How to Get Your First Reviews for a New Product (Legally)

How to get reviews for a new product starts with asking every single customer who buys it, timed to land after delivery rather than checkout, through the same neutral request regardless of how smoothly the order seemed to go — no discounts for leaving a review, no filtering out customers whose shipment ran late. A brand new to this problem usually has zero reviews to start, which makes the first batch disproportionately important and the temptation to shortcut it disproportionately strong. The honest path is slower than the shortcuts, but the shortcuts — buying reviews, incentivizing them, asking only the happiest-looking customers — create real legal exposure under the FTC's 2023 rule on fake and deceptive reviews, on top of producing a review history that doesn't actually reflect reality and eventually gets found out. Setting up review requests for new launches correctly from the first sale avoids rebuilding the process later under pressure. First reviews new product: why the first ten matter more than the next hundred A brand-new product with zero reviews reads as untested to a cautious buyer, regardless of how good the product actually is — there's simply no evidence yet either way. The first handful of reviews carries disproportionate weight precisely because there's so little else to go on: a visitor reading three reviews on a brand-new listing weighs each one far more heavily than a visitor reading review number 301 on an established one. That's the specific reason first reviews new product launches deserve more deliberate attention than review requests for an established catalog item — not because the mechanics differ, but because the stakes per review are higher early on. Product reviews launch: setting up the request before you need it The request flow should exist before the first order ships, not get built reactively once orders start arriving: Time the request to delivery, not checkout. A customer who hasn't received the product yet has nothing real to say — asking too early produces either silence or a generic, low-value review about the buying process rather than the product itself. Use email and SMS consistently, with SMS reserved for customers who've actually opted in under TCPA requirements , rather than treating one channel as optional. Make leaving a review genuinely easy — a direct link to the review form, not a multi-step process requiring an account creation the customer didn't already have reason to set up. Ask for specifics, not just a star rating — a short prompt like "how did it fit" or "what did you use it for" produces more useful written reviews than a bare star-rating request, especially valuable for a product with no existing review text to show future buyers. Our detailed guide on timing that request specifically to delivery, with templates for both email and SMS, is at post-purchase review requests, and the review request automation that handles the timing and channel logic covers the mechanics so this doesn't need to be built manually from scratch. Get reviews without incentives: what's actually allowed The instinct to offer a discount, a free gift, or an entry into a giveaway in exchange for a review is understandable for a brand with nothing yet to show — but it's specifically prohibited by the FTC's rule on fake and deceptive reviews (16 CFR Part 465), which bars compensating anyone for a review regardless of brand size or how new the product is . What's allowed, and genuinely effective, without crossing that line: A general thank-you sent to every customer after delivery, unconnected to whether they leave a review at all — goodwill that isn't conditioned on the review itself. Making the ask well, with good timing and an easy process, which drives response rate without needing to pay for it. A well-timed, simple request often performs close to as well as an incentivized one, without the compliance risk. A general sweepstakes open to all customers, not conditioned on leaving a review specifically, run alongside — not instead of — a neutral review request . The line that matters is whether anything of value is conditioned on the review itself, in either direction — don't pay for a review, and don't skip asking someone because you expect them to leave a critical one. Our deeper breakdown of why that second half matters just as much as the first is at is review gating illegal. Using early customers deliberately, without crossing into incentivizing A new product launch often has a small group of early buyers who feel more invested than a typical customer — people who followed the brand before launch, backed a presale, or bought in the first week specifically because they were excited about it. It's tempting to lean on that group for reviews specifically because they're more likely to respond, but the same no-incentive, no-gating rule applies to them as to anyone else: don't offer them anything in exchange for a review, and don't skip asking the early buyers whose order didn't go perfectly just because they're part of a group you'd rather not disappoint. What is fair game: a slightly more personal request to this group, acknowledging that they were part of the early launch and that their feedback genuinely shapes the product going forward. That framing increases response rate through genuine engagement rather than compensation, which keeps it on the right side of the line while still taking advantage of a group that's more inclined to respond than a typical later customer would be. What to do when a new product's first reviews include a critical one It will happen, and for a brand-new product with few reviews total, a single critical one lands harder than it would for an established listing. The instinct to delete, dispute, or bury it — if the platform even allows removal, which it generally doesn't for an accurate review — tends to backfire if discovered, and most platforms don't allow removal of a genuine review just because it's unflattering. The better response is a specific, honest public reply addressing the actual complaint, which does real work for a thin review set precisely because there's so little else on the page — a thoughtful reply to a critical review can read as more reassuring to the next visitor than another five-star review would, since it shows the brand actually engages rather than just collecting praise. Our general guide on tone and structure for that kind of reply is at how to respond to negative reviews. A worked example: a product launch with a slow start A fictional skincare brand launched a new serum with an aggressive pre-order campaign and strong early sales, but the first three reviews were lukewarm — two three-star reviews mentioning the texture felt different than expected, and one five-star review. Rather than panicking or quietly delaying further review requests until more positive feedback might offset them, the team kept asking every subsequent customer the same way and replied specifically to the two mixed reviews, explaining the texture and offering a sample-size alternative formulation for anyone who preferred it. Within six weeks, the honest pattern of mixed-then-mostly-positive reviews, with visible brand engagement on the early critical ones, outperformed what an artificially inflated run of five-star reviews would likely have produced, because it read as a real product with a real company standing behind it. How long after launch should I expect to see the first reviews come in? This depends heavily on order volume and how quickly product actually reaches customers, and offering a universal timeline here would be a guess rather than a fact . What matters more than a specific number of days is making sure the request goes out reliably right after delivery is confirmed, rather than on a fixed schedule disconnected from when the product actually arrived. Should I ask friends and family to leave reviews to get started? Only if they're genuine customers who actually bought and used the product independently, and even then, disclosure matters if there's any personal relationship a reasonable reader would want to know about. Reviews from people who didn't actually buy the product, or who are posing as independent customers while being personally connected to the brand, violate most platforms' terms and risk the same exposure as any other fabricated review. Is it worth seeding a new product with free units to generate reviews fast? Sending free product specifically to generate reviews puts you back in incentivized-review territory even if no explicit review is demanded in return, since the FTC treats free product as compensation when there's an expectation attached . If the goal is UGC-style creator content rather than a native on-site or Trustpilot review, that's a separate process with its own disclosure requirements, covered in our guide to UGC and influencer reviews — the two shouldn't be mixed together as though they're the same mechanism, since conflating them is exactly how well-intentioned brands end up with an undisclosed-gifting problem. Every review from Trustpilot, Google and your own site in one inbox → Try Tailwind free. Tailwind is $5 a month per tool, or $50 a month for the Full plan with everything included — first month free, no card required.