How to Add Reviews to Big Cartel: Back Up First

Big Cartel does not give you a block to drop a snippet into. It gives you the theme code, and it gives it to you live. There is no draft copy running alongside the real shop and no history to roll back to, which means the difference between a five-minute change and a bad afternoon is one thing you do before you start: copy the contents of the template you are about to edit into a text file. Everything after that is straightforward.

Copy the Template Out First

The theme code editor edits the theme your shop is actually serving. A mistake in the markup is live immediately, and there is no staged version to compare against or revert to.

So before typing anything, select the entire contents of the template you are about to change and paste it into a text file on your own machine. It takes fifteen seconds and it converts an irreversible edit into a reversible one.

Name the file after the template and the date. If you edit the theme more than once over a few months, a folder of dated copies is a version history, which is the thing the editor does not give you.

Finding the Right Template

Big Cartel themes are made of templates that render different parts of the shop. The product template renders a product page, the home template renders the front page, and there is usually a layout template that wraps all of them.

Paste the embed at the point in the markup where the reviews should appear visually. Markup order is render order here, so putting the snippet just after the block that renders the product description puts the reviews just after the description.

Use the layout template only if you want the reviews on every page, which is usually not what you want. A rating that appears identically on every product page is fine as a compact badge and heavy as a full review wall.

The Reputation Here Is Personal

Most Big Cartel shops are one person selling their own work. The question a first-time buyer is asking is not whether a company is legitimate, it is whether a stranger on the internet will actually post the thing they paid for.

That is exactly the question public reviews answer, and it is answered better by a live rating from a profile than by testimonials typed into the theme. The buyer can click through and see the profile is real, with dates and a count.

It also means the count matters as much as the score. Five reviews at five stars from a small shop reads as honest. A large round number would read as something else.

Where Doubt Actually Sits

On a small independent shop, the hesitation is usually about fulfilment rather than about the product. The photographs already sold the work. What is unresolved is postage, timing and whether anybody answers an email.

So put the rating near the information that addresses that: shipping details, the policies page, the point on the product page where the buyer is about to add to cart.

A review wall at the bottom of the home page is the traditional placement and the least useful one on a shop this size, because the buyer who needed it has already left the home page.

How Do You Build the Widget?

Paste your Google, Trustpilot or Facebook profile URL, preview your real reviews and rating, then choose from over 100 layout styles across the slider, marquee, grid, list, masonry and badge families, and set the colours to the theme.

A compact layout usually suits Big Cartel better than a wall. These shops are visually spare on purpose and the product images are meant to carry the page, so a small rating block near the buy button fits the design rather than fighting it.

The header rating comes from the platform aggregate rather than from the cards on screen. Free plan, unlimited widget views.

Where Should the Reviews Go?

On the product template, just above or below the add to cart button. That is the moment of decision and it is where a rating does the most work per pixel on a shop like this.

A second compact placement near shipping or policies information helps the buyer who has gone looking for reassurance rather than waiting to be given it.

Keep the home page to a badge if you use one there at all. The product page is where the sale happens on a small shop, and that is where the proof belongs.