If you're moving an Etsy shop to Shopify, archiving a shop you're closing, or switching review apps, at some point you'll want your reviews in a file you control.
There are four realistic routes. Two of them are free and official, and you should try those first. This post is mostly about knowing what each route leaves behind, because finding that out after a migration is the expensive part.
1. Etsy's own "Download Your Reviews" (free, start here)
Etsy does let sellers download their reviews:
Shop Manager → Settings → Options → Download Data → Take your data with you → Download Your Reviews
It's a data request rather than an instant export, and the prepared link expires — re-generate it instead of relying on an old one.
The catch: Etsy's help article doesn't publish the column list or format. Open the file in a spreadsheet before you plan anything around it, and check specifically for:
- the review body and date
- your seller replies
- the original full-resolution buyer photo URLs (not thumbnails)
- the listing URL / handle each review belongs to
If all four are there and you just wanted a copy, you're done. No tool needed.
2. Judge.me's free Etsy sync (free, if you use Judge.me)
If your destination is Judge.me on Shopify, its official Etsy integration syncs reviews automatically, roughly weekly, on the free plan. It's the right tool for that job and it's genuinely the least work.
Its published scope is narrower than "all my reviews", though. It covers your own active listings with written reviews, and Etsy-synced reviews are excluded from Judge.me's Google Shopping product-ratings feed. Rating-only reviews, seller replies and inactive listings are the usual gaps people notice. It also doesn't give you a portable file — the data lives inside the app.
3. A manual CSV (free, but tedious)
You can assemble the file yourself. The minimum viable mapping is:
| Column | What to watch |
|---|---|
rating | 1–5 as a number, not stars |
body | Preserve line breaks; escape commas and quotes |
review_date | ISO YYYY-MM-DD avoids locale surprises |
reviewer_name | Display name, not email (you usually don't have it) |
product_handle | Must match the Shopify handle exactly, or the import silently drops rows |
picture_urls | Full-resolution URLs; first URL only for some apps |
reply | Your seller response, if you want to keep it |
Two things consistently go wrong here: handles that don't match, and photos that were copied as preview-size URLs. Do a 5-row test import before doing 500.
4. A portable CSV snapshot (structured, repeatable)
This is the case for a dedicated export: you want a documented schema, filters, and a file you can re-generate whenever you like. For reference, here is the exact 13-column Standard CSV written by the tool I build:
transaction_id, review_date, rating, reviewer_name, body, photo_count, picture_urls, verified_buyer, product_id, product_handle, product_title, product_url, seller_reply If you're evaluating any export tool, ask for its column list up front. "Exports your reviews" without a schema is how you discover six months later that seller replies or original photo URLs were never in the file.
Three properties worth insisting on:
- Local processing — the data never needs to touch someone else's server
- Repeatable snapshots — same schema every run, so your import mapping doesn't break
- Filters — rating-only, photo-only, whole shop vs single listing
The part people get wrong: whose reviews are these?
If you import reviews, keep them attributed to their real source and to your own shop's buyers. Under the US FTC's Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465, effective October 2024), presenting another seller's customers' feedback as your own, or reusing a review written for a different product or seller, is prohibited.
Public reviews on someone else's shop are great for research — reading what buyers complain about, or ranking a shop's listings by review volume before you decide what to make. They are not your social proof. This distinction matters more than any CSV column.
A short checklist before you migrate
- Generate the official Etsy download and actually open it.
- Write down which of the four field groups are missing.
- Do a 5-row test import into your destination app and verify photos + replies render.
- Keep the original file somewhere outside the browser's Downloads folder.
- Only then run the full migration.
Disclosure: I build Etsy Review Studio, a small independent Chrome extension that generates the structured CSV described in route 4 (free tier: 40 reviews). It is not affiliated with Etsy, Shopify, Judge.me or Loox. If the official download or the free Judge.me sync covers your case, use those instead — this post works fine without installing anything.
