Where to Place Reviews on Your Product Page: A Heatmap-Driven Guide

You have collected hundreds of reviews. You have chosen a layout -- carousel, grid, or list. You have styled it to match your brand. But none of that matters if your reviews are placed where nobody sees them.

Heatmap data from tools like Hotjar, Lucky Orange, and Microsoft Clarity consistently tells the same story: most visitors never scroll to the bottom of your product page. If your reviews are sitting below four tabs, a FAQ section, and a "you may also like" carousel, the majority of your traffic never sees them.

Review placement is not a design afterthought. It is a conversion decision. Where you put your reviews determines whether they influence the purchase or sit there unread.

What Heatmaps Tell Us About Product Page Behavior

Before diving into specific placements, it helps to understand how shoppers actually navigate product pages. Heatmap studies across thousands of e-commerce sites reveal consistent patterns.

The F-Pattern and Product Pages

On text-heavy pages, visitors follow an F-shaped reading pattern: they scan the top horizontal line, drop down, scan a shorter horizontal line, then scan vertically down the left side. Product pages modify this slightly because images dominate the left side and product details fill the right.

On a typical Shopify product page, the attention pattern looks like this:

Product images receive the most attention -- visitors spend 40-60% of their viewing time in the image area
Product title and price are the next highest-attention zone
The add-to-cart button area gets intense but brief attention (visitors check the price, look at variants, then decide)
Product description receives moderate attention, with a steep dropoff after the first paragraph
Everything below the fold receives progressively less attention with each scroll depth

Scroll Depth: The Brutal Numbers

Across e-commerce product pages, scroll depth data is consistently sobering:

100% of visitors see the above-fold content
60-70% of visitors scroll past the first fold (roughly 600-800px on mobile)
40-50% of visitors reach the midpoint of a typical product page
20-30% of visitors scroll to where most review sections are placed
10-15% of visitors reach the very bottom of a long product page

That last number is critical. If your review section starts at the 70-80% scroll depth mark -- which is where most themes place it by default -- only about a quarter of your visitors ever see it. You are hiding your social proof from 75% of your traffic.

Click and Tap Heatmaps

Click heatmaps show where visitors interact on the page. On product pages, the add-to-cart button is the dominant click target, followed by variant selectors (size, color), image thumbnails, and tab navigation.

Review-related clicks appear in two places: the star rating near the product title (if it is clickable and scrolls to the reviews section) and the review section itself. Critically, the star rating near the title receives 3-5x more clicks than the review section below -- because more visitors see it.

This tells us something important: visitors want to see reviews, but they often use the star rating as a shortcut rather than scrolling to the full review section.

The Five Key Review Placement Zones

Based on heatmap data and conversion testing, there are five distinct zones where reviews can appear on a product page. Each serves a different purpose.

Zone 1: The Star Rating Summary (Above the Fold)

This is the star rating and review count that appears near the product title, typically between the title and the price or just below the price. Something like "4.7 out of 5 stars (238 reviews)."

Why it matters: This is the highest-visibility review element on the page. Every visitor sees it. It provides an instant trust signal before the visitor even considers scrolling. Heatmap data shows that visitors' eyes fixate on this area for 2-3 seconds on average.

Best practices:

Make the star rating visually prominent with filled star icons, not just a number
Include the review count -- "238 reviews" is a social proof signal on its own
Make it clickable so it anchors to the full review section below
If you have photo reviews, consider showing a tiny thumbnail strip (3-4 customer photos) next to the star rating

Common mistake: Making the star rating too small or too subtle. Some themes render it in light gray text that barely stands out from the product description. This is the single most important review element on the page -- make it visible.

Zone 2: The Add-to-Cart Proximity Zone

This is the area immediately surrounding the add-to-cart button -- above it, below it, or beside it. Heatmap data shows this zone receives intense attention because visitors' eyes naturally focus here during the decision moment.

Why it matters: This is where the purchase decision happens. A trust signal placed here arrives at exactly the right moment. A mini-review snippet, a "most helpful review" callout, or a brief testimonial near the CTA can tip the balance.

Best practices:

Keep it concise -- a single 1-2 sentence review excerpt with the reviewer's name and star rating
Rotate the displayed review to show different social proof to different visitors
Include a verified purchase badge if available
Do not clutter the CTA area -- one review snippet is enough

What to avoid: Do not put a full review carousel in this zone. The purpose is a quick trust nudge, not a reading experience. Anything that pushes the add-to-cart button below the fold on mobile is counterproductive.

Zone 3: The Mid-Page Review Section

This is a dedicated review section placed midway through the product page -- after the main product description but before supplementary content like related products, FAQ sections, or shipping information.

Why it matters: This placement catches visitors while they are still actively evaluating the product. They have seen the images, read the description, and are now looking for validation. A review section at this point in the page answers the question "but does it actually work?"

Best practices:

Place it after the primary product description, not after tabs or accordions
Use a compact format -- a 3-card carousel or a 2-column grid works well
Lead with your most helpful or most detailed reviews
Include a "read all reviews" link that scrolls to the full review section if you have one

The 50% rule: Aim to place your primary review section no deeper than the 50% scroll depth mark. This ensures that at least half your visitors will see it. On mobile, this typically means placing reviews within the first 3-4 screen-heights of content.

Zone 4: The Tab or Accordion Section

Many Shopify themes place reviews inside a tabbed interface alongside "Description," "Shipping," and "Specifications" tabs. Reviews are the third or fourth tab, hidden behind a click.

Why it matters (or does not): Tab-based review sections are the default in many themes, but they are also the worst-performing placement in most heatmap studies. The problem is twofold. First, visitors have to click the tab to see any reviews. Second, the tab label competes with other tabs for attention, and most visitors default to the first tab (usually Description).

Click data from tabbed product pages shows that the "Reviews" tab is clicked by only 8-15% of visitors. Compare that to a visible review section that 40-50% of visitors scroll past -- tabs hide your reviews behind an interaction barrier.

If you must use tabs: Make the Reviews tab the default active tab for returning visitors or for visitors who arrived via a link that includes reviews (like a Google result with star ratings). Show the review count in the tab label: "Reviews (238)" instead of just "Reviews."

Better alternative: Replace the tabbed section with an accordion or simply display all sections vertically. Accordions at least show section headings in the scroll flow, making reviews discoverable without requiring a deliberate click.

Zone 5: The Full Review Section (Below the Fold)

This is the comprehensive review section with sorting, filtering, search, and all reviews displayed in a list or paginated grid. It typically appears in the lower third of the product page.

Why it matters: This section serves the 20-30% of visitors who actively seek out detailed review information. These are high-intent shoppers who want to read multiple reviews, filter by star rating, search for specific keywords, and see the full picture. They are also your most likely converters -- visitors who scroll to and engage with the review section convert at 2-3x the rate of those who do not.

Best practices:

Include robust sorting options (most recent, most helpful, highest rated, lowest rated)
Add keyword filtering or search so visitors can find reviews about specific concerns
Show a distribution bar (how many 5-star, 4-star, etc.) at the top of the section
Include AI-generated review summaries if available -- they save visitors time and synthesize the key themes
Make sure review cards show enough text before truncation that visitors can evaluate whether to "read more"

Placement Strategies by Product Type

Different product types warrant different review placement strategies because visitor behavior varies by category.

Visual Products (Fashion, Beauty, Home Decor)

For visual products, photo reviews are your most powerful asset. Place them higher on the page and make them more prominent:

Zone 1: Star rating with a row of 3-4 customer photo thumbnails
Zone 3: A photo review grid placed directly after the product images and description
Zone 5: Full review section with photo filtering capability

Customer photos of clothing being worn, makeup applied, or furniture in a real room do the selling. Move them up the page where more visitors see them.

High-Consideration Products (Electronics, Supplements, Equipment)

These visitors need detailed information. Prioritize text-heavy review placements:

Zone 1: Star rating with review count (high count builds confidence for expensive purchases)
Zone 2: A single detailed review excerpt from a verified buyer who describes their use case
Zone 5: Comprehensive review section with search, sorting, and the ability to filter by specific topics (durability, performance, value for money)

For products over $100, the full review section often gets more engagement than average because visitors are more motivated to research thoroughly.

Low-Consideration Products (Under $30, Consumables, Repeat Purchases)

Quick trust signals are sufficient. Do not dedicate major page real estate to reviews:

Zone 1: Star rating and review count -- this alone may be enough
Zone 2: A brief "customers love this" snippet near the CTA
Zone 3: Optional -- a compact 3-card carousel if you have strong reviews

For inexpensive or repeat-purchase products, a detailed review section can actually slow down the purchase by introducing unnecessary deliberation.

The Mobile Placement Problem

Everything discussed above needs to be reconsidered for mobile, where over 73% of Shopify traffic lands.

On mobile, the product page is a single vertical scroll. There are no side-by-side columns, no wide grids. The add-to-cart button is often sticky at the bottom of the screen or placed after the product image and variant selectors.

Mobile-specific placement recommendations:

Star rating: Place it immediately under the product title, before the price. On mobile, the star rating is one of the first things visible and it sets the trust tone immediately.
Mini review widget: Place a single review excerpt just above or just below the add-to-cart button. On mobile, this is the decision zone and a trust nudge here is highly effective.
Review section: Place it no more than 2-3 screen heights below the add-to-cart button. On mobile, every screen height of scrolling loses 15-20% of remaining visitors.
Avoid tabs entirely on mobile. Tabs are a desktop convention that works poorly on touch screens. Use expandable accordions or simply stack sections vertically.

Testing Your Review Placement

Placement optimization is one of the highest-ROI tests you can run on a product page because it affects visibility for your entire visitor base, not just those who reach a specific section.

What to Test First

Start with the highest-impact placement test: adding a mini review widget in Zone 2 (near the add-to-cart button) in addition to your existing review section in Zone 5. This single change often produces a measurable RPV lift because it brings social proof to where the purchase decision happens instead of leaving it buried below the fold.

How to Measure

Track revenue per visitor, not just conversion rate. A review placement that slightly slows down quick purchases but increases purchase confidence (leading to fewer returns and higher AOV) will show up as an RPV improvement even if CVR is flat or slightly lower.

Tools like Eevy AI can test multiple review placements and configurations simultaneously. Rather than manually running sequential A/B tests on placement, then layout, then styling, Eevy's genetic algorithm explores combinations of these variables together. This matters because placement and layout interact -- a carousel might work best in Zone 3 while a single-review excerpt works best in Zone 2, and these combinations need to be tested together.

How Long to Test

Give placement tests at least two full weeks and ensure each variation receives a minimum of 1,000 visitors. Review placement effects are typically smaller than layout or content changes but more consistent, so you need adequate sample sizes to detect them with statistical confidence.

The Bottom Line

Your reviews are only as effective as their visibility. Heatmap data consistently shows that the default review placement -- buried at the bottom of a product page behind a tab -- is seen by less than a quarter of your visitors.

The solution is layered review placement: a star rating summary above the fold, a trust-building snippet near the add-to-cart button, and a comprehensive review section placed no deeper than the midpoint of your page. Each layer serves a different purpose and catches visitors at a different stage of their decision process.

Stop treating review placement as a theme default. Start treating it as one of the most impactful product page decisions you can make.