How Many 5-Star Reviews Does It Take to Raise Your Store Rating?

A rating is an average, and averages are stubborn

Every new review is one voice among all the reviews already there. That is why a store with a handful of reviews can see its rating jump after a single good week, while a store with hundreds barely moves. It also means the question "how do we get to 4.5?" has a precise answer, and it depends mostly on how many reviews sit behind the current figure.

The review rating calculator works it out. Enter your current rating, how many reviews it is based on, and your target, and it returns the run of 5-star reviews it takes to get there.

Small base, large base

An imaginary candle shop rated 4.2 across 38 reviews needs 23 five-star reviews in a row to reach 4.5. An imaginary activewear brand rated 4.3 across 1,250 reviews needs 500 to make a smaller climb to the same target. The large base is slow to lift, but it is also slow to fall, which is its own kind of protection.

If you are already above your target, the calculator turns the question round and shows how many one-star reviews in a row your rating could absorb before dropping below it.

Plan with a realistic mix

Real reviews do not arrive in a clean run of five stars. A few four-star reviews, the occasional three, and the finish line moves back. The optional average-of-new-reviews field lets you plan with that in mind. An imaginary coffee subscription rated 4.1 across 210 reviews, expecting new reviews to average 4.8, needs 158 of them to reach 4.4.

Two other details matter. Most review widgets display one decimal place, so a store can show the target a little before its true average reaches it. And a rating of exactly 5 cannot be reached once any lower review exists; aim for 4.9 instead.

Asking for reviews the right way

• Ask everyone. Requesting reviews only from happy customers, or hiding negative ones, breaks the rules of most review platforms and consumer law in many countries.
• Time the request. Ask after the product has arrived and had a chance to be used, not at checkout.
• Make it easy. A direct link to the review form, on mobile, with as few steps as possible.
• Reply to criticism. A thoughtful reply to a poor review often reassures future shoppers more than another five stars.

Only a share of customers ever leave a review, so the orders needed to collect the count are many times the count itself. Plan the timeline around your order volume.

Reviews start with orders

To see how many of the customers behind those reviews come back, use the customer retention calculator. Nudgesmart works on the part of the visit before any review exists, with 13 campaign types, from email capture popups to spin wheels, for turning more visitors into customers. It is available on the Shopify App Store.