If you run a WooCommerce store, you already know your reviews matter. But here’s something most store owners miss: those reviews are probably doing far less work than they could be.
Not because there aren’t enough of them. Because of where they’re showing up.
By default, WooCommerce tucks your product reviews away at the bottom of individual product pages.
Every shopper who lands on your homepage, browses a category page, or hits a landing page sees exactly zero customer voices.
No stars.
No “I love this product.”
No social proof at all. Just your word against their hesitation.
Most store owners are sitting on genuinely good customer content and leaving almost all of it buried where it can’t convert anyone.
This guide covers why that happens, what your options are for fixing it (with honest pros and cons of each), and how to get your reviews into the places that actually move sales.
In This Article
- Quick Answer: Here's How to Show WooCommerce Reviews Anywhere on Your Site
- Why Your WooCommerce Reviews Are Worth Fighting For
- Your Reviews Are Hiding Where Most Shoppers Never Look
- How to Start Displaying WooCommerce Reviews on WordPress
- Where to Put Your Reviews for the Biggest Impact
- Customer Photos are Your Secret Weapon
- FAQs on Displaying WooCommerce Reviews
- Ready to Get Your Reviews Working Harder? Here's Where to Start.
Quick Answer: Here’s How to Show WooCommerce Reviews Anywhere on Your Site
WooCommerce only shows reviews on individual product pages by default.
To show them anywhere else (your homepage, category pages, landing pages), you need either custom PHP code (which is more involved than it sounds and needs maintenance every time WooCommerce updates) or a plugin like Reviews Feed Pro by Smash Balloon, which handles it automatically and gets your first feed live in under ten minutes.
- WooCommerce reviews only show on product pages by default. Shoppers browsing your homepage or category pages won’t see them.
- This is quietly costing you sales. 98% of consumers say reviews are an essential resource when making purchase decisions, and if yours are hard to find, they’ll go elsewhere.
- You have two options: custom code, or a plugin that makes it simple.
- The manual route works, but it’s a headache. It requires coding, ongoing maintenance, and breaks when WooCommerce updates.
- The easier path is Reviews Feed Pro by Smash Balloon. Connect your store, build a feed, paste a shortcode. Done in minutes.
- The payoff is real. Stores that show reviews across their site see up to 67% higher conversions.
Why Your WooCommerce Reviews Are Worth Fighting For
Think about the last time you bought something online.
Did you scroll down to check the customer reviews before adding it to your cart?
Almost everyone does. And in 2026, that instinct is stronger than ever.
Shoppers are surrounded by polished marketing copy and AI-generated product descriptions. They’ve learned to tune it out.
What they trust is each other.
Your WooCommerce reviews are some of the most credible content on your entire site. Unscripted, specific, written by real people who bought your products.
The question isn’t whether reviews matter. It’s whether yours are showing up where they can do any real work.
Shoppers Trust Other Shoppers More Than They Trust You
Here’s how much reviews actually move the needle:
| What Shoppers Do | What It Means for Your Store |
|---|---|
| 98% read reviews before buying | Reviews aren’t optional. Shoppers expect them |
| 72% of consumers say real customer photos and videos are the content they most want to see on product pages | Text-only reviews are starting to feel less convincing |
| Products with just 5 reviews see up to 270% higher purchase likelihood than products with none (Spiegel Research Center) | Review volume directly builds purchase confidence |
| In one A/B test, adding testimonials to a page increased conversions by 34% | Results vary, but the direction is consistent: social proof moves buyers |
| Displaying reviews prominently on high-traffic pages (homepage, category, checkout) compounds the trust signals that drive purchase decisions | Visibility across your whole site — not just product pages — multiplies the effect |
Your Reviews Are Hiding Where Most Shoppers Never Look
If your reviews feel like they’re not pulling their weight, you’re probably right. And it’s not your fault. It’s just how WooCommerce works out of the box.
Think of each product page as a locked filing cabinet. Your reviews live inside it, visible only to shoppers who’ve already found that specific product.
Everyone browsing your homepage, scrolling a category page, or landing on a promo page never sees them.
For most of your visitors, those reviews might as well not exist.
Where Your Reviews Are Showing Up Right Now
| Page on Your Store | Showing Reviews? | What That Means for You |
|---|---|---|
| Individual Product Page | ✅ Yes | Good, but shoppers have to find the product first |
| Shop / Category Page | ❌ No | Browsing shoppers see no social proof at all |
| Homepage | ❌ No | Your first impression has no customer voices |
| Sidebar or Footer | ❌ No | Missed trust signals on every page |
| Landing or Sales Page | ❌ No | Your most persuasive pages have no customer backup |
| Checkout Page | ❌ No | Last-minute doubt goes unaddressed |
| Blog Posts | ❌ No | Content that could convert has no social proof |
What This Gap Is Actually Costing You
Picture a new shopper who finds your store through a Facebook ad. They land on your homepage, like the look of things, but don’t see a single customer review.
So they wonder.
Are other people actually buying from this store? Do they like it?
They might click around looking for answers.
Or they leave and buy from someone whose reviews were front and center.
That plays out hundreds of times a day on stores with perfectly good reviews, reviews real customers took the time to write, sitting hidden where most visitors never reach.
Your reviews already exist. You just need to get them into the right places.
How to Start Displaying WooCommerce Reviews on WordPress
There are two ways for you to show WooCommerce reviews anywhere on your site: doing it manually with custom code, or using a WordPress reviews plugin.
Here’s an honest look at both so you can decide what fits your situation.
| Header label | Doing It Manually (Custom Code) | Reviews Feed Pro by Smash Balloon |
|---|---|---|
| Coding required? | ✅ Yes — PHP and WordPress template knowledge needed | ❌ No — works out of the box |
| Setup time | Hours to days depending on your skill level | Under 10 minutes |
| Works on any page? | ⚠️ Possible but requires custom work for each location | ✅ Yes — paste a shortcode anywhere |
| Visual layouts (grid, carousel, etc.) | ❌ Not without significant extra CSS work | ✅ Yes — choose from multiple layouts |
| Filter by star rating or review length | ❌ Not without custom code | ✅ Yes — built-in filters |
| Automatic updates as new reviews come in | ❌ No | ✅ Yes — fully automatic |
| Cost | Developer time and fees | Paid plugin — no developer needed |
Can You Manually Show WooCommerce Reviews Everywhere?
Yes, manually showing WooCommerce reviews outside of product pages means querying the WordPress database directly using PHP and setting up custom page templates that pull reviews based on product IDs, categories, or tags.
It’s possible.
But it requires someone who knows what they’re doing, and that usually means a developer, which means time and money.
Then there’s the maintenance problem.
Every time WooCommerce releases a major update, custom template overrides can break.
Someone needs to check the code, fix what’s broken, and retest everything.
For a store owner without a developer on retainer, that becomes a recurring headache that shows up at exactly the wrong moment, like the week before a big seasonal promotion.
There’s also the question of what you actually get at the end of it.
Even a well-built manual solution is hard to customize visually and won’t automatically update as new reviews come in without additional work.
You’re putting in significant effort for a result a plugin handles better out of the box.
If you have a developer you trust and a genuinely specific custom need, this route can work.
But for most store owners, it’s more ongoing effort than it’s worth.
How Can You Automatically Show WooCommerce Reviews Everywhere?
Reviews Feed Pro by Smash Balloon is a WordPress plugin that lets you display customer reviews from WooCommerce (and from Google, Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot, and more) in customizable feeds on any page of your site.
No coding required.
Here’s what setup actually looks like:
You install the plugin, choose WooCommerce as reviews source, it automatically detects your WooCommerce store with no configuration needed, you pick which reviews to show by product, category, or tag, you choose a layout in a visual editor, and paste a shortcode wherever you want the reviews to appear.
That’s it!
Most store owners have their first feed live in under ten minutes.
With WooCommerce review feeds, you can:
- Show product reviews on your homepage to build instant credibility with new visitors
- Highlight reviews on sales and landing pages to nudge undecided shoppers over the line
- Display category-specific reviews to support seasonal promotions and campaigns
- Keep your social proof automatically fresh as new reviews come in, no manual work needed
- Filter by star rating, review length, or handpick favorites using the Collections feature
Where to Put Your Reviews for the Biggest Impact
Now that you understand your options, the next question is where to actually put your reviews.
Not every page is equal when it comes to social proof.
Here’s where reviews make the biggest difference and what to show in each spot.
| Where | Best Layout | What to Show | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage | Carousel | Your best brand-level reviews, handpicked | Builds trust before shoppers have even browsed |
| Category Pages | Masonry Grid | Reviews filtered to that specific category | Helps browsers feel confident without clicking into products |
| Sales or Landing Pages | List | Longer, detailed reviews only | In-depth feedback convinces undecided buyers |
| Checkout or Cart Page | Small Sidebar List | Recent verified buyer reviews | Quietly reassures shoppers right before they pay |
Show Your WooCommerce Reviews on Your Homepage
A new visitor on your homepage has no idea yet whether to trust you.
They haven’t browsed your products or read your About page.
They’re forming their very first impression.
A handful of glowing customer reviews shown front and center immediately changes that dynamic in your favour.
The Collections feature in Reviews Feed Pro lets you handpick exactly which reviews appear, so your homepage shows your most compelling customer voices rather than just the most recent ones.
Show Your WooCommerce Reviews on Category Pages
Someone browsing a category page is interested but not committed.
They’re in that exploratory stage, weighing up whether your store is right for them. With the new WooCommerce update in Reviews Feed Pro, you can filter reviews by category and display them right on the relevant category page.
That level of relevance is persuasive. It gives browsing shoppers the confidence to move forward without having to click into individual products to find reassurance.
Show Your WooCommerce Reviews on Checkout and Cart Pages
The cart page is where shoppers are most likely to talk themselves out of buying. They’ve found what they want, added it to their cart, and then the doubt creeps in.
A small sidebar feed showing three to five recent, verified reviews is a quiet but effective last-minute reassurance.
You don’t need a big flashy display here. Just a gentle reminder that other people bought this and loved it. Keep it compact, keep it recent, and let it do its job while the shopper completes their purchase.
Customer Photos are Your Secret Weapon
More than seven in ten shoppers say they trust a product more when they can see real customer photos alongside the review.
It makes sense when you think about it. A photo of someone actually using your product answers the question every shopper is quietly asking: “Does this actually look like what they say it does?”
Your customers are already taking photos of their purchases and sharing them on Instagram, in WhatsApp groups, in the review itself.
Getting those photos into your review feeds is one of the quickest wins available to most WooCommerce store owners.
Can Reviews Feed Pro Show Customer Photos?
Reviews Feed Pro displays customer photos within review feeds and shows them in a clickable lightbox gallery so shoppers can view them full size.
That’s exactly the kind of detail that turns a curious browser into a confident buyer. And you don’t need to do anything technical to make it work.
If a customer uploaded a photo with their review, it shows up in your feed automatically.
FAQs on Displaying WooCommerce Reviews
Can I show my WooCommerce reviews on my homepage?
Yes, but WooCommerce doesn’t support this natively, so you’ll need a plugin. Reviews Feed Pro by Smash Balloon makes it straightforward: connect your store, build a feed, choose a Carousel layout, and paste the shortcode into your homepage. Most store owners have it live in under ten minutes.
Is the manual coding method really that difficult?
It’s not impossible. A developer with WordPress and PHP experience can set it up. But for a store owner without coding knowledge it’s daunting, and even for experienced developers it creates an ongoing maintenance burden every time WooCommerce updates.
For most store owners, the time and effort outweighs the benefit when a plugin can do the same thing in minutes. The manual route can work, but it rarely makes sense when you weigh up the full cost of doing it properly.
Will adding a reviews plugin slow my website down?
Reviews Feed Pro stores reviews locally on your site, so it doesn’t make live requests to external platforms every time a page loads. Images are optimised and only load when they scroll into view. Most store owners see no noticeable impact on page speed. If you want to verify for yourself, run a Google PageSpeed Insights test before and after installation.
How do I get more customers to actually leave reviews?
Three things that consistently work:
- Send a follow-up email a few days after delivery asking for a review. Most email tools or WooCommerce itself can automate this with minimal setup.
- Link directly to the review section of the product page in the email. The fewer clicks between your customer and the review box, the better.
- A small thank-you incentive like a discount on their next order is often all the nudge a happy customer needs.
Ready to Get Your Reviews Working Harder? Here’s Where to Start.
Your customers are already leaving you some of your best marketing content. It’s just been hiding where most shoppers never look. Now you can change that, and it doesn’t take long.
Three steps to get started today:
- Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products, then scroll to the Reviews section. At minimum, enable product reviews and the “verified owner” label, but also consider whether to restrict reviews to verified buyers only, and whether star ratings should be optional or required.
- Install or update Reviews Feed Pro. Existing users just need to update the plugin from their WordPress dashboard to unlock WooCommerce support. New users can get started with Reviews Feed Pro here.
- Build your first feed and add it to your homepage.
Once your homepage feed is live, keep going.
Category pages, landing pages, your cart page.
Every new placement is one more opportunity to turn a hesitant browser into a confident buyer.
Each new feed takes minutes, not hours, so there’s nothing stopping you from getting your reviews working across your whole site.
Grab your copy of Reviews Feed Pro today and have your first feed live in just a few minutes!
