How to Add Reviews to OpenCart: Find Out What You Have

OpenCart stores are assembled rather than provisioned. Somebody chose a version, bought or modified a theme, and added extensions over several years, and the result is a store that behaves like OpenCart in general and like itself in particular. That is worth knowing before following any guide, including this one: the shape of the answer is stable, and the exact menu names and the list of positions you can drop a module into come from your theme rather than from the platform.

The HTML Module

In the admin, create an HTML module and give it a name you will recognise later, such as Reviews. Open its content field and switch to the source or code view before pasting anything.

Paste the widget embed there and save. The module now exists but is not on the storefront yet, because in OpenCart creating a module and placing it are two separate steps.

Then assign it to a layout. Choose the pages you want it on and the position within those pages, and save the layout.

Never the Visual Field

The WYSIWYG editor in the module content field will escape script tags and rewrite attributes, which turns a correct embed into a line of visible code on the storefront.

The source view button is the one to use, and it is worth checking that you are still in source view immediately before saving. Some editor builds switch back on their own when the field regains focus.

If the storefront shows your snippet as text, this is almost always the cause and re-pasting in source view fixes it.

Positions Come From the Theme

OpenCart layouts expose positions such as content top, content bottom, column left and column right, and which of those actually exist and render usefully depends on the theme.

A purchased theme often adds its own positions and sometimes ignores the default ones. So the list you see in the layout editor is a theme fact rather than an OpenCart fact.

Try content top on the product layout first. It is the position most themes handle sensibly and it puts the reviews above the fold on the page where buying is decided.

Version and Extensions Change the Details

Major OpenCart versions moved menus around and renamed things, so a guide written for one may describe an admin that does not match yours. The concepts survive across versions; the exact paths do not.

Extensions add another layer. A store with a page builder extension may have a different route that is easier, and a store with an aggressive caching extension will need that cache cleared before a change appears.

If a change does not appear on the storefront, clear whatever cache the store runs before assuming the module is wrong. That is the same first check as on any self-hosted platform.

How Do You Build the Widget?

Paste your Google, Facebook or Trustpilot 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 match the colours to the theme.

A compact layout is safer on an older or heavily customised theme, where a tall block is more likely to collide with the existing column structure.

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?

Content top on the product layout, so the rating is visible without scrolling on the page where the purchase is decided.

The home page layout is a reasonable second placement for a compact badge, particularly on a store where the home page carries category navigation.

Keep it off the checkout layout. That page has one job and a module offering a link away from it costs more than it adds.