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How-to

Importing Product Reviews

The Upload Reviews tool lets you bulk-import product reviews from a spreadsheet instead of entering them one at a time. This is useful when you are migrating reviews from another platform, seeding a new StoreFront with existing customer feedback, or restoring reviews from a backup.

You reach the tool from the Review Settings screen: Item Management → Review Settings → Upload Reviews. From the upload screen you can return at any time using the Return to Item Review Settings link at the bottom of the page.

Table of Contents​

Overview​

Each row in your spreadsheet becomes one product review, attached to the item you name in the Item ID column. You can import reviews in any status (Approved, Unapproved, or Rejected), set star ratings, preserve the original submission dates, carry over helpful-vote counts, attach review photos, and link reviews back to a customer profile by email.

The importer works in two passes:

  1. Validate checks that your spreadsheet is well-formed and reports which columns it found.
  2. Start Import processes every row, validating the details of each one and creating the reviews. Any rows that cannot be imported are listed when the import finishes.

Supported File Formats​

You can upload a spreadsheet in any of the following formats:

  • CSV (.csv)
  • Excel (.xls)
  • Excel (.xlsx)

Column headers are matched by name, so the order of your columns does not matter. Matching ignores letter case and any surrounding spaces, so Item ID, item id, and ITEM ID are all treated the same.

tip

Need a starting point? Use the Download a sample spreadsheet link on the Upload Reviews screen, or download the sample spreadsheet attached to this page. It contains every supported column, already filled in with example rows you can replace with your own data.

Column Reference​

The following columns are required for every import:

ColumnDescriptionExample
Item IDThe item the review belongs to. Must match an existing item ID on your account.HNS
StatusReview status: Approved, Unapproved, or Rejected.Approved
FeaturedWhether the review is featured (Yes / No).Yes
Review TitleShort headline for the review.Thank you soooo much
Review ContentThe full text of the review.I have been taking Heal-n-Soothe for about 3 months...
Product Rating: OverallOverall star rating, 1 through 5.5

The following columns are optional. Include only the ones you need:

ColumnDescriptionExample
SubmittedThe date the review was submitted, in MM/DD/YYYY format. Leave blank to use the import date.07/04/2021
Reviewer NicknameThe display name shown with the review. May be left blank for an anonymous review.Fran Burke
Reviewer EmailThe reviewer's email address. Used to link the review to a customer profile when a match is found.fran.burke@example.com
Recommend To FriendWhether the reviewer would recommend the product (Yes / No).Yes
Helpful Yes VotesNumber of "this review was helpful" votes to carry over.12
Helpful No VotesNumber of "this review was not helpful" votes to carry over.1
Awaiting ScreeningWhether the review is still awaiting screening (Yes / No).No
Review MediaA URL to an image to attach to the review.https://.../heal-n-soothe-300.png

Step-by-Step: Upload a Spreadsheet​

  1. Go to Item Management → Review Settings, then open Upload Reviews.
  2. (Optional) Click Download a sample spreadsheet to get a template containing every supported column.
  3. Prepare your spreadsheet with the required columns and any optional columns you want to include. Save it as CSV, XLS, or XLSX.
  4. Click Choose File and select your spreadsheet.
  5. Click Validate. UltraCart checks the file's structure and reports how many review rows and columns it detected, and confirms whether the structure looks good.
  6. Review the detected column list to make sure UltraCart matched the columns you intended, including whether an email column was found.
  7. Click Start Import to create the reviews. Each row is validated as it is imported.
  8. When the import finishes, review the summary. Any rows that could not be imported are listed so you can correct and re-upload them.
  9. Use Return to Item Review Settings to go back to the Review Settings screen.

Email Matching and Customer Profiles​

If your spreadsheet includes a Reviewer Email column, UltraCart uses it to link each review to a customer profile when it finds a matching customer on your account. When the upload screen detects an email column during validation, it confirms this with a message such as "An email column was detected and will be used to link reviews to customer profiles when a match is found."

Linking reviews to customer profiles is optional. If a row has no email, or no matching customer is found, the review is still imported. It is simply not associated with a customer profile.

Validation and Failed Rows​

Validation happens in two stages:

  • During Validate, only the spreadsheet's structure and columns are checked. This confirms the file can be read and shows you which columns were matched, but it does not yet check the contents of individual rows.
  • During Start Import, the details of each row are validated. Item IDs, ratings, dates, and email matches are checked for every row.

Any rows that cannot be imported are listed when the import finishes. Common reasons a row fails include an Item ID that does not exist on your account, a rating outside the 1–5 range, or a date that cannot be interpreted. Fix the flagged rows in your spreadsheet and upload the file again to import the remaining reviews.

info

Re-uploading a corrected file imports the rows in that file. Remove rows that already imported successfully so you do not create duplicate reviews.

Tips​

  • Start from the downloadable sample spreadsheet so your headers exactly match what the importer expects.
  • Keep your source data in the sample's column layout, but remember order does not matter, only the column names.
  • Format the Submitted column as MM/DD/YYYY so dates import as expected.
  • Import a small test batch first to confirm the reviews appear the way you expect before importing a large file.
  • Reviews (tab in Item Editor)
  • Sharing Reviews Between Similar Items
  • All Reviews Report
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