UGC Moderation Policy for Shopify: A Template and Rules

UGC Moderation Policy for Shopify: A Template and Rules

A UGC moderation policy for Shopify is a short written document that says which customer content (reviews, videos, photos, questions and answers) goes live on your product pages, which gets removed, who decides, and how fast. Write it down before you collect content at scale. It protects you from federal penalties, keeps shoppers’ trust, and lets your team make the same call every time.

Below you get the legal floor (FTC and Shopify rules), a policy structure you can adapt, a worked example of decisions, and a workflow for video and Q&A.

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TL;DR

Table of Contents

Why a written policy matters now

For years, review moderation was a taste question. It is now a compliance question. The FTC’s Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule took effect on October 21, 2024. It targets fake reviews, undisclosed material connections, and conduct that suppresses negative feedback, and it lets courts impose civil penalties.

Enforcement is no longer theoretical. According to a law firm summary of the FTC’s first steps, the agency sent warning letters to 10 companies on December 22, 2025, cautioning that continued noncompliance could lead to enforcement action.

A written policy does three things for a small Shopify team:

  1. It makes decisions consistent, so two people on your team do not treat the same review differently.
  2. It gives you a record showing you removed content for a stated, neutral reason.
  3. It tells customers what to expect, which reduces complaints when something is declined.

This article is general information, not legal advice. If you run sweepstakes, affiliate programs or large giveaways tied to reviews, have a lawyer who handles advertising law read your final policy.

The rules your policy has to sit inside

Federal rules: sentiment, disclosure, suppression

Three points from the FTC’s guidance shape almost every clause you will write:

We cover the details in two guides: FTC endorsement rules and copy-ready disclosures for Shopify and how to reward customers for reviews compliantly.

Shopify’s rules

Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy puts it plainly: you are responsible for following the rules of your platform, your partners and the law. That responsibility extends to content you publish on your own store, including content your customers wrote.

If you also sell through the Shop channel, additional rules apply. Shopify’s product review guidelines say merchants must not solicit positive reviews, offer compensation such as money, discounts or free products for reviews, or incentivize customers to change or remove existing reviews. Prohibited content includes spam, fake or incentivized reviews, and reviews with a conflict of interest, such as those from owners, employees or family. Violations can lead to review removal or, in severe cases, account-level action.

Shop also runs its own content moderation process for content on Shop stores. Your on-site policy does not replace it, but aligning with the same principles means fewer surprises.

One practical note: reports about a suspicious review in Shop can take up to five business days to investigate, and Shop does not follow up with the outcome. Do not build a policy that relies on the platform to clean up for you. Your own moderation is the first line.

The seven parts of a UGC moderation policy

1. Scope

List every surface the policy covers. For most Shopify stores that is:

Say who is covered: customers, prospective shoppers asking questions, and your own staff when they reply.

2. What you accept

Be generous here. A short, positive list reads better than a long list of bans:

State explicitly that you publish negative reviews that follow the rules. That sentence is the heart of a trustworthy policy.

3. What you remove

Tie every removal reason to something other than opinion. A workable list:

Removal reason Example Why it is neutral
Spam or promotion Links to another store, discount-code posts Applies to any rating
Hate speech, harassment, threats Slurs aimed at staff or other shoppers Safety-based
Personal data Phone numbers, home addresses, full names of staff Privacy-based
Off-topic content A complaint about a different brand’s product Relevance-based
Conflict of interest Review by owner, employee or relative Mirrors Shopify’s guidelines
Suspected fake or incentivized Review written in exchange for a reward tied to its rating Mirrors FTC and Shopify rules
Illegal or unsafe content Counterfeit claims, dangerous instructions Legal
Unverifiable medical claims Statements that a product cures a condition Legal and safety

Notice what is not on the list: “too negative,” “hurts conversion,” or “mentions a competitor in a fair comparison.” If a review is angry but honest and civil, it stays.

4. Verification

Decide what proves a reviewer is a real buyer, and what label that earns. Matching the reviewer to an order is the strongest signal. Our guide on post-purchase checks to verify Shopify reviews walks through four checks, and the verified purchase badge approach shows how to match text, video and Q&A to the same order.

Your policy should say what an unverified post is allowed to do. A common rule: unverified questions are welcome, but only verified buyers can answer as customers, and answers from staff are labeled as staff.

Video raises the stakes. A clip can show a child, a street address on a parcel, a face, or a voice from another room. Require the customer to confirm they are the person speaking and that they agree to publication on your product page. Write your checklist into the policy. We list four pre-publish checks in our customer video privacy guide.

6. Response times

Set a number and keep it. For example: new content is reviewed within two business days, flagged content within one. The number matters less than the habit of meeting it. A review queue that sits for three weeks tells customers you do not care.

7. Appeals and corrections

Let customers contact you if their content was declined and tell them the reason in one sentence. Let them edit content to fix a problem, such as blurring an address, and resubmit. Do not offer anything in exchange for edits to their opinion. That would sit right where the FTC and Shopify rules draw the line.

Worked examples: publish or remove?

Policies fail at the edges. Train your team on cases like these.

“Arrived late and the zipper broke. One star.” Publish. It is honest, on topic and civil. Reply publicly with what you will do to fix it.

“Terrible, and the owner is a [slur].” Remove, or ask the customer to resubmit without the slur. The reason is harassment, not the rating.

A five-star review from your cousin. Remove. This is a conflict of interest under Shopify’s guidelines.

A video review where the buyer’s address label is readable. Hold, ask the customer for a retake or a blurred version, then publish.

A shopper asks, “Does this run small?” and a stranger answers confidently without having bought it. Publish the question. Hold the answer until a verified buyer or your team replies, or label it clearly as unverified.

A reviewer says they got a discount code for the review. Check how the code was offered. If the offer depended on a positive rating, stop the practice, and treat the reviews it produced with caution. If it was given to everyone who left any honest review, disclose it. Our rewards guide covers the line in more detail.

A customer threatens a chargeback unless you remove a review that mentions them. Do not respond with legal threats. Remove personal data if present; otherwise leave the review and reply politely.

Moderating video reviews and shopper Q&A

Video and live Q&A build more trust than stars alone, but they need a workflow rather than a gut check. A sturdy sequence:

  1. Collect from real buyers after delivery, ideally through a link or QR code on the packaging.
  2. Match the submission to an order.
  3. Screen for the removal reasons above, plus faces of minors, readable personal data and background audio.
  4. Approve, hold or decline with a logged reason.
  5. Publish where shoppers will actually see it, not buried below the fold.
  6. Review monthly: how many were declined, why, and whether any pattern suggests bias.

We break the review step down in a six-step workflow for moderating video reviews against FTC rules. For collection, see three steps from QR code to product page, and for placement, the video review rollout guide.

The monthly audit is the step most stores skip, and it is the one that protects you. If 90% of your declined content is one-star reviews, your moderation is probably acting on sentiment, whatever your policy says.

Accessibility belongs in the policy

Customer video that cannot be read or heard by everyone is a gap. The Department of Justice takes the position that the ADA’s Title III applies to retail websites, and it points to practices such as synchronized captions for video, text alternatives for images and keyboard-only navigation. There is no single compliance certificate for a private site, so the point is to follow recognized practice, not to display a badge.

Three accessibility practices for customer review content

Add one clause: review and Q&A widgets must work with a keyboard, and video content should have captions or a transcript where feasible. For broader ideas on making product pages work harder for every shopper, see this guide to optimizing product pages for sales and SEO.

Our perspective: moderation is a trust feature, not a filter

We built Peers for Shopify stores only, and what we see again and again is that merchants worry about the wrong risk. They fear a bad review will cost a sale. Shoppers, in our experience, read a page with only glowing feedback as a page with something to hide. A visible mix of honest video reviews and real answers from verified customers is what settles hesitation.

So we treat moderation as protection for authenticity. The tools merchants need are practical: a queue to approve or decline, clear reasons logged against each decision, control over where content appears, and analytics that show whether shoppers engage. Reasons should be about safety, privacy, spam and relevance. Rating should never be on the list.

Our advice for any store, whatever tool you use: write the policy in a page, publish a short version, and audit your own decisions every month. If you would be uncomfortable explaining a removal to the customer’s face, the removal is probably wrong.

— Leo

Putting the policy to work with Peers

If you want video reviews and shopper Q&A on product pages with moderation built in, Peers on the Shopify App Store is made for exactly this. It embeds post-purchase video reviews and Q&A directly on the product page, with moderation tools, customizable design, mobile support and engagement analytics. There is a Free plan, and Peers Growth costs $15 per month. You can install it from the Shopify App Store and apply the policy above from day one. If you prefer to see how it looks first, the Peers demo store shows the widget on live product pages. Our guide to embedding post-purchase video reviews without theme code covers setup.

A short public version you can adapt

Publish something like this on a help or reviews page, then edit it to fit your store:

FAQ

Can I remove negative reviews on my Shopify store?

Only when they break a neutral rule, such as spam, harassment, personal data, or a conflict of interest. Removing reviews because they are negative can amount to review suppression, which the FTC’s rule targets. When in doubt, publish and reply.

Incentives are not banned outright, but they cannot be conditioned on a positive or particular sentiment, and material connections must be disclosed. Shopify’s Shop channel is stricter and bars compensation for reviews. Check the rules for each channel where your reviews appear.

Do I need a moderation policy if I only get a few reviews?

Yes, but a short one is enough. Early habits set the tone, and a one-page policy is easier to follow before your volume grows. It also gives you something to point to if a customer asks why content was declined.

How should I handle customer videos with personal information?

Hold the video, ask the customer to resubmit or edit it, and publish only once readable addresses, minors’ faces and other private details are gone. Confirm the customer consented to publication on your product page. If a case involves a minor or a legal dispute, consult a lawyer.

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