I came across this app openly offering 200 AI credits for leaving a Shopify App Store review. This feels unfair to teams who work hard to earn genuine reviews through product quality and support. I reported this to Shopify Support two weeks ago, but no action has been taken yet. How can we stop incentivized reviews from affecting the credibility of the Shopify App Store review system?
It isn’t allowed, but this is exactly some of the bad actors across the app store. I suggest reporting a partner violation here:
Hey Luke,
I’ve already reported this three times, but no action has been taken yet. It’s been two weeks now.
Unfortunately, I’m seeing this more and more often, that benefits are offered in exchange for reviews.
Another example is an EU withdrawal app. ( EU Withdrawal Button Free - EU withdrawal button and form compliant by 19 June 2026 | Shopify App Store )
A review in exchange for free lifetime use, even though the app doesn’t have any payment options. Increasingly, such offers - regardless of their nature - are no longer a rarity.
I’m unable to figure out who to contact next after posting on Twitter and submitting the violation form. It has been nearly three weeks, and I still haven’t received any email or response from anyone.
Not sure if anyone from Shopify has contacted that developer. The poster remains the same inside the app.
I read a few posts and found you @Paige-Shopify Could you please check this?
Thanks for flagging this @swetha_G - I’m investigating now
Review process is a total disaster.
Some stores are shadow banned. Owner leaves reviews and they are never shown to public for undisclosed reasons. Store owner keeps leaving reviews and thinks they are being shown because when they log it they see it but to rest of the world it is hidden! These are legit stores using platform for years.
Then there is review archiving. Such nonsense. Shopify archive real reviews because a store is no longer in business. Who is this helpful for? I think it was done as a easy way to curb fake reviews. Yet malicious shops when reported to support Shopify does nothing.
Support tickets around inaccurate reviews stay open for weeks with no resolution.
Reckoning is needed ASAP!
Thanks for taking charge @Liam-Shopify Hope the developer removes the review incentive banner.
As of now, it still exists and I hope to see all the fake reviews removed from this app
App: Ecopy: Import & Copy Products - 1-click & bulk product import with automatic color and variant | Shopify App Store
Reporting through the standard Partner Support form usually gets a quicker response than community-side reports, in my experience. The form has a dedicated “Report a Listing” path that goes to the App Store team directly rather than general support.
A few details that tend to make these reports move faster:
- A screenshot of the in-app prompt (you have this)
- The exact wording from the prompt
- The app’s listing URL
- A link to a recent review from the same time window that looks templated
Whether it actually gets enforced is another matter. There is a long-running incentivized-review problem on the App Store and it tends to surface most around the 50-review threshold and around BFCM. Worth raising publicly here as well because that pattern of “X credits for a review” is explicit policy violation and the team does respond when listings get attention.
Thanks for suggesting. But I don’t see the “report a listing” option in the partner violation form. Please let me know if you are talking about any other link.
Guys!
I have an update. The developer has removed the “200 AI Credits for a Review” banner from his app. Thanks @Liam-Shopify and @Paige-Shopify
However, the reviews that are earned by incentivising the merchants need to be removed (March and April) as the incentive banner is active from those months.
I’m surprised to see that the review count has remained the same despite such a clear violation.
Great result, cheers for helping improve the App Store!
The frustrating part is that the reviews most likely won’t be removed, the app owner probably won’t face any real consequences, and the wider problem will continue.
Even in extremely clear cases like this, there often doesn’t seem to be any meaningful punishment, so it’s easy to see why people keep chancing it.
Good outcome on the banner removal, @swetha_G.
On the report form: the path that worked for me last time is partners.shopify.com → Support → “Report a problem with the App Store” → category “Report a violation by another Partner.” It is not always labelled “Report a Listing” in the form itself, that wording is from the in-listing flow. If the dropdown does not show it, “Other → App Store policy violation” lands in the same queue.
Agreed with @Ollie_autoBlogger on the deeper problem. Even when the violation is screenshot-clear, removal of the existing review batch is rare. Banner gets pulled, reviews stay, the app keeps the lift. That is the part of the incentive economics that needs to break before this stops repeating.
I know I probably sound like I’m moaning about this all the time, but we keep seeing the same issues and never seem to hear anything concrete.
Folks @ Shopify, can you give us any insight into whether there’s a medium / long-term plan to remedy these issues with the App Store?
At the moment it feels like we’re talking to a brick wall, which is not how “Partners” should be made to feel 
Haha, I think we all feel like we’re moaning about this a bit much, but honestly, I think it’s warranted.
It’s the biggest problem affecting the App Store. Fixing or improving any other part of the store (or to be honest, anything related to app development) doesn’t mean a thing if apps can still get ahead through fake or dishonestly gained reviews.
They have plan. It consists of them ignoring your review support requests for months if not permanently for reviews that are clear violations.
this is not surprising at all. Shopify is mostly all talk.
@Ollie_autoBlogger @Luke @Alex_Hooper Have you come across this announcement?
It’s already been posted on here:
https://community.shopify.dev/t/strengthening-trust-in-app-store-reviews/