A review request email asks a customer to review what they bought, 7 to 14 days after delivery. Send 2: one ask, one reminder. Never offer a reward only for good reviews. Since October 2024 that breaks an FTC rule.
A review request email asks a customer to review what they bought, 7 to 14 days after delivery. Send 2: one ask, one reminder. Never offer a reward only for good reviews. Since October 2024 that breaks an FTC rule.
When should a review request email send?
Every guide gives you a number of days. Almost none say what the days are counted from.
Source Wait Counted from Klaviyo help center Longer than your average delivery time, for example 14 days Fulfilled Order PowerReviews 7 days for seasonal goods, 14 for soft goods and perishables, 21 for hard goods Not statedThat missing column is where review requests go wrong.
Fulfilled Order fires when the box leaves your warehouse. Say you wait 14 days from there. If shipping takes 2 days, the customer has had the product for 12 days. If it takes 9, they have had it for 5. Same flow, same delay, two different emails.
Count from delivery instead. Klaviyo says its own Reviews product can trigger on delivery. Then pick the wait by how fast the product gets used:
- Used right away (skincare, coffee, supplements): 7 days after delivery.
- Needs time to prove itself (shoes, gear, anything with a learning curve): 14 days after delivery.
No delivery event? Use Fulfilled Order and add your real average shipping time to the delay. Check that number against your carrier data, not your shipping policy page.
How many review request emails should you send?
Two. Then stop.
PowerReviews splits it like this. Of the people who leave a review, 68% do it after the first ask. Another 28% need a second ask. Only 4% need a third.
So the second email brings in more than a quarter of your reviews. The third email chases 4% of reviews and costs you the patience of everyone else. Asking a happy customer 3 times for a favor is how you make them less happy.
The line the FTC drew in 2024
Check your current template against this before anything else.
The FTC's rule on consumer reviews took effect on 21 October 2024. It bans incentives that depend on the review saying something good. The FTC's wording covers incentives "conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative." Civil penalties can top $50,000 per violation.
Here is what that means for your flow:
In the email Where it stands "Leave a 5-star review and get 15% off" Banned. The reward depends on the rating. "Leave a review, good or bad, and get 15% off" Allowed. Disclose it where the review shows. No incentive at all Allowed. Nothing to disclose.The incentive is fine. The condition is the problem.
The second trap is older. It is called review gating. The email asks "Did you love it?" Yes sends you to the public review page. No sends you to support.
The FTC's 2023 Endorsement Guides say this may be unfair or deceptive if it makes your posted reviews much more positive than they would be otherwise. That is the whole point of gating, so assume it does.
The fix keeps the good part. Send everyone to the same review page. Then add a second line for anyone who had a problem: reply to this email and a person will help. Unhappy customers get help and can still leave a review. Your support inbox still hears about the broken ones first.
This is not legal advice. If you run incentives at scale, have a lawyer read the rule.
What goes in a review request flow
Field Value Trigger Delivered. Fallback: Fulfilled Order plus your average shipping time Filters Has not been in this flow in the last 90 days Emails 2 Timing 7 days after delivery (14 for products that need time), then 5 days later Exit condition Review submitted One job Get an honest reviewThe 90-day filter stops your best customers from getting a review request after every order. Someone who reorders coffee every 3 weeks does not need to review it 17 times a year.
The exit condition needs your review app to send a review-submitted event into Klaviyo. Check it does before you build. Without it, people who already reviewed get the reminder anyway.
Email 1. One product, one question. "How is the moisturizer working for you?" Then one button to the review page. Klaviyo does not support writing the review inside the email, so make the page behind the button fast and short. If you offer an incentive, say here that it applies to any honest review.
Email 2, 5 days later. Shorter than the first. Same button. Add the reply line for anyone who had a problem. Then the flow ends.
Where this sits in the system
Review request comes after the post-purchase flow, never inside it. Post-purchase works the days before the box arrives. This flow starts once the product has had time to work.
In the 12-flow guide it sits in the social proof group, next to referral and VIP. A review is often the first public thing a customer does for you. The people who leave one are the ones you ask next for a referral.
For the full build order, start at the ecommerce customer retention hub. For where reviews do their work on the page, see the conversion optimization guide.
Get the whole system
This is 1 flow of 12.
12 flows, 37 emails, one job: repeat purchases. Every trigger, every send delay, every exit condition, written out so you can build them this month.