Feedback Rebates FAQs
This FAQ page is for the Virthium Feedback Rebates App on Shopify. If you'd like to learn more about our reputation platform, please visit Virthium.com.
What is a Feedback Rebate?
Feedback Rebate is the rebate your customers can redeem by leaving an honest review.
How does it work?
Let's say you're selling a $40 product and offering a 10% Feedback Rebate (i.e., $4).
- Customer pays the full $40 price with an expectation to receive a $4 cash refund later.
- After they get the product, we send them a special review link.
- Customer clicks this link, leaves a review and automatically gets their $4 refund.
- We charge you a 25% transaction fee, which in this case is $1.
If the customer doesn’t leave a review, you don’t pay anything and keep the extra $4. In other words, you either get a review or sell at full price.
How much does it cost?
We charge a transaction fee (25% of your rebate) if the customer leaves a review. You chose the rebate amount and when to offer it. There are no subscription fees, so you can keep this app installed for as long as you'd like.
If you already offer "On Sale" discounts and switch to Feedback Rebates, your fees can be covered by customers who choose not to redeem them.
For example, a rebate with an 80% response rate (i.e., 8 out of 10 customers redeem it) will cost you the same as the discount of the same value.
Let’s look at the math:
|
Situation |
Cost of Sales |
Result |
|
50 people buy $40 shirt “On Sale” for $36 |
50 * $4 discount = $200 |
50 sales 0 reviews |
|
50 people buy $40 shirt with $4 Feedback Rebate. 40 of them leave a review. |
40 * ($4 + $1 fee) = $200 |
50 sales 40 reviews |
In this example, you'd get 40 reviews for free simply by offering a Feedback Rebate instead of a discount.
What happens if the customer didn’t provide an email?
In this case, the email with the review link is sent to you. You can manually forward it to your customer or share the link through another channel.
What happens when a customer buys multiple products?
The customer receives one rebate for each product that has an active Feedback Rebate.
What if customer redeems but the order is pending?
If you’re offering Feedback Rebates on products where payment may not be immediate, please allow enough time in your Feedback Rebate settings to account for the “pending” period. Your customer won’t be able to receive their refund until their payment for the product has been processed.
Do Feedback Rebates bias reviews?
In other words, customers become entitled to their rebate when they make a purchase, not when they leave a review. Leaving a review is simply a way to redeem the rebate, like cashing a check at a bank.
A review incentive, by contrast, is typically offered as a discount code toward a future purchase or as a free or heavily discounted product sent to a pre-selected group of people in exchange for an endorsement. Unlike Feedback Rebates, review incentives are expensive, proven to bias reviews, and must be disclosed in most countries.
Check out this UC Berkeley study that tested the effects of feedback rebates on reviews.
What if I get a bad review?
Even the best businesses occasionally get negative reviews. Unfortunately, people who feel most compelled to leave a review are usually dissatisfied customers.
If you run a good business and most of your customers are satisfied, your problem isn’t the presence of bad reviews—it’s the absence of good ones.
With Feedback Rebates, your satisfied customers will finally start leaving reviews, and if your products are good, your overall reputation will improve.
Can I delete, modify or hide a review?
You cannot modify or delete an individual review, but you can ask your customer to do it or request it to be removed if it contains an offensive or nonsensical language. You can also delete your product listing from Virthium, which will delete all reviews under that product.
Can I upload my existing reviews?
We don't provide this feature because our reviews come from registered users and require information that other apps don't have—such as a link to the customer profile and a purchase timeline.
If you already have a lot of great reviews on your site, keep them. You can use Feedback Rebates alongside your current app.
Can I choose who gets the rebate?
No. As long as your Feedback Rebate offer remains active, all customers receive the rebate offer and can choose to redeem it by leaving a review.
This creates trust in the Feedback Rebates program and produces unbiased reviews your customers can rely on.
How is the minimum review length determined?
The minimum character or word count required to leave a review is calculated using a non-linear diminishing-returns formula that depends on your rebate amount.
For example:
- A $4 rebate requires a minimum of ~6 words.
- A $40 rebate requires ~31 words.
This ensures you receive reasonably detailed reviews without overburdening customers.
Can I modify the email content?
We use a standard email format to send all Feedback Rebate messages. This template is A/B tested and optimized for the highest response rates. We take great care maintaining an excellent reputation and ensuring deliverability across all email platforms.
If we enabled email customization and one of our users added "spammy" content to their email, it would hurt the deliverability for all users. That is why emails from most reviews apps often end up in spam folders and why we don't provide the email customization option.
What about fake reviews?
You won’t have to deal with fake or anonymous reviews. Customers can’t redeem a rebate (i.e., leave a review) without purchasing the product first.
We send each customer a unique review link to redeem the rebate. Without this link, no one can leave a review. Unlike other review apps, we don't provide an open review form that anyone can fill out. This means that every review is guaranteed to be authentic.
Who can I contact if I have questions?
Please email us at team@virthium.com or call us at (602) 942-3080