Concern about suspicious/fake reviews for apps promoted on the Shopify App Store homepage

Shopify App Store
1

Hi Shopify team,

I would like to raise a serious concern regarding what appears to be suspicious or potentially fake review activity in the Shopify App Store.

While checking reviews for the app “EU Widerrufs-Button & Formular”, I noticed a large number of 5-star reviews that look very unusual. Many of these reviews appear to come from shops across different countries, but the app usage time shown is extremely low — often only 8 or 9 minutes with the app — while still leaving perfect 5-star ratings.

Example review page:

This is especially concerning because apps with this type of review profile are not just listed somewhere in the App Store — they are also being selected and promoted by Shopify on prominent App Store sections such as “Popular with merchants in Germany”.

From a merchant and developer perspective, this creates several problems:

  1. It damages trust in the Shopify App Store review system.
    If reviews can be manipulated or artificially inflated, merchants can no longer rely on ratings as a trustworthy signal.
  2. It creates an unfair advantage against honest app developers.
    Developers who build long-term value and collect genuine merchant feedback are disadvantaged if competing apps can rise quickly through questionable review patterns.
  3. It becomes even more problematic when these apps are promoted by Shopify.
    When Shopify features such apps on the App Store homepage or in curated sections, it gives them an additional layer of credibility, even if the review history appears suspicious.
  4. Merchants may make compliance-related decisions based on unreliable signals.
    In this specific category, the apps relate to EU consumer law and withdrawal/cancellation requirements. Merchants may assume that a highly rated and Shopify-promoted app is fully trustworthy, even when the review activity raises questions.

I am not saying that every short-use review is automatically fake. However, when there are many 5-star reviews from shops that appear to have used the app for only a few minutes, this should trigger a deeper review by Shopify.

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2

@Stefan_Neuser It is already flagged on several topics but not solved yet.

3

Thanks for reporting this @Stefan_Neuser. Ensuring reviews are authentic is something we are continually working to improve.

When you do spot these issues, the formal process is to submit the report a partner form so that our partner governance teams can investigate.

4

I’ve noticed some suspicious activity with a lot of these EU withdrawal button apps as well, they have all flown up to the top of my review tracker. I know they’re a hot topic at the moment because of the recent law changes, but I just don’t see how an app can genuinely pick up 1,200 five star reviews in a single week. Those of us who develop apps honestly know how difficult it is to get customers to leave a review in the first place. I’ll do a bit of digging next week and see what I can find.

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