Managing customer conversations
When you respond to a message in Shopify Inbox, the customer receives the message on the platform that they originally messaged you from. For example, if a customer sends you a message from the Shop app, then they receive your replies on the Shop app.
If a customer adds or removes a product from their cart, then the event displays to you in the conversation. If the product name is fewer than 41 characters long, then the name of the product is included in the event description. The customer's cart subtotal and the quantities of the products in the cart also display within the conversation header when there is an active cart.
On this page
- Responding to a message from a customer
- Send a link to a product in a conversation
- Send a discount code in a conversation
- Send an image or video in a conversation
- Conversation details
- Search for conversations
- Manage conversation assignment
- Access the customer profile
- Blocked senders and conversations
- Message topic labels
Responding to a message from a customer
If the customer is actively on your store, then an Online indicator displays.
When the customer leaves your store, the Online indicator no longer displays and a message indicating that your reply will be sent to the email address that the customer supplied at the start of the chat session displays instead.
Steps:
Send a link to a product in a conversation
You can share products that are available in your online store in Shopify Inbox. Learn more about sales channel availability for products.
Steps:
Send a discount code in a conversation
You can share a discount codes with your customer in Shopify Inbox. When a customer clicks the discount code, the discount code automatically applies to their cart. You need to create discount codes before you can share them.
Steps:
The online chat session stores the discount code and it automatically applies to the customer's cart at checkout.
Send an image or video in a conversation
You can send images or videos to customers in Shopify Inbox.
The first time that you send an image from the Inbox iOS or Androis app, you're prompted to give Shopify Inbox access to your photo library before you're able to send a file.
Steps:
Conversation details
You can manage the details of a conversation from the desktop version of Shopify Inbox or from the mobile app. All conversation details are visible in the Shopify Inbox customer profile.
Change the status of a conversation
You can manage your conversations by changing their status. Conversations can have a status of either Open or Closed. You can change the status of a conversation from Open to Closed, or from Closed to Open.
Conversations can't be deleted.
Steps:
Search for conversations
You can search for a conversation in Inbox by using the customer name, customer email, or a specific keyword. You can search for current conversations, or past conversations.
Steps:
Manage conversation assignment
You can assign a chat conversation to a staff member who has the online store chat permission.
After you assign a staff member to a conversation, only that staff member receives message notifications for that conversation. If you want all staff members to receive message notifications for a conversation, then unassign the staff member from the conversation.
Steps:
If a staff member's name isn't listed on the Assign Staff screen, then the staff member might not have the required permissions for online store chat. To learn more, refer to online store chat permissions.
Access the customer profile
You can access a customer's profile from any open or closed conversation in the Shopify Inbox web or mobile app. The customer profile displays details about the customer, such as whether they're a new or returning customer, their location and time zone, and any relevant order details. You can also leave notes on the customer profile that are visible to only your staff.
Steps:
Blocked senders and conversations
If a conversation is detected as spam, or if you've blocked a sender, then those conversations are automatically filtered as Blocked in Shopify Inbox. You can unblock a sender to move a conversation to your Open Inbox conversations.
Block a sender
You can block a sender from sending you messages on Inbox. After you block a sender, the conversation displays in the Blocked filter in Shopify Inbox. You can unblock a sender to remove the conversation from the Blocked filter.
Steps:
- From Shopify Inbox, click a conversation to open it.
- In the conversation header, click the Block sender icon.
- Click Block sender.
Unblock a sender
After you unblock a sender, the conversation with that sender displays in your Open conversations in Inbox.
Steps:
- From Shopify Inbox, in the Filters section, click Blocked.
- Click the conversation with the sender that you want to unblock.
- Click the Unblock sender icon.
Message topic labels
To help you manage and prioritize your customer messages, Shopify Inbox automatically labels the conversation with a topic. Each message sent by a customer is analyzed by a machine learning system, and if there's high confidence that it matches a topic, then the appropriate label automatically applies. The conversation list displays up to two topic labels per conversation.
Refer to the following table for a list of the possible topic labels for customer conversations:
Topic Label | Messages related to |
---|---|
Checkout | Payments or placing a new order. |
Edit orders | Canceling or changing an order. |
Order status | Order confirmation, order status, and payment balance. |
Pricing/Discounts | Discounts, applying discounts, or promo codes. |
Product details | Color, size, quantity, weight, volume, stock and inventory, customization requests, or requests for product photos or videos. |
Product interest | General product inquiries or interest. |
Returns/Delivered orders | Issues with orders received, refunds, and returns for orders received. |
Shipping | Pickup in store or shipping costs. |
Store info | Contact info such as phone number, location, store hours, general return policy, and marketing requests. |
Wholesale | Wholesale inquiries. |