Advanced Export for Product Reviews
Here, you have two export options: Quick export and Advanced export.
You can use either method, but here, we will use the Advanced export since it provides more options for filtering and other options during the export process.
Step 4: Filter Product Reviews for Export
You’ll find advanced options that filter out specific product reviews from being exported into the CSV at this step. Here’s what you can do:
- Choose the total number of product reviews to export. If you leave this blank, all product reviews will be exported.
- Choose to skip the first ‘n’ number of reviews.
- Select a date range to export the product reviews within a specific date range.
- Choose reviews of specific products.
- Select to export reviews of specific ratings.
- Choose to export reviews of customers or guests or both.
- Select whether to include replies along with the reviews.
- Export reviews by product status.
- Sort product reviews column-wise and specified order.
After choosing the necessary filters, proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Map & Reorder Export Columns
By default, the plugin exports all the related data of product reviews.
If you don’t want to include any specific field, uncheck the checkbox corresponding to the field name. Also, make sure that the verified column is enabled.
Step 6: Advanced Export Options
Here, you can select to export product reviews in batches.
Note: If your store site has many product reviews, use the batch export option to ease server load. If the export fails due to a timeout, try reducing the batch count to 20 or 10 and run it again.
Then click on Export to export the product reviews into a CSV file.
Pro Tip: You can save your current export configurations as a template for future use. This way, you can quickly export your product reviews without configuring these steps again.
Here’s an example of a product review exported using this plugin. Notice the “verified” column? It shows a value of 1 for reviews from verified users.
Importing Product Reviews to WooCommerce
Now, let’s dive into how to import these product reviews and their verified user tags to your new site during the migration.
Step 1: Select Post Type for Import
- Go to WebToffee Product Import Export (Basic) > Import.
- Select Product Review as the post type to import.
Step 2: Choose Import Method for Product Reviews
Select an import method to import the product reviews to your store.
- Here, select the Quick import option, as we have exported the product reviews using the same plugin. If you used a different plugin, you may need to proceed with Advanced import for column mapping.
- Now, upload the previously exported CSV file and click the Import button.
Your product reviews will be successfully imported, and you can check the Import progress log to see how everything went.
Here is a preview of the product reviews with verified user tags.
The export includes all product review data, such as customer names, ratings, review content, dates, verified user tags, and more. You can also filter specific data while exporting.
If your export fails, lower the batch size to 20 or even 10, then try the export again. This can help lighten the server’s load and prevent timeouts.
If you exported the CSV file with the WebToffee Product Import Export plugin, you shouldn’t need to make any further changes. On the other hand, if you utilized a different plugin, you might have to modify the CSV to ensure it aligns with the appropriate fields.
For large exports, use the batch export option to prevent server overload. This method divides the export into smaller, manageable batches.
Yes, the Advanced Export option allows you to filter product reviews based on rating, date range, product status, and more.
Based on your configuration during the import process, the plugin usually manages duplicates by omitting or combining them.
Conclusion
This article has shown you how to migrate WooCommerce product reviews using our free plugin.
This tool makes it easy to import and export WooCommerce product reviews for simple, grouped, and external products. Upgrading to the premium version might be worth considering for variable products, as it offers additional features like multiple file format support and scheduling options.
We hope this article helps you transfer your product reviews flawlessly to your new store. If you have any questions or feedback, drop them in the comments section.
Comments (14)
JR
November 29, 2021
No mention in this article that only the Pro-version has this capability =\ FYI to those who inadvertently installed the Free-version expecting to import/export reviews.
Alan
December 6, 2021
Hi,
The free version plugin supports importing reviews with verified tags. You may please add the value “1” in the “verified” column to import reviews with verified tag.
Rusty
October 6, 2021
Hi,
We accidentally duplicated a review and now it’s showing twice. How do we delete a review? I tried just editing the review but was unsuccessful. Please let me know how to delete a review with the CSV file. Thank you!
Mark
October 9, 2021
Hi,
Sorry to say that there is no option to delete the reviews using a CSV file. You will have to delete them manually from the comments list.
Virendra Kumar
August 19, 2021
Sir I am using you plugin for one of my client but when we import it stop after few and in log it says
2021-08-19T09:38:03+00:00 CRITICAL syntax error, unexpected ‘…’ (T_ELLIPSIS), expecting ‘;’ in /home/****/******/*****/wp-content/plugins/wt-import-export-for-woo/admin/modules/import/import.php(1493) : eval()’d code on line 1
Can you please provide what should we do
Thanks
Mark
August 25, 2021
Hi,
Please reach us via support and share your import file.
Arsilan Tahir
August 7, 2021
Hi, I want to import more than 1 review to my single product. It may be 20 reviews per product. But I am confused about how I can do that. Can you please explain it for me with file structure? Thanks
Mark
August 12, 2021
Hi,
You can import multiple reviews to a product by creating a CSV file with one row for each review. Eg: If you are required to import 5 reviews to a single product then you may please create 5 separate rows for each review.
Oasis
September 18, 2020
Can you import reviews to a specific product?
Alan
September 19, 2020
Hi,
Yes, you can import reviews to a particular product.
Alexandre
May 28, 2020
Hello, I did exactly as described in this article, but the text “verified owner” does not appear in the reviews I have imported. I tested twice. Do you have any idea why ? Is this option only possible in the paid version ? Thanks
Alan
May 29, 2020
Hi,
Importing the reviews as verified is one of our premium features. You may please purchase the premium version of the plugin to import reviews as verified.
Volker Forster
April 22, 2020
I am not sure if I understand the purpose of this tool. I want to import reviews our customers left for our products on other websites like eBay and Amazon. This is a lot of copy & paste work, of course. But when I import reviews from somewhere else than a WooCommerce export, than I will neither have “Comments ID” nor “Comments Post ID” or the commenters email address.
How can I make this happen?
Alan
April 22, 2020
Hi,
In order to import a review to the product, it is necessary to have Comment Post ID data and authors’ email addresses in the CSV file. In the comment_post_ID column, you may please provide the ID of the product to which you are trying to import comments. Also, make sure that you provide the author’s email address in the comment_author_email column. You can leave the comment_ID column blank. WordPress will automatically assign an ID to the imported reviews.