Removing Product Reviews May Increase Conversions

In a digital commerce environment where nearly every store displays product ratings and reviews by default, it may seem counterintuitive — even risky — to remove them.

Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash

But depending on your e-commerce environments removing product-level reviews can significantly boost conversion rates — and do so without negatively impacting return rates.

The Case for Removing Product Reviews

For many e-commerce businesses, especially those with fast-moving inventories, the majority of products accumulate only a handful of reviews — often too few to offer meaningful insight or signal trust. In these scenarios, product pages can end up showing:

• Sparse or unhelpful reviews
• No reviews at all, leading to a perceived lack of popularity or social proof
• Mixed signals, where a product with a 3.0 rating and two reviews may do more harm than good

Instead of helping customers, these underpopulated review sections often:

• Introduce uncertainty
• Distract from more relevant product content
• Create false negatives due to small sample…