How to Migrate Your Shopify Review App Without Losing Reviews

Switching review apps is one of the most anxiety-inducing decisions for a Shopify merchant. You have spent months or years collecting hundreds or thousands of reviews. Those reviews drive conversion, build trust, and influence every purchase decision on your store. The thought of losing them during a migration is terrifying — and it is the number one reason merchants stay with review apps they have outgrown.

But here is the thing: review migration, done correctly, is a straightforward process. No reviews need to be lost. This guide walks you through the complete process step by step, covering migrations from the most popular Shopify review apps — Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, Stamped, and Okendo — to any new review app.

Before You Start: The Migration Checklist

Before exporting a single review, prepare by documenting what you have:

Inventory Your Current Reviews

Total review count across all products
Reviews with photos or videos (these are the most valuable and often require special handling during export)
Custom fields your current app uses (verified badge data, custom questions, attribute ratings)
Review responses you have written (these may or may not be exportable depending on your current app)
Review sources — were reviews imported from Amazon, AliExpress, or another platform? Note this for compliance purposes.

Document Your Current Configuration

Take screenshots of:

Your review widget on product pages (layout, styling, placement)
Your collection page star rating widgets
Your homepage review sections
Your review request email templates
Any custom CSS or theme modifications you made for your current review app

This documentation ensures you can replicate (or improve upon) your current setup in your new app.

Notify Your Team

If multiple people manage your Shopify store, inform them about the migration timeline. During the transition period (typically 1-3 days), review display may temporarily look different. Set expectations.

Step 1: Export Reviews From Your Current App

Every major review app supports CSV export. The process varies by platform, but the core steps are similar.

Exporting From Judge.me

In your Shopify admin, open the Judge.me app
Navigate to Settings > Import/Export
Click "Export Reviews"
Select CSV format
Choose "All reviews" (or filter by product if needed)
Download the CSV file

Judge.me exports include: product handle, review title, review body, rating, reviewer name, reviewer email, date, photos (as URLs), and verified purchase status.

Exporting From Loox

Open the Loox app in your Shopify admin
Go to Settings > General
Scroll to "Export Reviews"
Click "Export to CSV"
Download the file

Loox exports include review data and photo URLs. Note that Loox is photo-review focused, so pay special attention to ensuring photo URLs are accessible after export.

Exporting From Yotpo

Log into your Yotpo dashboard (not through Shopify admin — Yotpo uses its own dashboard)
Navigate to Reviews > Moderation
Click the export icon
Select CSV format and date range (select "All time" to get everything)
Download the export

Yotpo exports can be large for stores with many reviews. If you have custom questions or attribute ratings, verify these are included in the export.

Exporting From Stamped

Open Stamped.io in your Shopify admin
Go to Settings > Export Data
Select "Reviews" as the data type
Choose CSV format
Download

Stamped exports include standard review fields plus any custom form fields you configured.

Exporting From Okendo

Open Okendo in your Shopify admin
Navigate to Settings > Data
Click "Export Reviews"
Select your format (CSV recommended)
Download

Okendo exports include review content, media URLs, attribute ratings, and subscriber data if applicable.

Verify Your Export

After downloading your CSV, open it and verify:

Row count matches your expected review count. If you have 500 reviews and the CSV has 450 rows, something is missing.
Photo URLs are valid. Click a few photo URLs to ensure they load. Some apps host photos on their own CDN, which may become inaccessible after you uninstall the app. Download photos locally if needed.
Product handles are correct. Reviews are matched to products via Shopify product handles. Verify these match your current product handles in Shopify.
Dates are present. Review dates should be preserved to maintain the authentic timeline.
Encoding is correct. Open the CSV in a text editor (not Excel) to check for garbled characters, especially if you have reviews in non-English languages.

Step 2: Prepare the Import File

Different review apps have different CSV import formats. You will likely need to transform your exported CSV to match your new app's expected format.

Common Format Differences

Column names: "review_body" vs "body" vs "content" — different apps use different column headers
Date formats: "2025-01-15" vs "01/15/2025" vs "January 15, 2025"
Rating format: 1-5 numeric vs "5 stars" vs "5/5"
Product identifier: Product handle vs product ID vs product URL
Photo handling: URLs vs base64 encoded vs separate upload

Mapping Template

Create a mapping between your export columns and your new app's import columns. Most apps provide an import template or documentation specifying the exact expected format.

If you are migrating to Eevy AI, the import process accepts standard CSV formats from all major review apps. The platform automatically maps columns from Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, Stamped, and Okendo exports, so manual column remapping is typically unnecessary.

Handling Photos and Videos

Media files are the trickiest part of review migration. Three scenarios:

Photos hosted on the old app's CDN: These URLs may stop working after you uninstall the old app. Download all photos locally before uninstalling. Use a script or tool to batch-download from the URLs in your CSV.
Photos stored in Shopify Files: If your old app stored photos in Shopify's file system, they will remain accessible regardless of which app you use.
Video reviews: Video files are large and may require special handling. Check with your new app's support team for the recommended video import process.

Step 3: Set Up Your New Review App

Install and configure your new review app before removing the old one. This ensures zero downtime for review display.

Configuration Priorities

Import your reviews first — before configuring display settings. This way you can preview how your actual reviews look in the new app's widgets.
Match your current styling — use those screenshots you took earlier. Replicate your current font sizes, colors, and layout so customers do not notice a jarring change.
Configure review collection — set up your post-purchase email sequences, incentive programs, and review collection flows in the new app.
Test on a development theme — if possible, install the new app's widgets on a duplicate theme and preview before going live. This lets you catch display issues before customers see them.

Step 4: Import Reviews Into Your New App

The Import Process

Upload your prepared CSV to your new review app's import tool
Map any columns that were not automatically detected
Run a test import with a small subset (10-20 reviews) first
Verify the test import: check review content, ratings, dates, photos, and product associations
If the test looks good, run the full import
Verify the full import against your expected totals

Common Import Issues and Fixes

Missing product associations: Reviews imported without matching product handles appear as "orphaned" reviews. Fix by ensuring your CSV product handles exactly match your Shopify product handles. Check for leading/trailing spaces and case sensitivity.

Duplicate reviews: If you run the import multiple times (e.g., after fixing an issue), you may create duplicates. Most apps have a deduplication check, but verify after import.

Photo import failures: Photos that failed to import will appear as text-only reviews. Check your new app's error log for failed media imports and retry if possible.

Incorrect dates: If review dates imported incorrectly (e.g., all showing today's date), your date format mapping was wrong. Re-import with the correct date format.

Character encoding issues: Reviews with special characters, emojis, or non-Latin scripts may display incorrectly. Ensure your CSV is UTF-8 encoded.

Step 5: Verify and Go Live

Pre-Launch Verification

Before switching your live store to the new app:

[ ] Review count matches — total imported reviews = total exported reviews
[ ] Star ratings are correct — spot-check 10-20 reviews across different products
[ ] Photos and videos display — verify media attached to reviews renders properly
[ ] Product associations are correct — reviews appear on the right products
[ ] Dates are preserved — reviews show their original dates, not the import date
[ ] Review responses are intact — if you imported merchant responses, verify they display
[ ] Collection page ratings work — star ratings appear correctly on collection pages
[ ] Mobile display is correct — check the review widget on actual mobile devices

The Switch

The actual switch involves two steps:

Activate the new app's widgets on your live theme
Deactivate (or uninstall) the old app's widgets

Some merchants prefer to do this in reverse — remove the old widgets first, then activate the new ones. Either order works, but doing it quickly (within minutes) minimizes the window where visitors see no reviews.

Important: Do not uninstall the old app immediately. Deactivate its display widgets, but keep the app installed for at least a week in case you need to reference anything or re-export data. Uninstalling an app may permanently delete its data from your store.

Post-Launch Monitoring

For the first 48 hours after switching, monitor:

Conversion rate — any significant drop may indicate a review display issue
Page speed — the new app should not be slower than the old one
Customer feedback — watch for support tickets about missing or incorrect reviews
New review submissions — verify that new reviews are being collected and displayed correctly

Migration Paths: Specific Considerations

Migrating From Judge.me

Judge.me has one of the cleanest export formats. The CSV includes all standard fields and photo URLs. Judge.me reviews also include a "verified" flag that most apps can import. If you have used Judge.me's Q&A feature, note that Q&A data may export separately from reviews.

For a detailed comparison of features when switching from Judge.me, see our Eevy AI vs Judge.me comparison.

Migrating From Loox

Loox is photo-review focused, so pay extra attention to photo migration. Loox hosts photos on its own CDN — download all photos before uninstalling Loox, as the CDN URLs will become inaccessible.

For feature differences, see our Eevy AI vs Loox comparison.

Migrating From Yotpo

Yotpo is the most complex migration due to its extensive feature set. If you use Yotpo's loyalty program, SMS features, or subscriptions alongside reviews, those are separate products that need separate migration planning.

For the review-specific migration, Yotpo's CSV export covers standard review data. Custom question responses and attribute ratings may require additional mapping work.

See our Eevy AI vs Yotpo comparison for feature-by-feature details.

Migrating From Stamped

Stamped exports are clean and well-formatted. If you use Stamped's NPS surveys or checkout reviews, note that these may export as separate data types from product reviews.

Migrating From Okendo

Okendo's attribute ratings (e.g., "Quality: 5/5, Fit: True to size") are a distinctive feature. Verify whether your new app supports importing these attribute-level ratings or whether they need to be included in the review body text as a fallback.

Why Merchants Switch Review Apps

Understanding common migration motivations helps you evaluate whether switching is worth the effort:

Better display optimization. Many merchants switch because their current app offers limited control over review display, or no ability to A/B test different layouts.

Pricing. Review app costs can escalate significantly as your store grows. Merchants frequently switch from premium-priced apps to more cost-effective alternatives that offer equivalent or better features.

Performance. Some review apps add significant JavaScript weight to your storefront, slowing page loads. Merchants switch to lighter alternatives that do not compromise page speed.

Features. New review apps offer features that did not exist when you chose your current app — AI review summaries, UGC video display, genetic algorithm optimization. Migrating to access these features can justify the effort.

Support quality. Poor customer support is a surprisingly common migration driver. When something breaks and you cannot get help, even a good feature set is not enough.

Common Fears (And Why They Are Overblown)

"I will lose my reviews"

No. Every major review app supports CSV export. Your review data is portable. As long as you export before uninstalling and verify the import, no reviews are lost.

"My SEO will suffer"

Review rich snippets (star ratings in search results) are tied to structured data on your product pages, not to a specific review app. As long as your new app implements proper schema markup (which all major apps do), your rich snippets will continue to work. There may be a brief period where Google re-crawls your pages, but this typically takes days, not weeks.

"My conversion rate will drop"

If you replicate your current review display configuration in your new app, your conversion rate should remain stable. If you are switching to an app that offers display optimization (like Eevy AI), your conversion rate should actually improve over time as the new app optimizes your review display.

"It is too complicated"

The process takes 2-4 hours for most stores. Export, transform, import, verify, switch. It is a one-time effort that pays dividends for as long as you use your new app.

Conclusion

Switching your Shopify review app does not mean losing reviews. It means gaining better features, better performance, or better value — while keeping every review your customers took the time to write.

The key is preparation. Export thoroughly, verify your data, set up the new app before removing the old one, and test before going live. Follow this guide step by step and the migration will be smooth.

If you are considering a switch, Eevy AI supports direct import from Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, Stamped, Okendo, and any app that exports to CSV. The migration is included as part of onboarding — so you can focus on running your store while the review library you built transfers seamlessly.