Product reviews are one of the most valuable ecommerce assets — and one of the most commonly lost during platform migration. WooCommerce reviews are stored in the WordPress database as comments tied to product post IDs. After migrating products to Shopify (which assigns new product IDs), you need to re-link those reviews to the correct new products. The process requires careful export, mapping, and import — but it's entirely doable and preserving your review data is worth the effort for any store with meaningful review volume.

Why reviews matter for migration

Social proof: product pages with 10+ reviews convert significantly better than pages with zero reviews
SEO: review content provides fresh, user-generated keyword-rich text that search engines index
Trust: a store that launches with no reviews after having hundreds looks abandoned or suspicious
Google Shopping: product ratings (stars) in Shopping ads require a minimum number of reviews per product. Losing reviews can cost your Shopping performance.
Bottom line: losing reviews in migration is the equivalent of losing months or years of customer trust-building

Exporting WooCommerce reviews

Method 1: WooCommerce export plugin

Judge.me Migration tool: if your WooCommerce store had Judge.me for WooCommerce, the Shopify Judge.me app includes a direct migration importer
WP Review Migrator: some review export plugins can export WooCommerce reviews to CSV format
Product Reviews Exporter (Brutto): exports WooCommerce native reviews to CSV

Method 2: Direct database export

WooCommerce reviews are stored as WordPress comments with comment_type = 'review':

SQL query to export reviews:
SELECT p.post_name as product_slug, p.ID as product_id, c.comment_author as reviewer_name, c.comment_author_email as email, c.comment_content as body, c.comment_date as created_at, cm.meta_value as rating FROM wp_comments c JOIN wp_posts p ON c.comment_post_ID = p.ID LEFT JOIN wp_commentmeta cm ON c.comment_ID = cm.comment_id AND cm.meta_key = 'rating' WHERE c.comment_type = 'review' AND c.comment_approved = 1
Export the result to CSV from phpMyAdmin, WP CLI, or your hosting database tool
Key fields: product_slug (matches to Shopify handle), reviewer name, email, rating (1–5), review body, date

Review import apps for Shopify

Shopify Product Reviews (official, free)

Shopify's own review app — free, basic, well-integrated
Import format: CSV with specific columns (product_handle, title, author, email, rating, body, created_at)
Limitations: no photo reviews, no Q&A, no review widgets, limited display customization
Best for: stores with small review volume that need basic review display

Judge.me (most popular migration target)

Judge.me Free plan: unlimited review imports, basic display
Judge.me Awesome (£15/mo): verified reviews, review requests, Q&A, photo/video reviews, Google Shopping integration
Import: CSV import or direct WooCommerce migration if you had Judge.me for WooCommerce
CSV format: product_handle, title, body, rating, reviewer_name, email, created_at, published (true/false)
Photo reviews: Judge.me can import photo reviews if you have the photo URLs in your export

Yotpo

Enterprise review platform — more expensive but deep Google/Meta integration
Yotpo supports review import from WooCommerce via their migration service
Best for: stores with large review volume (1000+) and significant Google Shopping ad spend

Mapping WooCommerce product IDs to Shopify handles

The critical step in review migration is matching each WooCommerce product review to the correct Shopify product:

WooCommerce products have a WordPress post ID (integer) and a post_name (slug/URL slug)
Shopify products have a product ID (different number) and a handle (URL-friendly slug)
The WooCommerce product slug usually matches (or closely matches) the Shopify product handle — both are generated from the product title
Mapping process: export WooCommerce products with their slugs; export Shopify products with their handles. Create a lookup table: WooCommerce slug → Shopify handle. For identical slugs, the mapping is automatic. For changed slugs, manual mapping is required.
Bulk mapping: use VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH in Excel/Google Sheets to cross-reference the two product lists
Missing products: if a WooCommerce product was discontinued and not migrated to Shopify, its reviews have nowhere to go. Decision: either discard them or archive them for reference.

Verified purchase status

WooCommerce marks reviews from customers who purchased the product as "verified purchase"
After migration, all imported reviews are technically "unverified" — they came from the old platform's customer records
Judge.me: allows marking imported reviews as "verified" in the import CSV (verified_purchase: true) if you have confidence in their authenticity
Google Shopping: requires a significant number of verified reviews for the product rating star display in ads. Reviews imported as verified may satisfy this requirement.
Be accurate: don't bulk-mark imported reviews as verified if some were from non-purchasers (giveaways, etc.). Preserve the original verification status from WooCommerce.

Post-migration review strategy

Review request emails: After migration, trigger review request emails to recent customers (last 90–180 days). Judge.me, Yotpo, and Klaviyo all support post-purchase review request flows.
Re-engagement for existing reviews: Email existing reviewers thanking them for their review and mentioning the new store — builds relationship and drives return visits.
New review incentive: Offer a small discount (5–10%) on next purchase for leaving a review on the new store — accelerates fresh review accumulation post-migration.
Google Product Ratings: Submit your product feed with review data to Google Merchant Centre. Judge.me and Yotpo integrate with Merchant Centre to show star ratings in Shopping ads.

Product review migration checklist

Export WooCommerce reviews via plugin or database SQL query
Export product slug/handle mapping: WooCommerce slugs and Shopify handles
Map WooCommerce product IDs to Shopify handles (use spreadsheet lookup)
Choose review app: Shopify Product Reviews (free/basic) or Judge.me/Yotpo (full-featured)
Install review app on Shopify before importing
Format review CSV to app's required format (product_handle, author, rating, body, created_at)
Import reviews via app's CSV import tool
Verify imported review count matches exported review count
Check that reviews appear on correct product pages (spot check 10 products)
Set up post-purchase review request email flow in review app
Configure Google product ratings feed if running Google Shopping campaigns

Review migration is the most operationally intensive part of a WooCommerce to Shopify migration — and most stores skip it, relying on review platforms that were deleted or simply launching without reviews. The stores that do migrate reviews consistently outperform post-migration because product pages with established reviews convert immediately, rather than needing 6–12 months to re-accumulate. For high-review-count stores (50+ reviews on popular products), the conversion and SEO value of those reviews is worth several hours of migration effort. For stores with fewer than 100 total reviews, it may be faster to simply launch a post-migration review campaign than to perform the mapping exercise — but the decision should be deliberate, not accidental.

Importing WooCommerce product reviews to Shopify (2026)