Reviews get treated as a trust element and nothing more on most ecommerce sites. Done properly, they're also a genuine, ongoing content and ranking signal.
Ask at the right moment
The best time to ask is shortly after delivery, once someone has genuinely used the product and satisfaction is fresh. Asking too early, before they've received it, or too late, once the purchase has faded from memory, both produce lower response rates.
Make it genuinely easy
A direct link that takes someone straight to the review form converts far better than asking them to search for your store and find the review section themselves. Every extra step between deciding to leave a review and actually posting it loses a meaningful share of people.
Review velocity matters as much as review count
A product with fifty reviews all from two years ago doesn't signal the same ongoing relevance as one with twenty reviews spread consistently across recent months. A steady, ongoing flow of new reviews matters more than a single large push.
Structured data makes reviews actually work harder
Genuine reviews marked up with proper schema can appear directly in search results as star ratings, which meaningfully affects click-through rate. A review that exists on the page but isn't properly structured misses this benefit entirely.
Respond to reviews, especially negative ones
A calm, specific response to a negative review often does more for trust with future customers than the negative review itself does damage, provided it's handled professionally rather than defensively.