You can transfer Etsy reviews to Shopify, but only as copies. Shopify has no built-in review import. Its own guide to migrating from Etsy says to use third-party apps from the Shopify App Store for reviews, and Etsy lets you download your reviews from Shop Manager. The words, star ratings, dates and reviewer display names can move. The Etsy context around them cannot: the link to a real Etsy order, your Star Seller standing, and, under Google’s current guidelines, the right to turn them into review stars in search results.
Last checked: September 23, 2026.
Platform settings and app features change often, so treat every step below as correct at the time of writing (September 2026) and confirm it on the official page before you act.
What moves and what stays: the short version
Most guides on this topic describe the import and stop there. The more useful question is what each review is still worth once it lives on your own store.
| Item | Can it move? | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Review text | Yes, as a copy | Keep it unedited. Changing a buyer’s words changes what the review is. |
| Star rating per review | Yes, if your method keeps it | A hand-copied spreadsheet only keeps ratings if you record them yourself. |
| Review date | Yes | Showing the original date is more honest than letting everything look new. |
| Reviewer name | Technically yes | Decide how much of a buyer’s name you need to show at all. |
| Buyer photos | Technically yes | The photo belongs to the buyer, which is a separate question from the text. |
| Link to a real Etsy order | No | On your store the review is a quotation, not a verified purchase. |
| Star Seller badge and Etsy shop rating | No | Those are Etsy’s measurements of your Etsy shop and stay there. |
| Etsy search benefit | No | Reviews help you inside Etsy search. That effect does not travel. |
| Google review stars from imported reviews | No | Google’s guidelines say not to aggregate reviews from other websites. |
| Reviews of items you no longer sell | Only as shop-level testimonials | There is no product page to attach them to. |
Step 1: Download your Etsy reviews before you change anything
Do this first, while your Etsy shop is fully open and nothing has been renamed, deactivated or closed. According to Etsy’s help article How Do I Download My Etsy Data?, checked on September 23, 2026, the path is Shop Manager, then Settings, then Options, then the Download Data tab. Under “Take your data with you” there is an option to download your reviews, separate from the listings and orders CSV files.
Open the file as soon as it arrives and check what it actually contains. Look for review text, star rating, date, reviewer name and, most importantly, something that tells you which listing each review belongs to. Sellers in Etsy’s community forum have reported this download failing at times. If yours does, contact Etsy support now rather than after the shop is winding down. Either way, save a copy somewhere outside Etsy.
Step 2: Decide where each review belongs
This is the step most import guides skip, and it is where the real work sits. Each review was written about one item, in one version, and on your Shopify store it has to land somewhere. There are only two honest places for it.
On the matching product page. This works when the Shopify product is the same thing the buyer reviewed: same design, same materials, same maker. Color and size variants of one product are usually fine. A redesigned version with different materials is a different product, even if the name is the same.
On a shop-level testimonials page or section. This is where reviews go when the original listing no longer exists. The Etsy listings CSV only covers what is currently for sale, and Shopify’s migration guide describes the same limit, so anything you retired on Etsy will not have a product on the Shopify side to match. Those reviews still say something true about you as a seller. They just cannot say something true about a product you no longer make.
The reason to be strict here is not only neatness. The US Federal Trade Commission has brought an enforcement case over what it calls review hijacking, where reviews of one product were shown on a substantially different one.
The FTC’s own questions-and-answers page on its Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, checked on September 23, 2026, also notes that using non-representative consumer reviews in marketing could be deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act.
This is not legal advice. If your catalog changed a lot between Etsy and Shopify, or you sell outside the US, ask a qualified professional how these rules apply to you.
How to transfer Etsy reviews to Shopify: three routes
Once every review has a destination, you choose how to move it. Shopify’s guide Migrate from Etsy, checked on September 23, 2026, lists reviews among the data you might want to migrate and says you can use third-party migration apps from the Shopify App Store to import them.
The same page describes a first-party Store Migration app, in early access at the time of writing, that imports products from Etsy. It does not describe that app importing reviews.
Route 1: Manual spreadsheet. You build a sheet from your downloaded file, one row per review, with the Shopify product handle in a column, then upload it through your review app, if that app accepts CSV imports. This is slow but gives you full control over which reviews go where. It suits small shops.
Route 2: One-time import app. An app reads your Etsy reviews and writes them into its own review system on your Shopify store. Faster, but you still need to check its product matching by hand, because an automated match on titles will not know that a product changed.
Route 3: Ongoing sync. Some apps keep pulling new Etsy reviews for as long as both shops exist. That only makes sense if you plan to keep selling on Etsy alongside Shopify, which is a decision worth making on purpose. If you are weighing it, the trade-offs of opening a store before you leave the marketplace matter more than the review feature.
This guide does not recommend a particular app. Whatever you consider, ask the same questions of it:
- Does it keep the star rating and original date for each review?
- Can it label imported reviews with their source?
- Does it add review structured data to imported reviews, and can you turn that off?
- If you uninstall it later, can you export your reviews, including the ones collected on Shopify?
The last question matters more than it looks. Your reviews should outlast any one app.
Why transferred Etsy reviews will not earn Google review stars
Many sellers move reviews partly hoping to see star ratings next to their products in Google. Imported reviews are the wrong route to that.
Google Search Central’s documentation on review snippets, which showed a last-updated date of September 8, 2026 when checked on September 23, 2026, says plainly: “Don’t aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites.” It also says ratings must be sourced directly from users. Reviews copied from Etsy were collected by Etsy, on Etsy.
Two practical consequences follow. First, check whether your review app adds structured data to every review it shows, including imported ones. If it offers a way to exclude imported reviews from that markup, use it. Second, accept that review stars in search, if they ever appear, will come from reviews your own customers leave on your own store. Google decides whether to show them either way, so treat them as a possible side effect of good product pages that do not read like marketplace listings, never as a promise.
Imported reviews still do real work. They reassure a person who is already on the page. That is a trust job, not a ranking job, and it is worth doing on its own terms.
Who owns an Etsy review: the permission question
Being able to download something is not the same as having permission to republish it. Etsy’s Terms of Use, read on September 23, 2026, treat reviews as content posted by the user who wrote them, with a license granted to Etsy and to third parties Etsy authorizes.
On a plain reading, nothing in that text hands the seller a separate right to republish a buyer’s review elsewhere, and the terms do not clearly settle the question either way.
A careful approach reduces the risk without pretending it away:
- Show reviews as clearly sourced, for example “Originally left on our Etsy shop,” with the original date.
- Show the least identifying version of a name that still reads naturally, such as a first name and initial.
- Leave out buyer photos unless you have asked the buyer and they agreed.
- Where a review names a person or includes details about them, leave it out.
If reusing reviews is central to your plan, or you sell into places with strict privacy law, get advice from a professional who can read the current terms against your situation.
Label imported reviews honestly
How imported reviews look on the page decides whether they build trust or quietly erode it. A shopper who sees fifty five-star reviews all dated the week the store opened will draw their own conclusion.
Keep the original dates. Keep the lower ratings along with the high ones, since a mix reads as real and a wall of perfect scores does not. Keep the source label visible. And do not edit review text, even to fix a typo, because a review you have edited is no longer entirely the buyer’s.
Reviews are one of several signals a marketplace supplied that you now have to rebuild yourself. The wider list, including policies and contact details, is covered in trust signals the marketplace supplied and how to rebuild them.
Start collecting Shopify reviews from day one
Imported reviews age. Within a year, a store that only shows Etsy reviews looks like a store that stopped selling. The durable fix is to ask your own customers, on your own store, as soon as you have them.
The simplest system is a single request sent a sensible time after delivery, which fits naturally into building an email list from zero in your first 90 days. Be careful with incentives. The FTC’s rule also covers rewards offered in exchange for reviews, particularly rewards tied to a review being positive, so read the FTC’s guidance before offering anything for a review. Ask everyone the same way, and publish what comes back.
When not to bother moving them
There are honest cases where transferring reviews is not worth the effort:
- You have only a few reviews. Quoting a handful on your About page, clearly sourced, may do the same job as an app.
- Your products changed. If most Etsy reviews describe items you no longer make, they belong on a testimonials page, not product pages.
- You are keeping Etsy open. Linking to your Etsy shop reviews may be simpler than copying them, as long as the shop stays open.
- The download will not work. Rebuilding reviews from memory or screenshots invites errors. Starting fresh on Shopify is a legitimate choice.
FAQ
Can Shopify import Etsy reviews by itself?
At the time of writing (September 2026), no. Shopify’s Migrate from Etsy guide says to use third-party apps from the Shopify App Store to import reviews. Its first-party Store Migration app is described as importing products, not reviews. Check the guide again before you start, as this may change.
Will my Etsy star rating show on my Shopify store?
Your shop-wide Etsy rating and Star Seller badge do not transfer. Individual reviews with their own star ratings can be imported and displayed, and your review app will calculate a new average from whatever you import and collect.
Can I use imported Etsy reviews for Google review stars?
Google’s review snippet guidelines, checked September 23, 2026, say not to aggregate reviews or ratings from other websites and that ratings must come directly from users. Imported Etsy reviews do not fit that description. Stars in search, if Google shows them, need to come from reviews left on your own store.
Do I need buyers’ permission to post their Etsy reviews on my site?
Etsy’s Terms of Use grant a license to Etsy, not directly to sellers, and they do not settle this question clearly. Sourcing reviews openly, minimizing names and skipping photos lowers the risk. For a firm answer on your situation, ask a qualified professional.