New Product Reviews In 4.13.1

CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.13.1 are in the works. If all goes as planned, they will be released in the first half of 2021. In the meantime, we're looking for new ways to let you know what you can expect in the upcoming versions. This short video describes one of the features that have already been developed.

Among other things, we were often asked to revamp product reviews: allow customers to add images, allow sellers to reply to reviews, etc. So that's what we did in version 4.13.1. The revamp comes as a new add-on called "Product Reviews". In this video, we demonstrate how the new add-on works, and show how to move your existing reviews to the new add-on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHiU5UDdNkY

In this video, we've tried to strike a balance between running time and the details covered in it. Let us know what you think about the new product reviews and this kind of videos.

I'm following this addon from the development demo.
Very good overall. I think it is currently being developed for variants to share comments.
I want to add.
1-) It completely hides the commenter in anonymous posts. but it would be better if the name hides a certain part of the first and last name example Jo ** Do **
2-) All names and surnames become anonymous when transferring old comments. should be get commenters info.
3-) currently sharing comments with one product cariants, does not share comments on separate product variants. can be offered optionally. I think it will improve later, but I wanted to remind you. does not show which product variant commented on products with variants
4-) It would be more effective if it shows the cities of the commentators.
5-) I hope the mobile application supports this plugin simultaneously with 4.13.
I liked the rest in general. The best thing cs-cart does for UI / UX is this plugin for now. I expect the same dedication in the common product plugin.

I really hope this cart will be re styled on day

Looking nice! Some comments:

1. Please add review attributes that we can customize with individual star ratings, for example:

Look

Value for Money

Scent

See various add-ons on marketplace.

2. Anonymous is OK, but will it still be possible for a customer to change their name as well? It looks better / more trustworhy if a review has a name next to it. We have a lot of customers writing reviews and many (more than half) just leave their first name.

Looking nice! Some comments:

1. Please add review attributes that we can customize with individual star ratings, for example:

Look

Value for Money

Scent

See various add-ons on marketplace.

2. Anonymous is OK, but will it still be possible for a customer to change their name as well? It looks better / more trustworhy if a review has a name next to it. We have a lot of customers writing reviews and many just leave their first name.

Not to mention that these review attributes ought to be defineable by additionally linking them to product features, categories, or something of the likes.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far! Although we can't implement everything, some things may be addressed before the release of 4.13.1.

1-) It completely hides the commenter in anonymous posts. but it would be better if the name hides a certain part of the first and last name example Jo ** Do **


The current behavior is intended. If left a comment in an online store and chose to remain anonymous, I'd very much like my name or any of its parts not to appear next to the review.

2-) All names and surnames become anonymous when transferring old comments. should be get commenters info.


It does look like a bug. I'll let the developers know, thanks!

3-) currently sharing comments with one product cariants, does not share comments on separate product variants. can be offered optionally. I think it will improve later, but I wanted to remind you. does not show which product variant commented on products with variants


On the one hand, I see why it could be useful. A T-shirt in a different color is still the same T-shirt (even if we show it as separate products in the catalog). On the other hand, "variations as one product" are essentially just that (the same product; like a game console and the same console that comes bundled with some game straight from the manufacturer). That's why only "variations as one product" share the reviews for now.

4-) It would be more effective if it shows the cities of the commentators.


It already can show the city if you enable it in the add-on settings. Registered customers will have their city displayed, and customers who haven't signed in can enter it, just like they enter their name.

5-) I hope the mobile application supports this plugin simultaneously with 4.13.


I think that's the plan. What I can say for sure is that the integration of new product reviews into mobile app is currently in the works. The design seems to be finalized, and we should start working on the API soon.

But I'll be able to make promises only once the functionality has been fully implemented and tested in the app.

----

1. Please add review attributes that we can customize with individual star ratings, for example:

Look
Value for Money
Scent

See various add-ons on marketplace.


Not to mention that these review attributes ought to be defineable by additionally linking them to product features, categories, or something of the likes.


We definitely won't be able to introduce it in version 4.13.1. I understand why this functionality would be awesome to have. But it would also overcomplicate the configuration of categories, products, etc. We have to find balance between making the software customizable and easy to use. There is also the balance between focusing on specific functionality and developing all the parts of the product.

That's why for now we'll probably leave this kind of extended functionality for third-party add-ons.


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2. Anonymous is OK, but will it still be possible for a customer to change their name as well? It looks better / more trustworhy if a review has a name next to it. We have a lot of customers writing reviews and many (more than half) just leave their first name.


Thanks, it seems to be a practical thing, and within the scope of the current add-on. I can't promise that we'll include this in 4.13.1, but we'll definitely look into this before the release.

On the one hand, I see why it could be useful. A T-shirt in a different color is still the same T-shirt (even if we show it as separate products in the catalog). On the other hand, "variations as one product" are essentially just that (the same product; like a game console and the same console that comes bundled with some game straight from the manufacturer). That's why only "variations as one product" share the reviews for now.

I would love to see the option to share reviews across variations as separate products as well! Could you add this as a separat option? It would be great to have text below like: "The opinion comes from a similar product:" I can show you a few examples from big e-commerce stores which have exactly the same behaviour.

Moreover:

1) Pros & Cons secition should have it's own decorators mechanism (+ and - sign). No user will add manually pluses and minues and it will introduce chaos to the product reviews

2) It would be great to have in the database column called external_review_id or somehting like that. There are many external services which allow to aquire new product reviews and in order to import it to the cs-cart widget there need to be foreign key which will allow the import. It's really easy to implement and will allow to import reviews from ekomi or trusted shops and other review services.

3) Does the new product review addon extends json+ld markup? It's necessary!

Thanks in advance for the response & keep up with good work :-)

3) Does the new product review addon extends json+ld markup? It's necessary!

I've checked this on dev.demo.cs-cart.ru - there is no json+ld markup. You need to add it like this:

      "review": [{
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Fred Benson"
        }
      },
{
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Fred Benson"
        }
      }],
      "aggregateRating": {
        "@type": "AggregateRating",
        "ratingValue": "4.4",
        "reviewCount": "89"
      }

Please add it, it's important and affects CTR via showing rating in google SERP

This is one of those functionalities that is nice to have but not must have (for me), I am more interested in core functionalities checkout, shipping, payment and revamp of admin panel and UX.

But I like this method of opening up proposed feature for comments and evaluation by the community, there is a big cs-cart community with lot of experience and this is how you leverage the community to design and build solid features. It will save you lot of time and effort and deliver less buggy and well designed features.

Not sure why it took you guys so long to realize the potential of the community.

I absolutely agree with you, the new checkout page is really bad, Blocks is good but UI/UX really too bad, you never ask to us before release this bad checkout page.
The new admin and vendor panel is currently the most urgent need.

I've checked this on dev.demo.cs-cart.ru - there is no json+ld markup. You need to add it like this:

      "review": [{
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Fred Benson"
        }
      },
{
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Fred Benson"
        }
      }],
      "aggregateRating": {
        "@type": "AggregateRating",
        "ratingValue": "4.4",
        "reviewCount": "89"
      }

Please add it, it's important and affects CTR via showing rating in google SERP

Ikoshkin, any news about it?

Product detail top stars, appear only main productd, doesnt appear child variants. see image

[attachment=14956:product_review.jpg]

product_review.jpg

Thank you all for the suggestions. The pros and cons will most likely remain as text fields for the foreseeable future, and "external_reviews_id" is best left for the add-ons that would actually integrate CS-Cart with third-party review services. Such add-ons can require our "Product reviews" and potentially extend it.

JSON+LD and the problem with the stars for child variants are something we'll be looking into before the release of 4.13.1.

What about sharing reviews between variations as separate product with the text: "The opinion comes from a similar product: {proudct_name}"?

@ikoshkin - one more thing. If the text field Adventages and text field disadventages is empty then on the frontend those sections should not be visible, please fix it.

                
Advantages

When sharing comments between variants, it is not specified for which variant the comment was made. There used to be such a feature in dev.demo, why did you remove it?

The reviews are not copied correctly from Review addon. The addon does not recognize Parent Id for grouped products properly, Some yes some not.

What's the best way to include a review link to a specific product in our emails so that customers who have purchased can be encouraged to leave a review VIA email after a few days? Struggling on this one.

What's the best way to include a review link to a specific product in our emails so that customers who have purchased can be encouraged to leave a review VIA email after a few days? Struggling on this one.

Please have a look our addon.

Used by many stores.

Does it take customer directly to the leave a review form for the specific product purchases, or just the product page?