7 Review Request Email Templates (Free, Copy-and-Paste)
Seven proven review-request emails for different moments and product types, with the subject lines and the one line that lifts response most.
What makes a review request email actually get a reply?
Three things, and none of them is design. Name the specific product the customer bought, because relevance is what makes the ask feel addressed to a person rather than a list. Give one clear call to action, because a button competing with three other links splits attention and lowers the rate of the action you wanted. And keep the email plain, because a personal note from a founder reads as a request and a polished campaign reads as marketing.
Everything below is built on those three. The templates change with the moment and the product, but the spine stays the same: specific, single, plain.
- Name the exact product purchased, not "your recent order".
- One link, one ask, nothing competing beside it.
- Send from a real person, with a reply address that works.
- Say roughly how long it takes, because effort is the real objection.
The post-delivery template: ask once the product has arrived
This is the workhorse. Send it a few days after delivery, once the customer has had the thing in hand long enough to form an opinion but not so long that the purchase has faded. Open by naming the product, thank them plainly, and ask the one question whose answer is a usable review.
The line that lifts response here is a specific prompt rather than a generic ask. "How are the [product] holding up so far?" invites a sentence. "Please leave a review" invites nothing. Subject line: "How are your [product] working out?"
The replenishable and the considered-purchase templates
A replenishable product earns a review at the moment of reorder, not the moment of delivery. When someone buys the same coffee or serum a second or third time, the repeat purchase is itself the endorsement, so the email can be short and warm: "You have bought [product] three times now. Would you tell other people why?" Subject: "Round three of [product]".
A considered purchase, the mattress or the camera, needs the opposite pacing. Give it weeks, because the value reveals itself slowly, and acknowledge that in the email: "You have had the [product] for a month now. How is it settling in?" The longer wait costs you some opens and buys you far better sentences, which is the trade worth making for high-ticket items.
The photo-request and second-chance templates
For anything visual, clothing, furniture, anything that looks like something, ask for a photo and you change what you collect. A photo review answers a question text cannot: what it actually looks like in a real room, on a real person. Make the photo optional and the ask gentle: "If you have a second, a photo of your [product] in the wild would mean a lot." Subject: "Show us your [product]?"
The second-chance email is the one most stores skip and the one that quietly doubles results. Most people who do not open the first request are busy, not unwilling. Wait a week, change the subject line completely, shorten the body to two sentences, and send again only to people who did not open the first. Subject: "One quick thing about your [product]".
The VIP and win-back templates
Your best customers deserve a different tone. A VIP who has spent the most or bought the longest should feel recognised before they are asked, so lead with the recognition: "You are one of our first hundred customers, and your opinion carries weight with people deciding now." The ask lands differently when the relationship is named first.
The win-back email goes to lapsed customers, and it is honest about the gap: "It has been a while. Before you decide whether to come back, would you tell us how the [product] held up?" This one collects reviews and surfaces churn reasons in the same message, which is why the replies are worth reading even when no review comes.
Plain text or designed? And how many should I send?
Send plain. A personal-looking email from a named human tends to outperform a heavily designed template, because the design itself signals "bulk campaign" and lowers the sense that the message was meant for the reader. Strip the header image, drop to one link, and write it the way you would write to one customer.
On cadence, two touches is the sweet spot: the first request, and a single second-chance follow-up to non-openers. A third send rarely earns its keep and starts to cost goodwill. Pick the right template for the moment, send it twice at most, and let the next purchase trigger the next ask.
You collected the reviews. Are they doing any work?
A folder of glowing reviews is only worth what it earns you, and most of that value is decided after collection, not during. The reviews need to be readable in your page HTML, corroborated by third-party profiles, and phrased as answers to the questions buyers ask, or they sit unread by the search results and AI answers where people now decide what to buy.
Most review apps were built to collect and display reviews on the product page and stop there. Getting the reviews you already have quoted in search and in AI answers is the specific gap BetterReviews is built to close. These templates fill the folder; the harder job is making the folder count.
- How long should a review request email be?
- Short: three or four sentences for the first send, two for the follow-up. The body should name the product, make one ask, and give one link. Length reads as effort required, and the longer the email looks, the lower the response, so cut every line that is not the ask or the reason for it.
- Should I offer a discount for leaving a review?
- Sparingly, and never tied to a positive review. An incentive for any honest review is fine and can lift volume, but conditioning it on a good rating breaks FTC guidance and poisons the trust the reviews are meant to build. A plain ask, named to the product, often works without any incentive at all.
- Which template should I send first?
- The post-delivery template, for most stores. It is the workhorse that fits the widest range of products and timings. Add the replenishable, considered-purchase, or photo-request versions as your catalogue makes them relevant, and always add the second-chance follow-up, because it is the single cheapest way to lift total response.
- When is the best time to send a review request?
- A few days after delivery for most products, so the customer has formed an opinion without forgetting the purchase. Replenishables earn the ask at reorder, and considered purchases need weeks before the value shows. Match the timing to how the product reveals itself, not to a fixed number of days after checkout.