Here's something most Shopify merchants discover only after they've launched: the Dawn theme - Shopify's own flagship free theme - doesn't include a testimonial section. Neither do many of the most popular themes in the Shopify Theme Store. If you want to display customer reviews and testimonials on your homepage or anywhere else on your store, you're usually left with three options: pay a monthly subscription for a review app, copy-paste Liquid code from a forum thread and hope it renders correctly, or hire a developer to build something from scratch.
None of these are quick, and two of them are expensive. The reason this matters is that testimonials are one of the highest-impact trust signals in ecommerce. Research from the Spiegel Research Center found that displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by up to 270%. Social proof isn't a nice-to-have - for most stores, it's a direct driver of whether a first-time visitor becomes a customer or bounces.
That's the gap Section Store fills. With over 50 different testimonial Section designs - carousels, grids, single-quote features, star-rating layouts, photo testimonials, and more - you can add a professionally designed, fully customisable testimonials section to any Online Store 2.0 theme in minutes. Each Section is a one-time $9 purchase with no subscription, no ongoing fees, and no code editing required. It's particularly well-suited to DTC brands, service-based Shopify stores, beauty and wellness merchants, and anyone selling a product where trust and credibility play a direct role in the purchase decision. Here's exactly how to do it.
WHY MOST SHOPIFY THEMES FALL SHORT ON TESTIMONIALS
Shopify's built-in theme editor gives merchants a lot of control over layout and content — but testimonials are a consistent blind spot. Themes like Dawn, Refresh, and Sense either omit a dedicated testimonials section entirely or offer only a bare-bones "Quotes" block with minimal design options: no star ratings, no customer photos, no carousel functionality, and limited styling.
Merchants who want something that actually looks good are routinely directed to community forums, where the solution is always either custom Liquid code or a third-party app with a recurring monthly cost. For a feature this important to conversions, neither of those should be the default answer.
HOW TO ADD A TESTIMONIAL SECTION TO YOUR SHOPIFY STORE
Follow these simple steps to install and customise a testimonial section on your Shopify store using Section Store.
Install the Section Store App
If you haven't already, install the Section Store app from the Shopify App Store. It's free to install — you only pay $9 for each Section you choose to purchase.
Browse the Testimonial Section Library
Inside the app, search for "Testimonials" or browse the Testimonial category. You'll find over 50 designs - from minimal single-quote layouts and carousel sliders to multi-column grids with star ratings and customer photos. Filter by style to find the right fit for your brand aesthetic.
Purchase Your Chosen Section
Click on the Section design you want and complete the one-time $9 purchase. This gives you permanent access to the Section - no subscription, no renewal, and no limit on how many themes you install it to within your store.
Install to Your Theme
Navigate to My Sections in the Section Store app. Click the Install button next to your chosen testimonial Section, then select the theme you want to add it to. Section Store adds the .liquid file directly to your theme - there's nothing to copy, paste, or configure in code.
Open the Shopify Theme Editor
In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes and click Customize on your active theme to open the Theme Editor.
Navigate to the Page Where You Want Testimonials
In the Theme Editor, use the page selector at the top to navigate to the page where you want to add the testimonials - your homepage, a specific landing page, a product page, or anywhere else. Section Store testimonial Sections can be added to any page on your store.
Add Your Testimonial Section
Click Add Section in the left-hand sidebar and search for "ss - Testimonials". Your purchased Section will appear in the results — all Section Store Sections are prefixed with "SS" (for example, "ss - Testimonials #12"), making them easy to identify. Click it to add it to the page.
Add Your Testimonial Content
Click on the Section in the sidebar to open its settings panel. You'll be able to add your customer quotes, names, star ratings, and photos - depending on which design you chose. Click into individual blocks within the Section to edit each testimonial entry separately. All of this happens in the Theme Editor interface, with a live preview updating as you type.
Adjust Placement and Order
Drag the testimonial Section up or down in the sidebar to reposition it on the page. For homepages, testimonials typically perform best placed after a hero banner or featured products section - close enough to the top that visitors encounter them without scrolling too far, but after the initial product content has set context.
Save Your Theme
Click Save in the top-right corner of the Theme Editor to make your testimonial section live. Check both desktop and mobile previews before publishing — the toggle is available at the top of the Theme Editor.
WHO IS THIS MOST USEFUL FOR?
Testimonial sections matter most in situations where there's a meaningful trust gap to close. That makes them especially valuable for newer stores that don't yet have a large volume of product reviews, for brands selling premium or higher-priced items where customers want more reassurance before buying, and for any store where the product requires some degree of belief - supplements, skincare, courses, coaching, handmade goods, and similar categories.
Service-based stores on Shopify - photographers, consultants, studios - also benefit significantly, since their "product" is often sold entirely on the strength of word-of-mouth. If your current theme doesn't give you a clean, flexible way to display social proof, you're leaving conversion potential on the table every day you wait to fix it.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT TESTIMONIAL LAYOUT FOR YOUR STORE
With over 50 designs available, the choice comes down to a few practical considerations. If you have a lot of testimonials to show, a carousel or slider layout lets you display more without taking up excessive page space. If you're leading with a handful of high-quality, detailed quotes, a grid or featured single-quote layout gives each one more visual weight.
If your customers have submitted photos, look for designs that accommodate imagery alongside the text - customer faces dramatically increase how credible a testimonial feels. And if your store is in a category where star ratings carry a lot of meaning (consumer goods, beauty, food and drink), prioritise a design that puts the rating front and centre rather than treating it as an afterthought.
START BUILDING TRUST FROM DAY ONE
Browse all 50+ testimonial Section designs — alongside 730+ other Sections - inside Section Store. Every Section is a one-time $9 purchase, works with all Online Store 2.0 themes, and is fully customisable inside Shopify's built-in Theme Editor. No subscriptions, no code, no waiting on a developer.
