What Invited and Verified order mean

Every review of a website connected to RatingsPlus carries one of two labels. They tell you how we know the reviewer bought from the store. Both are shown publicly, neither is ever hidden, and both count towards a store's rating.

Invited

The store told us an order happened — by copying us into its order email, typing the order in, or uploading a spreadsheet — and we emailed that customer an invitation to review. The reviewer wrote the review using the link in our email, which shows they control the address we wrote to.

What it does not prove: the order itself is the store's word. We check that the store controls its website's domain, we check that a copied order email comes through the store's private BCC address and from its domain, and, where verified receiving-provider results are configured, require an aligned SPF or DKIM pass. We also look for patterns that suggest invented orders — but we have not seen the order on a payment or shop platform.

Verified order

The order was confirmed to us directly by the platform the store sells on (for example, a Shopify fulfilment), not by the store. That makes it stronger than Invited: the store could not have asserted the order on its own.

What neither label means

• Neither label means a review was checked or approved for being positive or negative. No review is approved for its rating; every review publishes on its own after a short hold unless it is flagged — see the review policy.
• A label is fixed when the order is recorded. A store cannot change it, upgrade it or remove it.
• Nobody is paid or rewarded for writing a review.

How the store proved its website

Before a store can invite anyone, it must prove it controls its website's domain: with a DNS record, a tag on its homepage, or by confirming a link sent to an address at that domain. We check this again over time.