How to Display More Product Reviews on BigCommerce Stencil Themes

Unlocking More Product Reviews on BigCommerce Stencil Themes

Product reviews are a cornerstone of trust and conversion in e-commerce. For many BigCommerce merchants, showcasing a robust collection of customer feedback is paramount. However, default theme settings can sometimes limit the number of reviews displayed, creating a hurdle for businesses wanting to highlight their social proof.

The Challenge: A Theme's Default Review Limit

A recent discussion in the BigCommerce community forum, initiated by David Stewart, highlighted a common predicament. After updating to the "Lifestyle default" Stencil theme, David noticed that his product pages were capped at displaying only 12 customer reviews. This limitation was a significant concern for his store, britishtactical.com, which likely had many more positive reviews to showcase. David also inquired about the possibility of allowing customers to upload images with their reviews, a feature often desired for richer user-generated content.

The BigCommerce Solution: A Simple Theme File Edit

The BigCommerce community, specifically Rawi Rai, quickly provided an effective and straightforward solution. The key lies in directly modifying a specific template file within the Stencil theme structure. This approach underscores the flexibility BigCommerce offers for theme customization, allowing merchants and developers to tailor their storefronts beyond default settings.

To increase the number of reviews displayed on a product page, you need to edit the product.html file. This file is typically located within your theme's templates/pages/ directory. The modification involves locating the section responsible for rendering reviews and adjusting its display limit.

Here's the code snippet provided in the forum thread:

reviews:
        limit: {{theme_settings.productpage_reviews_count}}

The solution involves changing the limit property from referencing a theme setting to a hardcoded number. For instance, to display 20 reviews, the code should be updated as follows:

reviews:
        limit: 20

This change overrides the default theme setting, allowing you to specify exactly how many reviews you wish to display on a single product page. David initially struggled to locate the correct file but eventually found it and successfully applied the fix, confirming its effectiveness.

Implementation and Further Considerations

Once David applied the suggested code change, his product pages, such as this example, were able to display more than the original 12 reviews. An interesting observation from Rawi Rai was that the Lifestyle theme, in this configuration, did not implement pagination for reviews. David, however, preferred having all reviews on one page, making this a non-issue for his specific needs.

It's important to note that the secondary question regarding allowing customers to add images to their reviews was not addressed in this particular thread. This feature typically requires either a dedicated BigCommerce app from the marketplace or more advanced custom development involving API integrations, as it's not a standard setting configurable via a simple theme file edit.

Conclusion for BigCommerce Merchants and Developers

This community interaction highlights the power of direct theme customization within BigCommerce's Stencil framework. While themes provide a great starting point, understanding how to make minor code adjustments can significantly enhance your store's functionality and user experience. For merchants looking to maximize the impact of their customer reviews, this simple modification offers a quick and effective way to ensure all valuable feedback is prominently displayed.

Always remember to back up your theme files before making any direct code edits, or better yet, work on a copy of your theme to prevent any unintended disruptions to your live store.