Shopify is stepping up on fake reviews. Let’s make it count

[Olllie]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been campaigning around fake reviews on the App Store for quite a while now, so I wanted to share a quick but important update from the Dev Community. A member of the Shopify team has confirmed they’ve set up a dedicated task force to tackle the issue. Thanks Paige!

That’s a really positive step, and honestly, long overdue.

But I think it’s also worth saying this clearly. Simply removing fake reviews isn’t enough anymore.

If an app gains installs, ranking, or revenue off manipulated reviews, the damage is already done. Quietly deleting those reviews later doesn’t level the playing field for honest developers, and it doesn’t rebuild trust for merchants who were misled.

There needs to be real consequences.

Things like:

• Partner removal

• Ranking penalties

• Temporary or permanent delisting

• Loss of “Built for Shopify” or other badges

• Clear signals to merchants when manipulation has occurred

Otherwise it just becomes a risk worth taking.

Also, to any developers out there even considering buying or generating fake reviews, I’d strongly rethink it. The scrutiny is increasing, the patterns are getting easier to spot, and Shopify is now actively investing in enforcement. It’s not as invisible as it might seem, and it will catch up with you.

For merchants, this is about trust. Reviews are one of the main signals you rely on when choosing apps. Protecting that system benefits everyone.

And for developers trying to build properly, this matters. Many of us are putting years into our apps, supporting users directly, and growing things the right way. It’s frustrating to compete against manipulated rankings, but it’s good to see movement in the right direction.

I’ll keep sharing anything I come across, and I’d encourage others to do the same. The more visibility we bring to this, the harder it becomes for bad actors to operate.

Keen to hear what others think would actually make enforcement effective here.

You can read more about this here: Is Shopify ever going to take fake app store reviews seriously?

[PaulNewton]

Good work championing on the .dev forums to get a public response
Obviously it’s one of those thing they’re working on all the time internally for a long time but man the silence is annoying because it makes it seem like nothing is gonna change while the issue grows bigger and bigger.
The .dev post https://community.shopify.dev/t/is-shopify-actually-addressing-the-fake-review-problem/25364
Hats off for the follow through so rarely seen.
Now for another waiting game phase.

Though if your on linkedin, etc might want to post there too if your network, there’s also some dev-alliance slack some made to replace the partner slack but I think it’s paid only, or invite if your a community-hero on the .dev forums.

Otherwise it just becomes a risk worth taking.

And extreme punishments are worth abusing by bad actors to send fake reviews at competitors.
Don’t push solutions that will be used against you or other good-users with prejudice.
It’s a hard problem to not bake in perverse incentives and false-positives into moderation processes.

Also see things like dagger of death mark on newyork times best sellers list.

[storefrontsentryapp]

This is a great move, and honestly overdue.

One of the biggest obstacles in my own app launch has been competing against what looks like fake-review manipulation from a larger competitor. When bad actors can inflate trust signals and rankings artificially, it hurts both honest developers and the merchants relying on those signals to make decisions.

Removing fake reviews is a good start, but on its own it is not enough. If manipulated reviews were able to drive installs, rankings, or credibility before removal, then the harm has already happened. There need to be meaningful consequences for abuse, otherwise it just becomes a risk worth taking.

I appreciate Shopify addressing this, and I’d be happy to support the effort however I can.

[B_8]

I have been campaigning for years. In Toronto I had very interesting talks face to face with members of the app store team. Last year around .dev some changes were already implemented. To us as app developers it will never be enough, but as they explained me, it’s a cat and mice game. Whenever Shopify comes up with a new limitation or requirement, those who abuse the reviews will find something new.

I am for harsher punishments, but it’s not always clear if a review was fake or not. I have given them several cases on a silver platter, explaining them how to identify them, but then at least one of those cases happened on an app we run. That made me understand how hard it really is. I don’t want to go into detail on this specific case, because it might make abusers smarter, but what if they automated that and they removed the Built for Shopify badge? So it’s a lot of manual work and we can only imagine how many reviews come in every single day.

[Olllie]

Awesome to hear you were discussing this at .dev, I’ve never made it over myself but would love to at some point!

I do agree with you and others on the double-edged sword of harsher punishments. They can definitely be abused or manipulated, and like you said, the last thing we want is a system that ends up being used against legitimate apps. At the same time though, the current situation isn’t exactly safe either, with things like fake negative review bombing already being possible.

It’s a tricky balance. Any solution needs to avoid false positives and weird incentives, but still actually discourage the behaviour in the first place. Otherwise, removing reviews after the fact doesn’t really undo the installs, rankings, or trust that came from them.

At the very least, even without harsher punishments, just consistently removal/archiving fake reviews would go a long way in levelling things out for honest developers. We’ve already seen that with the removal/archiving of reviews left by unpaid stores, which was a solid step in the right direction in my opinion.

From what I’m seeing in my own reports, it’s somewhere around 40,000 new reviews a month, so it’s no surprise it turns into a constant cat and mouse game on Shopify’s side.

Really appreciate your perspective on it though, especially given your experience firsthand. It definitely shows how careful Shopify will need to be with whatever they roll out next.

[mike331]

Totally agree — it’s a cat and mouse game, and the real damage happens in that window between the attack and Shopify’s response. Rankings drop, installs slow down, and even if the reviews eventually get removed, you’ve already lost ground.

One thing that’s helped me is checking my listings more frequently than relying on Shopify’s built-in notifications. Their system sends one email per review — it doesn’t flag patterns like multiple 1-stars hitting in a short window. Even a simple hourly check can catch things way faster than waiting for individual notifications to pile up.

Has anyone else set up their own monitoring for this? Curious what approaches people are taking.

[SEOAnt-Zoey]

Hi @Olllie ,Thank you for your hard work,it’s really great!!!

[Olllie]

No problem! I just want to make the app store better for honest developers and for people trying to find the best apps, which with the current issues isn’t really possible. If we all work together and keep the pressure on, hopefully we can drive some meaningful change.

If you ever have any ideas or suggestions, please share. And if you come across anything that doesn’t look right, it’s always worth reporting, even if it feels like nothing’s happening.

[PaulNewton]

Did you watch the partner townhall yesterday , wondering if they talked about this as I had to tune in late so the only problem I know for sure they touched on for the app store was the flood of copycat/ai-slop apps.

[Olllie]

Not yet! I had a family thing come up, so I’m going to watch it over the next few days and will report back.

I did submit a question about the issue, but it may have been skipped as I wasn’t there.

[Olllie]

@PaulNewton - I finally got around to watching the latest Partner Town Hall, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed there was no mention of the review issue on the App Store.

They did cover AI apps and copycats, which is something that’s affected me personally in the past, so it’s good to see that being acknowledged. There was also a clear message around moving towards a more open ecosystem where the best apps can win, and making the App Store clearer and more intuitive for merchants trying to solve problems.

That all sounds great in theory, but without addressing the review problem, it doesn’t really matter what else is improved.

Right now, someone can copy an honest developer’s app, pay for reviews, outrank them, and become the obvious choice for merchants. That completely undermines the idea of the “best apps winning” and makes the App Store more confusing, not less.

[PaulNewton]

@Olllie

was also a clear message around moving towards a more open ecosystem where the best apps can win
it doesn’t really matter what else is improved.

Agreed, I only saw the last part and the questions they answered we are softballs so all the messaging I heard was the c-suite glazing shopify.

There was the bit about the JSON 2MB kerfuffle, yet nothing revelatory not already known publicly on the dev forums about how they'll handle the 2MB Limit...

that they’re gonna grandfather old apps to have 2MB limits for JSON metafields;
https://shopify.dev/changelog/reduced-metafield-value-sizes
READ: ladder pulling and gatekeeping , new apps at immediate disadvantage (no carve out for merchant made apps afaik).
stage ~3 enshidifitation behavior where a platform just does whatever rugpulling it wants unless there’s enough public pushback.

So nothing of substance just vagueness , when it ended I felt my time had been wasted as I learned nothing new about shopify or it’s internals just the same excuses that existed even before the changelog system, or copycats, or fake reviews.
Like it was not-funny ironic with Harley talking , in regards to AIcommerce, about how SEO is a game of who has the most money, like this isn’t an exact thing happing with the “best apps winning” on the app store while adspend is a built in feature , and that current AI is intrinsically a more money wins game .

For fake reviews shopify is lightyears from a best app wins scenario, right now and for the foreseeable future it’s who’s the snakiest with enough cash to burn on bots/services for fraud.

[mike331]

The irony of talking about “best apps winning” while the review system makes that impossible — that’s the part that stings. You can’t have a merit-based marketplace when the ranking signals are compromised.

At this point I think the community just needs to keep documenting and reporting specific cases. The more evidence that piles up, the harder it becomes to keep ignoring at future Town Halls.

[Olllie]

Hey @PaulNewton and @mike331

I completely agree, we’re nowhere near a “best apps win” situation in the app market right now. With the review system as it stands, it’s the people willing to bend or break the rules who come out on top, usually with pretty sub-par apps.

I really appreciate you guys helping keep the pressure on and these conversations alive. If we keep shining a light on the issue, I’m sure we can push Shopify to take action.

To any Shopify folks reading this, it’s worth remembering that any one of us could respond to one of the hundreds of fake review offers, or jump on Fiverr and instantly boost our apps. Instead, we’re here, effectively taking a hit against dishonest app owners, being a bit annoying, but just trying to make the app store better for everyone.

Cheers,
Ollie

[Olllie]

No updates on this yet. As always, dishonest apps are winning rather than the best apps.

For example, these 4 apps, all from the same partner, went from receiving barely any reviews per week to suddenly getting up to 90 per week, all around 1 March. How does Shopify not pick this up?

These are all Built for Shopify apps from a reasonably prominent developer.

[B_8]

At $10 per fake review, that’s costing them dearly as well. Whoever does those fake reviews, needs to have the user’s Shopify login or a network of stores willing to get a few bucks to install and review.

On the ShopifyDev sub-Reddit there is even a pinned post from the mods where somebody is offering to help you get your first 100 installs. It costs $2000. Those 100 installs probably won’t get you any real customers. And at $20 a pop, there might be better ways to reach 100 installs

[Olllie]

Certainly does cost a bit! But far cheaper than advertising or other honest methods. Shopify ads, for instance, are often $10+ per click, and all that happens is a competitor clicks your ad a few times and your budget’s gone.

(Shopify ads per click bid)

From what I’ve seen, the review farms don’t use real active stores. They create dummy stores (fake products etc, really obvious), pay for a subscription (possibly from a country where it’s cheaper), and leave 8–10 reviews. Some of the more professional ones probably use networks of real stores though, which would make them extremely hard to detect.

[abueler]

It’s especially frustrating to see “Built for Shopify” apps with obvious fake review patterns. The BFS badge is meant to be a high-trust signal, and when it sits next to manipulated review counts it actively misleads the merchants the badge is supposed to protect.

One thing worth flagging first: reviews from closed stores don’t appear to be archived automatically anymore. That used to be a clean self-correcting mechanism (store closes, review archives), and losing it removes a low-effort, low-false-positive control. Anyone else seeing this?

A few ideas that might be worth adding to the discussion, with Paul’s weaponisation concern in mind throughout. Any mechanism that can be turned against honest developers is a problem in itself, so I’ve tried to focus on approaches where that’s structurally hard.

Composite trust indicator on each review. Rather than filtering reviews out (high false-positive risk against pre-launch and early-stage merchants who are legitimately evaluating apps), surface the trust signal visually. Each review carries a small verified marker if the reviewing store has paid for the app for at least 2 billing cycles, has real order history, has been on Shopify longer than X days, and is still active. Apple and Amazon do versions of this. It shifts the moderation burden from “censor” to “inform” and sidesteps most weaponisation risks because there’s no penalty triggered, just transparency.

Review weight decays if the store churns within 30 days. Pure backend change, no UI impact. A review from a store that’s still active a year later counts more in the rating calculation than one from a store that vanished within a month. Fake stores tend to disappear, real merchants stick around. Compounds nicely with the trust indicator above.

Add review hygiene to the Built for Shopify annual audit, with badge loss as a consequence. BFS is already re-evaluated annually, so review hygiene fits into the existing process at low marginal cost. Manual human review at annual cadence means an auditor can distinguish a developer who actively bought reviews from one who got hit with a review attack last month, which addresses the false-positive worry. Criteria could include anomalous review velocity inconsistent with install growth, high share of reviews from stores that churned within 30 to 90 days of leaving the review, reviewer-account overlap with other apps from the same developer or known farm clusters, templated language across reviews, and reviews from stores that don’t fit the app’s category profile.

Loss of the BFS badge is a meaningful consequence because it directly removes the unfair advantage the fake reviews bought, without killing the app outright. It also gives Shopify a sliding-scale enforcement option that doesn’t really exist today (currently it’s roughly “do nothing” or “remove from store”). Outcomes should be public (“App X lost BFS for review-policy violations in Q2 2026”) so merchants see consequences happened, but the detection methodology should stay private, same principle Shopify already applies in the existing review policy docs.

Curious what others think.

[Olllie]

Hey mate,

Apoligies for the delay. I’ve been on holiday, but back on the grind now!

That’s interesting about closed store reviews not being removed. I’ve wondered how the fake reviewers actually make a profit, as a paid store is required to leave a non-archived review. But if they can just pay once, leave reviews on a few apps for money, then close the store and the reviews remain, that makes sense! If they had to pay every month to keep the review there, they probably wouldn’t be able to make a profit. Perhaps a stronger push towards this would be a good way to tackle it!

You have some awesome ideas there. A bit more of a trust indicator for reviews would be great. I’d also love if they brought back the store link, so you can actually see if the store looks real. It is interesting how many reviews I look at that obviously show the store never actually used or paid for the app. Like reviewers on blogging apps that don’t even have a blog!

Regarding review weight, I think they probably already have bits around this, regarding longer usage time etc being more weighted. But if you’re right about the closed store reviews remaining, that explains why I see so many fake reviews come in initially as archived reviews, so that the install clock starts ticking. Then later they pay for a subscription, leave the review, close the store, and the review remains. Certainly feels like something that needs tightening up.

Also, another great point (I’m loving all these), yea, from what I’ve seen, the BFS review doesn’t seem to include much review of the reviews themselves. I still see stores with very obvious fake reviews that never get removed, even when the signs are really blatant, so they can’t be being looked at that closely.

@abueler These have all been great points, do you mind if I paraphrase them over to my post on the dev forum, so we can hopefully get them in front of the Shopify team? Do you have a dev forum account I can credit the ideas to?

[order_ops_guy]

Honestly the frustrating part is that fake reviews don’t just affect rankings, they also make it harder for merchants to know which smaller apps are actually good.

A lot of smaller developers are just trying to build useful products normally, so hopefully Shopify finds a way to improve trust signals without turning the App Store into a punishment system.