Add Google reviews to BigCommerce

BigCommerce has two places for custom code, and the difference matters here. Script Manager takes scripts only — it refuses to save anything without a <script> tag. Our snippet is a <div>, a link and a script, so the page editor or the theme template is where it belongs.

The snippet

Build a widget in the app, press Install, and you get three lines:

<div data-rpi="your-widget-id" class="rpi"></div> <a href="https://reviewsplugin.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Verified by ReviewsPlugin</a> <script src="https://cdn.reviewsplugin.com/embed.js"></script>

Copy it from the app rather than from here — your-widget-id is unique to each widget you build, and a placeholder id is the single most common reason a widget renders as Unable to load reviews.

Reviews on one page

A block of reviews on a specific web page — About, Testimonials, a landing page.

Go to Storefront → Web Pages and edit the page.
In the content editor, switch to the HTML source view.
Paste all three lines where the reviews should appear.
Save.

Storefront → Web Pages Save

VisualHTML

<div data-rpi="your-widget-id" class="rpi"></div> <a href="https://reviewsplugin.com">Verified by ReviewsPlugin</a> <script src="…/embed.js"></script>

2Source view, not the visual editor

The page editor in HTML mode. Pasting into the visual editor instead escapes the tags and prints them as text.

That is the whole job. Published, the page shows this — a live widget, running the same snippet described above:

yoursite.com/about

What our customers say

Verified by ReviewsPlugin

Not a picture — this is the widget itself, loading real reviews as you read.

A badge on every page

A badge needs its <div> on the page, which Script Manager cannot provide. The footer template can.

Go to Storefront → Themes, open the menu on your current theme and choose Edit Theme Files.
Open templates/components/common/footer.html.
Paste your badge snippet where it should sit in the footer, and save.
Optionally move just the <script> line into Storefront → Script Manager — Create a Script, Placement Footer, Location All pages — so it loads under your store's cookie consent categories. On a multi-storefront account each channel has its own Script Manager, reached through Channel Manager rather than the single Storefront menu.

Storefront → Script Manager → Create a Script Save

Script nameReviewsPlugin loader Script typeScript

! Only the <script> line — the div is rejected here

Script Manager, redrawn from BigCommerce's documentation. Note what is in the box: only the loader line. Paste the whole snippet and it refuses to save with Enter a valid script, because this screen accepts nothing but <script> tags — the widget's <div> has to live in the theme or the page.

Script Manager applies only to Stencil themes, and scripts there are cached for about 20 seconds — a change is not instant.

Before you decide it failed

Four checks, in this order

Look at the published page, not the editor. Most builders do not run third-party JavaScript inside their own canvas, so an empty box there means nothing either way.
Count the loaders. View source and search for embed.js. It should appear exactly once, however many widgets the page has.
Check both widths. Reviews are taller on a phone than you expect, and some containers clip rather than grow.
Confirm the attribution is visible and still a sibling of the widget, not inside it — on the free plan that is a condition of use.

If nothing appears

The BigCommerce-specific traps first:

"Enter a valid script". You pasted the whole snippet into Script Manager. It rejects anything without a <script> tag — put the markup in the page or the theme, and only the loader line in Script Manager.
The tags printed as text. You pasted into the visual editor rather than the HTML source view.
You edited a theme that is not live. BigCommerce keeps previous themes around. Confirm which one is marked active before editing files.
Check the widget id. Unable to load reviews means the script ran and the id in data-rpi does not match a widget.

Still nothing? Send us the page address and we will look at it.

Where this was checked

Admin screens get renamed. These are the pages this guide was written against, and what each one settles — checked August 2026.

Using Script Manager — the fields, and what it will and will not accept.
Stencil themes — editing theme files.

Selling on another platform? Shopify, Magento, or go back to all platforms.