What are the pros and cons of using a 3rd party platform for sending product review solicitation emails?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 18 Apr 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
8 min read
The quest for authentic product reviews is a cornerstone of modern e-commerce. These reviews build social proof, influence purchasing decisions, and provide valuable customer feedback. As businesses scale, the manual process of soliciting reviews becomes unsustainable, leading many to consider automated solutions. A common approach is to use a third-party platform specifically designed for sending product review solicitation emails.
This often means these platforms send emails from their own sending domains or with minimal branding from yours, rather than through your primary Email Service Provider (ESP). This decision carries implications for your brand, customer experience, and, crucially, email deliverability. Navigating this choice requires a clear understanding of the advantages and potential drawbacks.
While the convenience and specialized features of these platforms are appealing, it is essential to assess how they might impact your email program's overall health. Factors like email authentication, sender reputation, and adherence to email compliance standards become even more critical when introducing another sending entity.
I will explore the key considerations involved, from maintaining brand consistency to safeguarding your sender reputation, to help you make an informed decision about using a third-party platform for review solicitations.
The advantages of leveraging a third-party platform
One of the most compelling reasons to use a specialized third-party platform for product review solicitation is their inherent focus. These platforms are purpose-built for gathering and managing reviews, offering features and functionalities that generic ESPs might lack. They often provide streamlined workflows, pre-built templates, and integrations with popular e-commerce platforms, significantly reducing the operational overhead for your team.
Beyond simple email sending, these platforms usually offer robust analytics on review generation, sentiment analysis, and the ability to display reviews prominently on your website. This specialization means they are often optimized for conversion, making it easier to encourage customers to leave feedback. Their expertise in this niche can lead to higher review rates and richer customer insights than a generalized email marketing platform.
Beyond basic email sending
Third-party review platforms offer specialized functionalities that go beyond a standard ESP. They often include advanced analytics, customizable display widgets, and direct integrations with e-commerce platforms.
Furthermore, leveraging a third party can offload the technical burden of email sending infrastructure specifically for review requests. This means you don't have to worry about managing a separate IP address or a new subdomain's warming process within your primary ESP just for review emails. This separation can be beneficial if your main ESP is already heavily utilized for marketing or transactional emails, preventing potential conflicts or resource contention.
Some well-established platforms, like TrustPilot or BazaarVoice, have built-in trust with consumers, which can lend more credibility to the review solicitation process itself. When a customer receives an email from a recognized review platform, they may be more inclined to trust the request and submit a genuine review, as highlighted by various discussions on the importance of third-party reviews. The perception of neutrality from a dedicated review service can encourage more authentic feedback.
Potential drawbacks and crucial considerations
Despite the benefits, relying on a third-party platform introduces several potential challenges, particularly if they do not allow for custom domain usage. If the review solicitation emails are sent from the third party's domain, it can dilute your brand's presence and create a disjointed customer experience. Customers might be confused about why they are receiving an email from a domain they don't immediately recognize, which could lead to lower engagement or, worse, an increased spam complaint rate.
A significant concern revolves around data privacy and compliance. When a third party handles your customer data and sends emails on your behalf, you need to ensure they adhere to strict privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. It is vital to scrutinize their terms of service and data handling practices. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides guidelines on soliciting and paying for reviews, emphasizing transparency, which applies whether you send emails in-house or through a partner.
Advantages for review collection
Specialization: Built-in features for review generation, sentiment analysis, and display.
Automation: Automated email sequences triggered by purchase, reducing manual effort.
Credibility: Established platforms like TrustPilot can enhance consumer trust in reviews.
Reduced burden: Offloads management of specific sending infrastructure for review emails.
Potential drawbacks to consider
Brand dilution: If sending from the third party's domain, your brand's presence might be minimized.
Data concerns: Risks related to data privacy, ownership, and compliance with regulations (e.g., GDPR).
Deliverability risk: Shared IP pools can expose your emails to the poor sending reputation of other clients on the platform.
Lack of control: Less direct oversight of email authentication and overall email program health.
From a deliverability standpoint, if the third-party platform uses its own shared sending domain, you are entrusting your reputation to their overall sending practices. If another client using the same platform engages in poor email hygiene or sends spam, it could negatively impact the platform's shared IP reputation, which could, in turn, affect the deliverability of your review solicitation emails. This risk of being impacted by other senders is a common pitfall.
This scenario often leads to concerns about being listed on an email blocklist (or blacklist). While less likely to directly blacklist your primary domain, the third-party's sending IP or domain could end up on a blocklist if they're not vigilant about their clients' sending practices. This could result in your review emails landing in spam folders, regardless of your good intentions. Even if your domain isn't directly blocklisted, an indirect association with a poor sender could harm your email deliverability rate.
Mitigating risks and optimizing performance
To mitigate these risks, the most critical step is to ensure the third-party platform supports robust email authentication using your domain or a dedicated subdomain. This means configuring SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, & Conformance) records for the domain from which the emails are sent. This ensures that the emails appear to originate from your brand, maintaining consistency and trust, and allows you to gain insights from your DMARC reports.
The cornerstone of trust: Email authentication
Properly configuring email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is non-negotiable when using any third-party sender. This ensures that recipients' mail servers can verify your brand's legitimacy, preventing your messages from being flagged as suspicious or spam. It also provides essential data through DMARC reports for ongoing monitoring.
Best practice example for SPF record on a subdomain:
If the platform allows, use a specific subdomain, such as reviews.yourdomain.com, for these emails. This isolates the reputation of your review solicitations from your main domain's email reputation. If issues arise, they are contained within the subdomain, protecting your core brand communication. I've seen firsthand how separating sending streams can safeguard a primary domain's reputation.
You should also insist on visibility into their email sending metrics, such as bounce rates, complaint rates, and open/click rates. Regular monitoring of these key performance indicators (KPIs) for your review solicitation emails is crucial. This insight helps you proactively address any deliverability issues and ensures the third-party platform maintains healthy sending practices. Without this transparency, you are essentially operating blind.
Furthermore, review the platform's customer engagement and anti-spam policies. Ensure they align with your own ethical standards and comply with global email regulations. It's important to understand how they handle bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints, and what mechanisms are in place to prevent abuse. A platform that actively manages its sender reputation is less likely to expose you to shared IP reputation problems.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Always use a dedicated subdomain for third-party email sending to isolate and protect your main domain's sender reputation.
Thoroughly evaluate a third-party platform's email authentication capabilities, ensuring they support SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your domain.
Maintain strict oversight of recipient lists provided to third-party platforms to prevent deliverability issues from poor list hygiene.
Common pitfalls
Allowing a third-party platform to send emails from their own domain, which can dilute brand identity and create a disjointed customer experience.
Underestimating the impact of a third-party's overall sending reputation on your own email deliverability, especially if they use shared IP pools.
Neglecting to monitor key email metrics, such as bounce and complaint rates, for emails sent by third-party review solicitation platforms.
Expert tips
Prioritize platforms that offer a white-label or branded sending option, even if it comes with an additional cost, for better control and brand consistency.
Investigate the underlying Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) infrastructure used by the third-party platform to ensure it aligns with industry best practices for email sending.
Engage directly with established platforms like TrustPilot or BazaarVoice to address deliverability and compliance concerns, as they often have dedicated support for these inquiries.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says they would avoid using a third-party platform due to concerns about data privacy, customer journey consistency, and maintaining brand loyalty if the domain is not used.
2022-02-08 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks notes that if the third-party platform properly configures branded emails and authentication, there should not be any immediate issues, as many companies use multiple ESPs for different messaging streams.
2022-02-08 - Email Geeks
Conclusion
Deciding whether to use a third-party platform for product review solicitation emails involves weighing convenience and specialized features against potential risks to your brand and email deliverability. While these services offer streamlined automation and a perceived impartiality that can significantly boost review rates, they also introduce complexities related to brand consistency, data privacy, and, crucially, your sender reputation.
The key to successful implementation lies in rigorous due diligence and proactive management. It is essential to prioritize platforms that allow you to send emails from your own authenticated domain or a dedicated subdomain. This strategic choice helps to maintain brand trust and isolates the reputation of your review solicitations from your main email sending activities.
Furthermore, insist on transparency regarding their email sending practices, including their underlying Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) infrastructure and access to crucial metrics like bounce and complaint rates. Understanding their compliance measures, particularly concerning data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, and ensuring they align with your internal standards, is also paramount to avoid potential legal and deliverability issues.
Ultimately, the goal is to gather valuable customer feedback effectively without compromising your brand integrity or risking your hard-earned email sender reputation. By carefully evaluating these factors and implementing the recommended best practices, you can leverage third-party platforms to enhance your review collection process while safeguarding your email program's long-term health.
TrustPilot or 
BazaarVoice, have built-in trust with consumers, which can lend more credibility to the review solicitation process itself. When a customer receives an email from a recognized review platform, they may be more inclined to trust the request and submit a genuine review, as highlighted by various discussions on the importance of third-party reviews. The perception of neutrality from a dedicated review service can encourage more authentic feedback.
