Share Reviews Across Similar Products Using Product Groups
Plans: Essentials, Pro, Enterprise Platforms: Shopify
With AfterShip Reviews, you can group similar or related products to display shared customer reviews across them. This helps build stronger social proof, increases the number of visible reviews per product, and improves conversions, especially for variants or bundled items that typically lack individual reviews.
Go to Reviews Admin > Reviews > All products > Product groups
Manual setup: Use this for a small number of product groups.
Select Create group.
A pop-up will appear on the screen to create a product group.
Fill in the following details:
Group name: Enter Name of the group.
Group name will not be shown to the customers. It is only for your reference.
Group type: Under Individual products, search products from the dropdown.
Click Create to create a product group.
The product group will be listed.
Bulk import: Use a CSV file for large number of product groups.
Select CSV import.
A pop-up will appear on the screen to import by CSV.
You have to import using the CSV template provided below.
Files must not exceed 10 MB.
Duplicate products will be overwritten.
Click Upload CSV file and select the CSV file you want to upload, or simply drag and drop the file into the upload area.
Click Import file to successfully upload.
CSV guidelines:
Group name: It is used for internal use only and it must be unique and consistent.
Product handle: The last part of your product URL (after “/” and before “?”).
Encoding: Use UTF-8 encoding format while creating or exporting CSV file.
Each product may belong to multiple groups, but only one can be “active”. The active product group is the product group used to show shared reviews for this product.
AfterShip auto-assigns the first related group as the active one.
You can adjust this via the All Products page by editing the Active Product Group column.
You can also filter with the product group name to check all the related products in the group and adjust their active product group accordingly.
Under Content > Review content, enable Source product.
The main review widget and star rating widget reflect reviews from the active product group.
If Source product is enabled, shoppers will see which product each review came from. The original reviewed product name and link of each review will be visible.
Show the same reviews across different colors of the same product.
Create a product group containing all the products with the same colour.
Set the “Active product group” of all these products as the product group created above.
Show reviews for bundled product links.
Create a product group containing the suit/bundled product and all the sub-item products.
Only set the “Active product group” of the suit/bundled product as the product group created above.
Other sub-item products keep the “Active product group” as “Independent (not assigned)” or other product groups as needed.
By aggregating reviews for similar or related products:
You can increase the total number of reviews visible on a product page.
You can boost shopper confidence and improve your product detail page (PDP) conversion rate.
You can avoid review dilution across separate product listings for variants or bundles.
Yes, all questions and answers will be shown according to the reviews logic.
Yes, if products in the group use the same custom form or matching questions (same type and key), answers of the review’s original product’s custom form question will sync and filter normally.
No, only reviews originally collected on a product will be eligible for Google or TikTok syndication.
Product groups let you display shared reviews across variants or bundled products.
You can group products manually or import in bulk using CSV.
Only one active group can show reviews per product.
The “Source product” option adds transparency for shoppers.
Q&A and custom form responses sync with the same logic as reviews.
Product Group: A custom grouping of related product handles used to share reviews.
Active Product Group: The single group whose reviews are visible for a product.
Product Handle: The slug/identifier in a product’s URL.
Source Product: The original item for which a review was submitted.
Overview
With AfterShip Reviews, you can group similar or related products to display shared customer reviews across them. This helps build stronger social proof, increases the number of visible reviews per product, and improves conversions, especially for variants or bundled items that typically lack individual reviews.
How to use the product group feature
1. Where to find it
Go to Reviews Admin > Reviews > All products > Product groups
2. Set up a product group
Step 1: Create or import product groups
Manual setup: Use this for a small number of product groups.
Select Create group.
A pop-up will appear on the screen to create a product group.
Fill in the following details:
Group name: Enter Name of the group.
Group name will not be shown to the customers. It is only for your reference.
Group type: Under Individual products, search products from the dropdown.
Click Create to create a product group.
The product group will be listed.
Bulk import: Use a CSV file for large number of product groups.
Select CSV import.
A pop-up will appear on the screen to import by CSV.
You have to import using the CSV template provided below.
Files must not exceed 10 MB.
Duplicate products will be overwritten.
Click Upload CSV file and select the CSV file you want to upload, or simply drag and drop the file into the upload area.
Click Import file to successfully upload.
CSV guidelines:
Group name: It is used for internal use only and it must be unique and consistent.
Product handle: The last part of your product URL (after “/” and before “?”).
Encoding: Use UTF-8 encoding format while creating or exporting CSV file.
Step 2: Set the active product group
Each product may belong to multiple groups, but only one can be “active”. The active product group is the product group used to show shared reviews for this product.
AfterShip auto-assigns the first related group as the active one.
You can adjust this via the All Products page by editing the Active Product Group column.
You can also filter with the product group name to check all the related products in the group and adjust their active product group accordingly.
Step 3: Enable “Source product” in Review Widget (Optional)
Under Content > Review content, enable Source product.
3. Shopper-Side Experience
The main review widget and star rating widget reflect reviews from the active product group.
If Source product is enabled, shoppers will see which product each review came from. The original reviewed product name and link of each review will be visible.
4. Sample settings for different use cases:
Show the same reviews across different colors of the same product.
Create a product group containing all the products with the same colour.
Set the “Active product group” of all these products as the product group created above.
Show reviews for bundled product links.
Create a product group containing the suit/bundled product and all the sub-item products.
Only set the “Active product group” of the suit/bundled product as the product group created above.
Other sub-item products keep the “Active product group” as “Independent (not assigned)” or other product groups as needed.
Advantages
By aggregating reviews for similar or related products:
You can increase the total number of reviews visible on a product page.
You can boost shopper confidence and improve your product detail page (PDP) conversion rate.
You can avoid review dilution across separate product listings for variants or bundles.
FAQs
Q1: Will the Q&A section sync as well after setting up the product groups?
Yes, all questions and answers will be shown according to the reviews logic.
Q2: Will my custom review question form sync too after the setting up of product groups?
Yes, if products in the group use the same custom form or matching questions (same type and key), answers of the review’s original product’s custom form question will sync and filter normally.
Q3: Will my reviews synced from other products from the product group can be used for Google or TikTok syndication?
No, only reviews originally collected on a product will be eligible for Google or TikTok syndication.
Key takeaways
Product groups let you display shared reviews across variants or bundled products.
You can group products manually or import in bulk using CSV.
Only one active group can show reviews per product.
The “Source product” option adds transparency for shoppers.
Q&A and custom form responses sync with the same logic as reviews.
Appendix
Product Group: A custom grouping of related product handles used to share reviews.
Active Product Group: The single group whose reviews are visible for a product.
Product Handle: The slug/identifier in a product’s URL.
Source Product: The original item for which a review was submitted.
Updated on: 15/05/2025