Trustpilot is an online review platform where customers rate and review businesses, mostly ones that sell online or provide services to consumers. It was founded in Denmark, but it is one of the review sites UK shoppers check most often before buying, and its green stars appear on a great many UK websites, adverts and emails.
How Trustpilot works
Trustpilot is open: anyone with an account can review almost any business, whether or not the business has signed up. A business can claim its profile for free, reply to reviews and send a limited number of review invitations. Paid plans, at the time of writing (October 2026), add more invitations, widgets for your website, analytics and integrations with ecommerce and CRM systems.
Each profile has a TrustScore out of five. It is not a plain average: Trustpilot weights it so recent reviews count for more, and adjusts it for profiles with only a handful of reviews. Businesses cannot delete reviews. They can report a review that breaks Trustpilot’s guidelines, such as one that is not about a genuine experience, and Trustpilot decides whether to remove it.
Trustpilot’s rules for businesses matter as much as the features. You must not offer incentives for reviews, write reviews of your own business, or invite only customers you expect to be happy. Where Trustpilot finds misuse, such as fake reviews or misleading use of its ratings, it can place a public consumer warning on the profile, which is damaging and slow to lift.
Why it matters
For ecommerce and consumer services in the UK, a Trustpilot profile is often checked before a first purchase, especially from an unfamiliar brand. A sensible score with recent reviews and polite replies to complaints builds confidence; an unclaimed profile full of unanswered one-star reviews does the opposite.
There is also an advertising link. Google can show seller ratings, the star rating under some Google Ads, using reviews collected by approved third-party partners. Trustpilot has long been one of those partners, but check Google’s current list of review partners before relying on it, as the list and the thresholds for showing stars change. Reviews collected in breach of the rules can also fall foul of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which made fake and misleading reviews unlawful in the UK.
Common mistakes
- Selective inviting. Sending invitations only to repeat buyers or customers who rated you well internally.
- Ignoring the profile. It exists whether or not you claim it, so leaving it unclaimed only removes your ability to reply.
- Arguing in replies. A defensive public reply to a complaint tends to put off more readers than the complaint itself.
- Treating it as the only platform. Local customers still read your Google Business Profile reviews first.
How to act on it
Claim your profile, check the business details and set up automatic invitations to every customer after delivery or completion, using Trustpilot’s own invitation tools or an approved integration, so Trustpilot can label the reviews as verified. Decide who replies, and reply to every negative review with facts and an offer to resolve it offline.
Choose one main review platform for each purpose rather than spreading requests across many: Google for local search, and Trustpilot where online buyers expect it. If you want help setting up a review process that fits the rules and your sales, it is part of the work in my local SEO service.