Guides·
Why native Shopify variants win in agentic AI shopping
Native Shopify variants beat fragmented products in agentic AI shopping. Why ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Copilot, and Perplexity reward consolidation.
Keeping Judge.me reviews on merged Shopify products
Judge.me stopped transferring reviews between products in March 2026. Here is what changed, why, and how to keep reviews connected using Product Groups.
Judge.me no longer allows third-party apps to transfer reviews between products via its API. To keep Judge.me reviews connected to merged products, use Judge.me's Product Groups feature to link the merged product to the archived source products.
A native Merges integration for Judge.me Product Groups is planned for a future release.
What this means for your store
Two consequences worth knowing:
- The star rating and review count on the merged product start at zero. Any review collected after the merge attaches to the new product.
- Your existing reviews are not lost. They remain attached to the original source products (now archived) and continue to appear in Judge.me's review index.
Recommended path: Judge.me Product Groups
Judge.me Product Groups let you group multiple products so they share a single review stream. A review on any product in the group displays on every other product in the same group.
- Merge your products in Merges as usual.
- Note the original product IDs (still visible in your archived products list in Shopify admin) and the new merged product.
- In Judge.me, open Settings -> Product Groups.
- Create a new group and add every original product plus the new merged product.
- Save.
Judge.me will then display reviews from the originals on the merged product page. Because the originals are archived in Shopify after merging, customers never see them directly - they exist only to anchor the historical reviews for the group.
Creating a Judge.me Product Group for a merged product
Creating a Judge.me Product Group for a merged product
Connecting Judge.me to Merges
The Judge.me connection in the Merges Integrations tab is available for merchants who want to keep the accounts linked for future features. Today the connection does not transfer reviews - that is handled through Product Groups on Judge.me's side.
To connect:
- Open the Merges app in your Shopify admin.
- Open the Integrations tab.
- Find Judge.me and click Connect.
- Authorize on the Judge.me page and return to Merges.
Troubleshooting
Reviews do not appear on the merged product
Most common cause: the merged product is not yet part of your Judge.me Product Group. Open Settings -> Product Groups in Judge.me and add it.
Second cause: moderation is set to manual approval. Open Manage Reviews in Judge.me and publish the pending reviews.
Original products are still showing reviews publicly
They should not. Merging archives the originals, which makes them unreachable to customers. If they have been unarchived, Shopify will surface them again. Re-archive them to keep customers on the merged product.
Review count on the merged product is zero
Expected until new reviews are submitted. Use Product Groups to surface historical reviews on the merged product.
Need help
Email support@merges.io.