Manual QA is time-consuming—Auto QA does the heavy lifting. It frees up team leads by automatically reviewing conversations with accuracy and consistency, so they can focus on improving support.
Auto QA scores 100% of private text conversations, whether handled by a human or AI Agent. It evaluates support quality based on Resolution Completeness, Communication, and Language Proficiency.
Auto QA supports multiple languages but provides feedback in English. It can assess tickets in any language supported by OpenAI’s GPT-4, ensuring global teams can benefit from automated QA.
Start with individual meetings before a team-wide rollout of Auto QA. One-on-one conversations help address specific agent concerns and ensure a smooth transition.
Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) have long been the go-to metric for measuring support quality, with 53% of customer experience leads relying on them. However, CSAT only tells you part of the story.
When customers rate their experience 3 out of 5, what does it really mean? Did they rate the agent’s actions or the company’s policies? Was an agent helpful or inefficient? Did they take unnecessary steps to get to the answer?
Quality assurance checks can fill these gaps, but manual QA is a heavy lift. Team leads often struggle to review more than a small sample of conversations, leaving many issues unchecked.
Auto QA redefines quality assurance for today’s support teams. It transforms QA from a manual task into an automated feedback engine that helps your team deliver excellent support, every single time.
Let's dive into how Auto QA works, how accurate its scoring is, and how you can add it to your support workflow to start improving customer conversations today.
What is Auto QA?
Gorgias Auto QA upgrades the customer service QA process by automatically evaluating 100% of private text conversations, whether handled by a human or AI Agent.
Each message is scored on metrics like Resolution Completeness, Brand Voice, and Accuracy, helping teams fix and address areas of improvement.
With an automated QA process, brands can:
Save time: Automated quality checks help team leads focus on the most critical tickets.
Ensure consistency: Both human agents and AI agents are evaluated with a unified, comprehensive quality score.
Boost performance: Agents can receive targeted coaching to provide more consistent customer experiences.
Meet customer expectations: Customers benefit from higher-quality support with quicker resolutions and accurate responses.
How Auto QA works
Let's explore a real-life scenario: A customer reaches out about a product issue, seeking troubleshooting help. Here’s how the interaction unfolds:
Customer: "Hi, my device broke, and I bought it less than a month ago. -Kelly"
Support Agent: "Hi Kelly, please send us a photo or a video so we can determine the issue with your device. -Michael"
The ticket is eventually closed, but the customer doesn't leave a CSAT score.
In this case, Auto QA would provide the following insights:
Communication Score: 3/5. Reason: The agent's wording could benefit from more empathy.
Resolution Score: "Complete". Reason: The agent effectively addressed the customer's concerns.
Access Auto QA right within the ticket view. Find it on the right-hand side of customer conversations.
How accurate is Auto QA’s scoring?
Auto QA uses a comprehensive scoring system that evaluates conversations on communication proficiency and knowledge accuracy.
To ensure accuracy, Auto QA only scores interactions with at least 250 characters and messages from both agents and customers. It's also smart enough to filter out automated responses, spam, and bot messages.
Auto QA automatically scores three main aspects:
Resolution Completeness: Did the agent solve everything the customer asked about? This area is scored with a "Complete" or "Incomplete.” For instance, it correctly marks a ticket as "Complete" when a customer resolves their issue or when there's no clear question to address.
Communication Quality: How well did the agent listen and show empathy? Uses a 1-5 scale, looking at how well your agents acknowledged a customer’s concerns and communicated the solution.
Language Proficiency: Did the agent communicate properly? Uses a 1-5 scale to check spelling, grammar, and syntax.
For deeper feedback, certain criteria require manual scoring from team leads:
Accuracy: How accurate was the information provided by the agent?
Efficiency: How quickly did the agent handle the ticket? How well did they minimize the number of follow-ups?
Internal Compliance: How closely did the agent follow your team’s internal processes and brand guidelines?
Brand Voice: How well did the agent use brand vocabulary, greetings, sign-offs, and tone of voice?
Improve Auto QA scoring by clicking the triangle to expand each category and entering feedback into the textbox.
How to integrate Auto QA into your workflow
Whether you're just starting with quality checks or transitioning from manual QA, Auto QA can seamlessly fit into your existing processes. Here's how to get started.
1. Set your standards
What does “good” look like for your team? Review Auto QA's scoring system and decide which metrics matter most for your brand, from Resolution Completeness to Brand Voice. This will help you set realistic targets for your team to work toward.
Tip: Start by prioritizing a couple of areas. This could look like prioritizing a 5/5 Resolution Completeness score while deprioritizing Brand Voice. As your team gets comfortable with Auto QA, you can ramp up to improving Brand Voice.
2. Agree on a scoring system
Since some criteria—Accuracy, Efficiency, Internal Compliance, and Brand Voice—require manual scoring, it’s best to agree on how your team will use the scoring scale.
For example, each score from 1 to 5 receives a distinct piece of feedback. Here’s what that would look for the Efficiency criteria:
1/5 stars: Excessive back-and-forth that could have been avoided
2/5 stars: Resolution took longer than necessary due to poor process
3/5 stars: Average handling time with some unnecessary steps
4/5 stars: Quick resolution with minimal back-and-forth
5/5 stars: One-touch resolution
3. Prepare your agents
Start rolling out Auto QA through individual meetings with agents rather than overwhelming your team with a general training session. One-on-one conversations allow you to better address each agent's specific questions and concerns. Make sure to cover the following:
Explain that Auto QA is meant to help make conversations consistent, not police agents
Explain the scoring criteria and what each score means
Highlight which criteria agents should prioritize
If regular one-on-one meetings aren't part of your routine, consider introducing Auto QA during your weekly team meetings or through a dedicated training session. Just remember to leave plenty of time for questions and walk through multiple examples to ensure everyone is comfortable with the system.
4. Establish a review schedule
To solidify QA checks, create a simple routine for reviewing Auto QA insights with the Auto QA Report (navigate to Statistics > Auto QA).
Weekly: Do a quick check of automated scores.
Monthly: Analyze trends and patterns across conversations.
Quarterly: Review and adjust quality benchmarks.
Monitor the number of tickets Auto QA has reviewed, your average resolution completeness rate, and your communication score.
5. Act on insights
Once you’ve collected a substantial amount of Auto QA data, there are a few follow-up actions you can take to continue having high-quality conversations:
Set the example by sharing high-scoring conversations in your team meetings.
Coach agents individually by reviewing their tickets together. Celebrate high-scoring conversations and provide targeted feedback on areas for improvement. This immediate, personalized approach helps agents grow faster than general training sessions.
Increase product and policy knowledge by refining internal guidelines on brand voice, escalation processes, and more.
Remember, Auto QA works alongside your existing processes—it doesn't replace them. Start small, focus on the metrics that matter most to your team, and scale up as you get comfortable with Auto QA.
Brands are excited about the power of Auto QA
We invited leading ecommerce brands to beta test Auto QA, and their feedback highlights how it's transforming quality assurance across support teams of all sizes.
amika's support team values the complete visibility beyond CSAT: "Auto QA dramatically widens the volume of tickets we can review," they share. "A 5-point scale only tells you so much, and relying on consumers providing feedback limits what you're able to learn from."
Peachybbies' CX team enjoys real-time improvement: "Being able to give real-time feedback is pivotal, especially during peak times," their team explains. "Auto QA catches pretty much everything I'd want a human QA agent to catch."
OSEA Malibu's managers discovered operational insights: "It helps managers understand when a macro or process is leading to incomplete conversations versus when an agent made a mistake," their support lead shares.
Bring quality into every conversation with Auto QA
By prioritizing QA, your team can identify potential problems early, reduce errors, and improve overall performance, leading to a smoother, more reliable experience for customers––and your CX team.
In the long run, brands focusing on QA can gain a competitive edge. Book a demo now to see what Auto QA can do for you.
There are tons of CX metrics you could be tracking. But where you spend your time is crucial as a customer experience leader.
According to recent data, these are the top five CX metrics for you to prioritize and improve on in 2025.
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Why CX metrics are essential for success
Not tracking CX metrics is like putting a loaf of bread in the oven but leaving baking time to chance. Without a set timer, you could end up with an underbaked bowl of dough or a burnt mess. Unless you have a sixth sense, it’s going to be really challenging to end up with something good.
In the same vein, metrics provide clear parameters for success. Meet or exceed them and your team is doing well; fall short and you’ll be better equipped to identify pain points and solve them.
Measure success and ROI. By tracking KPIs like resolution time, first response time, and CSAT, you can gauge the health of your customer support program and potentially justify investments in CX initiatives in the future.
Identify customer and team pain points. Metrics help uncover areas where customers or your team is struggling. For example, high resolution times or low CSAT scores signal friction in the experience that you can address.
Create accountability within your team. When everyone on your team understands what success looks like, it aligns efforts and keeps everyone focused on shared goals.
Prioritize resources. Metrics guide CX leaders on where to allocate resources—for example, leveraging AI and automation to tackle repetitive tickets when ticket volume adds up or resolution times are getting high.
Get proactive. Metrics reveal trends in customer behavior which can help you predict customer needs and make proactive adjustments in your CX strategy. By monitoring customer sentiment and acting on feedback, CX leaders can create more personalized and positive experiences.
Tip 💡: AI and automation can be valuable sidekicks as you look to optimize and improve on metrics. That’s especially true for busy periods: in 2024, 70% of CX leaders relied on AI and automation during peak seasons.
70% of CX teams use AI and automation to handle support inquiries during the holiday season. Gorgias
Resolution time should be your main focus for 2025
In our 2024 customer expectations survey, we asked CX leads and agents which metric they used to track success. Here’s what they said:
Resolution Time (71%)
First Response Time (59%)
CSAT (53%)
Revenue or Sales Impact (41%)
Ticket Volume (41%)
Resolution time is going to be a key differentiator for your team this year. It should be your primary focus when it comes to optimizing different facets of your customer service strategy.
71% of CX teams used resolution time to measure success during the holiday season in 2024. Gorgias Customer Expectations Survey
Top 5 CX metrics for 2025 & how to improve them with AI
1) Resolution time
Resolution time is the average time it takes to resolve a customer request from start to finish.
How do you calculate resolution time?
To calculate resolution time, you’ll take the total resolution time within a set period and divide it by the total number of customer interactions your team tackled within that same time frame.
Average resolution time = Total resolution time in a defined period / Total number of customer interactions resolved in that period
How to use AI & automation to improve it
According to a 2023 study from Statista, 70% of support leaders noted that the customer support metrics that AI had the greatest positive effect on was resolution time.
You can use automation tools to send Macros to answer common questions, or leverage AI to interact as an agent via email or chat. The instant nature of these tools means that customers won’t have to wait in a queue for your team to get to them.
For example, Wildride implemented Gorgias's AI Agent to manage an influx of 1,000 tickets per week. After AI Agent took over 33% of email inquiries, the team saw a 24% decrease in resolution time. That allowed the team to focus on more complex issues, streamline their support process, and make their customers happier.
2) First Response Time (FRT)
First response time is the length of time it takes for a customer service team to send the initial reply to a customer inquiry.
How do you calculate first response time?
To calculate average first response time, take the total amount of time it took for your team to respond to initial customer requests and divide by the total number of tickets within a set time frame.
How to use AI & automation to improve it
Your team is busy––when they’re not tackling repetitive questions, they’re helping customers with complicated or high-effort requests. All of that work is going to bog down your FRT, especially during more buzzy periods like sales, new releases, or over the holidays.
By using AI to jump in to handle those more routine requests, you can significantly reduce your FRT and give your team time back to tackle more heavy-lift needs.
For example, AI Agent helped Glamnetic achieve a 91% improvement in first response time during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2024. They got FRT down from their pre-AI Agent time of eight minutes to 40 seconds.
Here’s what that looked like in practice:
AI Agent helped Glamnetic reduce first response time by tackling repetitive tickets like change of address requests. Gorgias
3) Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT scores show how satisfied customers are with a product, service, or interaction, typically gathered through surveys.
How is CSAT calculated?
CSAT is calculated via a five-point rating scale survey sent to customers after a support interaction, where one is the worst experience and five is the best. While it can be calculated in different ways, at Gorgias the average of all survey responses is your CSAT score.
How to use AI & automation to improve it
When customers reach out for support, they’re expecting a fast response––regardless if they have an issue or are contemplating their next purchase.
That’s why using automation or AI tools to provide that lightning quick response, even if it directs shoppers to a self-service resource, can be extremely effective in raising CSAT scores. These responses could be sent by an AI agent that responds like a human agent would or an automated Macro built to fire off pre-crafted templates to common questions.
In luxury golf brand VESSEL’s case, customers felt that the AI responses were helpful and seemed on-par with the level of support they’d expect from a human agent.
“Our customers expect almost immediate responses, and so being able to automate that, even if it's not necessarily the exact answer that they're looking for, but being able to send over information to give them the reassurance that we're looking into it or trying to find an answer, whatever it may be, that's been a huge help to our team,” says Lauren Reams, the Customer Experience Manager at VESSEL.
4) Revenue or sales impact
The direct or indirect effect of customer service or business activities on generating sales or revenue.
How do you calculate it?
There are different ways to calculate revenue generated and the sales impact of customer support, and quantifying the indirect impact can be difficult. But generally, the formula looks like this:
ROI = [ (Money earned - Money spent) / Money spent ] x 100
Leveraging AI and automation can provide significant cost savings because it acts as an additional agent who can tackle repetitive questions, translating to money saved on the time it would take for human agents to manually answer those questions.
The results are tangible: by automating 48% of inquiries, Dr. Bronner's saved $5,248 in the first month, and $100K in the first year.
Jonas Paul Eyewear saw revenue influenced by AI Agent as well: the team tracked $600 of sales revenue directly to the tool after it effectively answered pre-sales support questions from shoppers.
AI Agent supports pre-sales questions by offering detailed responses, like which glasses would work best for a customer’s 8 year old son. Gorgias
5) Ticket volume
Ticket volume is the total number of customer service inquiries that a team receives over a specific period of time.
How do you calculate it?
The customer support tool you use will be able to calculate ticket volume for you, as it’s the total number of tickets that have come in within a set amount of time. If you don’t use a CX platform yet and are still using something like Gmail or Excel, you’ll perform this count manually.
How to use AI & automation to improve it
Set rules to trigger automated responses to common questions, or ask an AI agent to completely take them off your team’s plate.
Arcade Belts, for example, saw a 50% reduction in ticket volume by using Gorgias’s AI Agent.
How to get buy in to improve your CX program
Tracking CX metrics is valuable for more than just gauging your program's effectiveness. The more you improve upon your CX metrics, the more you can leverage them to prove your support function’s value within your company.
Tie CX to revenue. Show how improvements in customer satisfaction or repeat purchase rates directly impact revenue growth.
Show industry benchmarks. Compare your team’s stats to competitors or industry averages to demonstrate how well your support strategy is working.
Demonstrate your team’s impact on sales and retention. Use the metrics you’ve collected to show support’s impact on converting customers asking pre-sales questions and getting repeat customers.
Ask to expand your team’s budget. Pitch acquiring additional buy in and resources by presenting revenue generated, costs saved through tools like AI and automation, and happy customers created.
How to use metrics to evaluate AI performanceIf you want to transform customer experience for the long term, the AI tools you use should never be “set it and forget it” solutions. Just as you do with your human agents, you can use metrics to evaluate your AI agent to make sure it’s performing well. If you use Gorgias, you’ll find these metrics under the AI Agent dashboard.
Review AI Agent’s performance within the Statistics view. Gorgias If you’d like to change the metrics you see here, select “Edit Columns.”
Navigate to the ‘Performance’ section to switch out the metrics you track for AI Agent. Gorgias
It’s also easy to retrain your AI's performance by adjusting settings like Guidance, refining the internal documents it draws from, setting up brand voice, or creating a Handover topic list to escalate certain types of tickets to human agents.
Start tracking top CX metrics
Whether you’re new to being a CX leader or you’re a seasoned pro, tracking and improving on your CX metrics will help your team stand out among the rest. A key way to improve them is to leverage AI and Automation tools, and Gorgias is here to help you do it.
AI Agent on Chat automates up to 50% of chat conversations. It ensures customers get fast, context-aware answers, product recommendations, and seamless handovers to human agents when needed.
AI Agent goes beyond automated tools like Flows and article recommendations. Unlike pre-set FAQ flows or suggested Help Center articles, AI Agent can handle complex inquiries like modifying orders and providing personalized product recommendations.
Setting up AI Agent on Chat is quick. Brands can activate AI Agent with a few clicks, improving efficiency during peak seasons and reducing the need for follow-ups.
Updating AI Agent’s knowledge and behavior ensures the best customer experience. Businesses should refine their Help Center, set Guidance instructions, personalize AI Agent’s tone, and test responses before going live.
It’s clear that shoppers want answers fast—chat accounts for 20% of all customer support tickets.
The appeal is obvious: Chat is an easy-to-access customer service channel for quick questions and a convenient and subtle way to cross-sell complementary products.
But without the right chat tool, brands risk losing these valuable opportunities.
Introducing AI Agent on Chat, a conversational AI assistant that can automate up to 50% of chat conversations. This new feature upgrades chat by combining agent knowledge with superhuman efficiency and response times.
Now, customers can guarantee personalized interactions at any point of the shopping journey—whether they’re looking for a quick answer or a tailored recommendation.
With AI powering every interaction, one-to-one conversations become a seamless part of every customer experience.
Why Chat is better with AI Agent
Before AI Agent, customers reaching out through chat outside business hours had two options: following pre-set Flows (automated FAQ conversations) or browsing through suggested Help Center articles.
These features are great for quick answers to basic questions, but AI Agent takes support to the next level by handling more complex needs like modifying orders or offering personalized product recommendations.
With AI Agent in Chat, customers enjoy dynamic, real-time conversations available on multiple channels. AI Agent generates personalized responses that match exactly what customers ask for, automating 50% of chat interactions so agents get time back to upsell, create stronger relationships, and craft better experiences.
Upgrade your chat support from a basic Q&A tool into an intelligent assistant that handles customer inquiries 24/7. Here's how AI Agent makes that possible:
Real-time conversations
AI Agent responds within 15 seconds or less, offering fast responses that result in frictionless conversations. Unlike traditional chatbots, AI Agent also adapts to your brand’s unique tone of voice to enhance the customer experience and assure shoppers their questions will be taken care of.
AI Agent is context-aware and uses information from its knowledge sources to respond to customers in real time.
24/7 availability
Today’s shoppers expect instant responses regardless of time zone or business hours. AI Agent on Chat means customers get the help they need, when they need it. This availability leads to higher customer satisfaction and fewer abandoned carts.
Instant product recommendations
AI Agent understands context and customer intent. Whether a shopper needs help finding the right product size or changes their mind and wants to compare features, AI Agent customizes its recommendations for each person.
Intelligent handovers
Some conversations, like technical issues or complaints, need a human touch. AI Agent recognizes these situations and smoothly transfers them to the right agent.
Using Handover topics, you can choose which types of inquiries should go straight to human agents. Then, if AI Agent lacks the confidence to provide an answer or can’t locate relevant knowledge in its database, it automatically escalates the conversation.
Based on Hiver’s 2024 study, 62% of customers prefer live chat to other support channels. With AI Agent in Chat, agents can cut down average response times while customers get the answers they need in one conversation with zero wait times or follow-ups.
Easy setup
AI Agent on Chat is ready to use in a few clicks. Simply connect your Shopify store and Chat widget to AI Agent, and you’re ready to resolve questions asked by visitors and loyal customers faster than you ever have.
Capture the growing demand for live support
Chat is often a customer’s first touchpoint with your brand, whether they’ve just discovered your brand or are on their third order. Meet customer expectations by being available with AI Agent on Chat. The faster you can ease their concerns, the faster they can head to checkout.
Maximize team efficiency
AI Agent makes scaling support effortless, especially during peak seasons like Black Friday. While it handles repetitive support tickets like order status and shipping questions, your team can focus on high-priority tasks like requests from VIP customers.
Onboard, Automate, Observe, and Coach AI Agent to flawlessly integrate it into your team.
Eliminate the need for follow-ups
Drawing from knowledge sources like your Help Center and policy pages means AI Agent can often resolve inquiries within one conversation. No more unnecessary back-and-forths. Quick resolutions = happier and more loyal customers.
How to activate AI Agent on Chat
Ready to get started? Here’s how to activate AI Agent on Chat:
Click Automate in the top left menu.
Select your store from the sidebar, then click on AI Agent.
In the Settings tab, under Chat Settings, select one or more Chat from the dropdown menu.
Toggle Enable AI Agent on Chat on.
Select Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Already use AI Agent for email? No need to set up Guidance and Handover topics all over again—AI Agent will behave the same way in Chat.
Best practices for setting up AI Agent on Chat
Get the most out of AI Agent on Chat by following these best practices.
1. Prepare and optimize your knowledge base
The Help Center is AI Agent’s brain. This customer knowledge database is the key to AI Agent’s accurate and on-brand responses. To ensure your AI Agent is as trained as your human agents, include important topics in your Help Center like shipping, returns, cancellations, and account management.
No articles yet? No problem! Gorgias has 20+ article templates for you to use and modify. Or, even better, check out the AI Library for AI-generated articles based on your customer tickets.
The AI Library recommends pre-written articles based on what your customers ask you.
2. Set restrictions with Guidance
AI tools perform best when you set limitations. A Guidance is the main way to control AI Agent’s behavior. It is a set of written instructions that outline how AI Agent should interact with customers, handle certain requests, and more.
We recommend publishing a Guidance on the top five questions you receive from customers.
Tip: AI Agent prioritizes Guidance above Help Center articles. Unlike Help Center articles, the content in your Guidance will not be customer-facing.
Access premade Guidance templates or make your own customer Guidance for AI Agent.
3. Personalize AI Agent's voice
The beauty of AI Agent is its ability to speak like one of your agents. Select from Friendly, Professional, or Sophisticated presets—or create a custom tone that aligns with your brand.
AI Agent’s tone of voice can be altered with preset voices or custom instructions.
Use test scenarios to see how AI Agent responds to common customer questions, such as order status, shipping questions, and return policies. To cover all your bases, test AI Agent as both a new and returning customer to make sure it delivers accurate responses no matter the customer's need.
Test AI Agent’s responses to ensure accurate answers.
5. Improve AI Agent’s behavior
AI Agent becomes smarter as it learns from you. Like a human agent, give your AI Agent feedback on its responses, from how it speaks, which topics it escalates, and what actions it takes in certain scenarios.
There are multiple ways to give AI Agent feedback on a ticket:
Mark AI Agent’s message or any of the resources it used as correct or incorrect.
Suggest that AI Agent use a different resource if a better or more correct piece of knowledge exists.
Report an issue to the Gorgias Product team.
AI Agent’s answers improve as you provide feedback.
Coming soon: Actions on Chat
Soon, AI Agent will be able to perform actions like accessing Shopify order details and executing third-party app actions, such as updating shipping addresses and order cancellations, directly in Chat.
Excited to deliver an elevated chat experience? Book a demo now to experience the power of AI Agent on Chat.
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See how Gorgias’s Shopify integration makes customer support easier—fewer tabs, faster replies, happier customers, and more revenue.
By Holly Stanley
0 min read . By Holly Stanley
Managing customer support as a Shopify store owner can feel like juggling too many tools at once.
Constantly switching tabs to look up orders, update customer information, or track returns wastes valuable time. Plus, it prevents your team from focusing on what really matters––delivering quick, personalized customer service.
Gorgias’s Shopify integration solves this. It keeps all your Shopify data in one place, so your team spends less time toggling tabs and more time helping customers. The result? Faster responses, better service, and more revenue.
Below, we break down the eight key capabilities of this integration, each paired with practical use cases to showcase its real-world value.
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1. View Shopify data in tickets
What it does: Shopify order data is displayed directly within support tickets, allowing agents to view essential details like order status, customer information, and transaction history without leaving the helpdesk.
Use case: An agent handling a “Where’s my order?” request can instantly check tracking information and update the customer.
The fashion retailer Princess Polly improved their customer experience team’s efficiency by using Gorgias's deep integration with Shopify. Agents can view and update customer and order data directly within Gorgias, eliminating the need to switch between multiple tabs.
Taking a streamlined approach led to a 40% increase in efficiency, an 80% decrease in resolution time, and a 95% decrease in first response time.
Customer order data, including their shipping address and product details, can be found directly in the ticket.
2. Perform Shopify Actions
What it does: Agents can update Shopify order and customer data with Shopify Actions right in Gorgias.
Key features:
Create a new order: Add existing products or custom items, apply discounts, modify quantities, add notes and tags, and choose to charge taxes. Then set the order as Paid or Pending and email the invoice to the customer.
Duplicate an order: Replicate an existing order and make adjustments as needed.
Cancel/refund an order: Cancel or refund orders by setting quantities to refund, specifying shipping amounts to refund, providing reasons for cancellation, restocking items, and notifying the customer.
Edit shipping address: Update the shipping address for an order.
Insert product links: Add product links or product cards from tickets so customers can add the product to their cart quickly.
Display the customer’s cart: View the exact items the customer has in their cart at the moment they reach out via Chat.
Use case: Agents can perform Shopify actions directly from Gorgias, such as adding products, applying discounts, updating quantities, or issuing refunds.
Agents can perform Shopify Actions like duplicate an order directly from Gorgias.
3. Embed customer-specific Shopify data in Macros
What it does: Create templated responses called Macros with dynamic Shopify variables to automatically incorporate customer-specific information.
Key features:
Dynamic variables: Macros can include variables that pull real-time data from Shopify, such as order status, tracking numbers, and customer details.
Automated actions: Beyond inserting dynamic content, Macros can perform actions like tagging tickets, setting statuses, or assigning conversations to specific agents. The automation streamlines workflows and ensures consistent handling of similar inquiries.
Use case: A customer inquires about their order. With one click, the agent uses a Macro that pulls in the order status and expected delivery date, creating a faster and more personalized response.
Take Try The World, a gourmet subscription service, needed a robust Shopify integration to handle an increasing volume of customer inquiries. By switching to Gorgias, they gained the ability to unify conversations and embed Shopify data directly into Macros. Now, agents could quickly generate personalized responses that included order details, tracking links, and customer-specific information.
Try the World’s support team’s efficiency skyrocketed, enabling them to handle 120 tickets per day, up from 80, and reduce response times to just one business day.
Shopify data lets agents create Macros, templated responses with personalized data.
4. Provide product information with Macros
What it does: Macros with embedded Shopify data let agents quickly and accurately share pre-sale information like product links, stock availability, and discount codes, helping to convert prospective customers into buyers.
Key features:
Dynamic Shopify variables in Macros: Agents can use dynamic variables to pull real-time product information.
Pre-built responses for common questions: Macros can include templated responses tailored for pre-sale inquiries, such as providing direct links to products or applying discount codes.
Use case: A customer asks if a specific product is available in their size and color. The agent can apply a Macro that automatically pulls the product's inventory details and includes a discount code, sending a response like this:
“Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}}, Great news! The product {{ticket.customer.integrations.shopify.products[0].title}} is currently in stock in the size and color you’re looking for. You can check it out here: [Product Link]. Use the code WELCOME10 at checkout for 10% off your first order! Let me know if you have any other questions!”
How it helps:
Eliminates manual search and typing for agents.
Ensures accurate, real-time product information for customers.
Improves the likelihood of converting inquiries into sales.
5. Enable self-serve order management in Chat
What it does: Using Gorgias’s chat widget, customers can track orders or manage their purchases on their own with no agent assistance needed.
Key feature:
Order management automation: Customers can access real-time order information, including status updates and tracking details, through the chat interface. This automation reduces the volume of live chat inquiries by up to 30%.
Use case: A customer wants to check the status of their recent purchase. By accessing the Chat widget on your website, they can enter their email and order number and receive instant updates on their order's progress, including shipping and delivery information, without waiting for an agent's response.
How it helps:
Automates routine inquiries and frees up your support team to handle more complex issues.
Enhances customer satisfaction thanks to immediate responses.
Reduces the need for multiple communication channels, consolidating support interactions in one place.
6. Use Shopify variables in Rules
What it does:Rules paired with Shopify variables can automate various support tasks, such as identifying specific customer segments or tagging tickets, to boost efficiency and consistency.
Key features:
Automated tagging: Rules can automatically tag tickets based on specific Shopify data. For instance, you can set up a Rule to tag tickets from customers with high order counts or significant total spending as "VIP."
Prioritization of tickets: Rules can prioritize tickets that meet certain criteria, such as high-value orders or repeat customers.
Use case: A customer with a history of substantial purchases contacts support. A rule detects that the customer's total spending exceeds a predefined threshold and automatically tags the ticket as "VIP."
This tag can then trigger other workflows, such as assigning the ticket to a senior support agent or escalating its priority.
How it helps:
Improves customer experience by prioritizing high-value customers.
Maintains consistent service quality.
Rules let you identify VIP customers using Shopify variables.
7. Track revenue with reporting
What it does: Gorgias offers comprehensive reporting that allows you to measure how your support interactions influence sales.
Key features:
Tickets converted: Tracks the number of support tickets that led to a sale within five days of the ticket's creation.
Conversion rate: Calculates the percentage of created tickets that resulted in sales, helping you assess the effectiveness of your support team's interactions.
Total sales from support: Sums the revenue generated from orders associated with converted tickets, accounting for refunds and order adjustments to provide accurate figures.
These metrics are accessible under Statistics → Support Performance → Revenue in your Gorgias dashboard. You can filter the data by integration, ticket channel, tags, or specific time periods to gain detailed insights.
Use case: By analyzing Revenue Statistics, you can identify which support channels or agents are most effective in driving sales. For example, if live chat interactions have a higher conversion rate, you might allocate more resources to that channel.
Additionally, recognizing top-performing agents can inform training programs to elevate overall team performance.
For example, One Block Down, a Milan-based streetwear brand, struggled to manage a growing volume of customer inquiries across multiple platforms. By integrating Gorgias with Shopify, they centralized all customer interactions into a single platform, giving agents instant access to crucial information like order history and returns directly within tickets.
The setup allowed the team to measure the direct impact of their support efforts on revenue.
The result? An impressive 1,000% increase in support-generated revenue and a 1-hour average first response time. By connecting the dots between customer service and sales performance, One Block Down demonstrated how proactive, data-driven support can directly influence the bottom line.
How it helps:
Quantifies the revenue generated from support interactions.
Faster team optimization with data-driven insights.
Understanding the correlation between support interactions and sales can help refine customer service strategies.
Revenue Statistics highlight which support channels and agents are best at generating sales.
8. AI Agent integration
What it does:AI Agent automates Shopify actions like canceling orders, editing order details, and reshipping items.
Key features:
Cancel Shopify order: AI Agent can automatically cancel unfulfilled orders upon customer request, restocking the items and issuing a full refund. A confirmation email is sent to the customer once the cancellation is complete.
Edit order shipping address: When a customer needs to update their shipping address, AI Agent verifies if the order is unfulfilled, confirms the new address with the customer, and updates it in Shopify accordingly.
Replace order item: AI Agent facilitates item replacements in orders by confirming the item to be removed and the new item to be added, checking stock availability, adjusting payments if necessary, and sending an updated order confirmation to the customer.
Reship order for free: In cases where an order is lost in transit or arrives damaged, AI Agent can duplicate and resend the order at no additional charge.
Remove order item: If a customer decides to remove an item from their order, AI Agent can handle the removal, restock the item in Shopify, process the refund for the removed item, and notify the customer of the updated order details.
Use case: A customer realizes they've entered an incorrect shipping address shortly after placing an order. They contact support, and AI Agent promptly verifies that the order is unfulfilled, confirms the correct address with the customer, updates the shipping information in Shopify, and sends a confirmation email—all without human intervention.
How it helps:
Automating routine order management tasks reduces the workload on human agents.
Quick and accurate responses to order modification requests lead to a better customer experience.
Automated processes ensure consistency and accuracy in handling order changes, reducing the likelihood of human error.
Using Gorgias’s AI Agent you can customize multiple Shopify actions with Gorgias.
"Since day one, Gorgias has been dedicated to helping ecommerce brands deliver exceptional customer experiences. We started with a helpdesk to centralize support, then introduced AI Agent to instantly resolve support questions,” says Romain Lapeyre, CEO of Gorgias.
“Now, we're taking the next leap forward with an AI Agent that powers the entire customer journey—anticipating buyer needs, boosting sales, and automating high-quality support. Today, I'm happy to announce Gorgias as the Conversational AI platform for ecommerce.”
Gorgias’s Conversational AI platform will let teams provide fast, scalable, and cost-effective support while helping them drive revenue growth. From automatic order changes and refunds to product recommendations and cross-sells, brands will be able to flawlessly combine their support and sales efforts.
The end result is an AI-powered customer journey where every customer interaction feels complete, personal, and connected, both before and after purchase.
Questions in Chat, resolved in seconds
Last year, we introduced AI Agent for email.
Some brands call their AI Agent Lisa, some call it Wally, and most treat it like a real member of the team. But this reliable support sidekick was only available to answer customers on email—until now.
Get ready for instant responses that tackle support inquiries of all sizes. Now, your customers can enjoy fast responses that keep their shopping experience as smooth as possible.
On top of improving first response times, AI Agent can play an even more critical role in unblocking sales, suggesting products, and driving upsells and cross-sells.
With responses sent in 15 seconds or less, brands can delight customers with near-instant resolutions.
AI Agent can autonomously respond to customers on email and chat.
Let your AI Agent take action
Actions let AI Agent perform customer requests on behalf of your support team. This includes changing shipping addresses, fetching fulfillment status, canceling orders, adding discounts, and more.
You can use a library of pre-configured Actions for popular apps like Shopify, Rebuy, Loop, and more. And you don’t need any technical skills to set them up.
With almost half of queries requiring some kind of update, Actions is your go-to for complete resolutions so you can get more accomplished.
AI Agent can perform actions on ecommerce apps, right from the Gorgias platform.
Quality built into every support ticket
Quality checks have traditionally been manual, time-consuming, and inconsistent. Our brand new Auto QA feature changes that by automatically scoring 100% of conversations on resolution completeness and communication quality—whether from a human or AI agent.
With Auto QA, team leads can:
Scale quality consistently and easily. Both human and AI agents follow the same quality standards, allowing for consistent, high-quality customer experiences.
Coach smarter. Use real-time QA ratings in tickets to give agents targeted feedback.
Track team performance. The dashboard highlights metrics by agent, showing what’s working and where to improve.
Receive automatic QA checks on all customer conversations with Auto QA.
Gain clarity on your AI Agent’s impact
Support teams should be in complete control of their AI. That’s why the AI Agent Report and AI Agent Insights were created—to help you know exactly how your AI Agent is performing and contributing to your customer service operations.
The AI Agent Report provides full visibility into AI Agent’s performance, covering metrics like First Response Time, CSAT, and one-touch ticket resolutions. Fully integrated into your Support Performance Statistics dashboard, the report includes:
The percentage of tickets automated by AI Agent
The number of tickets closed by AI Agent
Success rates for one-touch resolutions
How satisfied customers are with AI Agent’s responses
Monitor AI Agent’s performance with a glimpse into metrics like automation rate, closed tickets, and customer satisfaction.
AI Agent Insights takes it a step further. It analyzes AI Agent’s performance data and provides you with a dashboard of recommendations, including potential automation opportunities, popular ticket intents to optimize, and knowledge base improvements.
Find out which areas of your support workflow could benefit from automation with AI Insights.
Meet your new AI sales assistant
Soon, we’ll be expanding our AI capabilities with the launch of AI Agent for Sales, a tool designed to assist customers on their shopping journey.
AI Agent for Sales helps brands boost their sales capabilities through smart product recommendations, on-page checkout assistance, and personalized conversations. Now it's easier to reduce cart abandonment, suggest complementary products to boost average order value, and overcome pre-sale objections.
This new tool will bridge the gap between marketing and CX, ensuring brands can scale personalized interactions 24/7 without increasing headcount.
AI Agent for Sales is coming to chat soon.
Looking ahead with conversational AI
As we continue to innovate with conversational AI, our focus remains on helping you succeed.
By combining smarter tools with valuable insights, we’re creating opportunities for you to put your customers first and build deeper connections at every touchpoint.
Join us as we pave a new way for the future of ecommerce.
Help your CX team deliver better service with AI quality assurance for fair feedback and consistent customer support.
By Christelle Agustin
0 min read . By Christelle Agustin
TL;DR:
The landscape of QA is moving from manual to AI-powered, where AI can analyze every customer interaction, uncover patterns, and suggest data-driven changes at scale.
Automating QA allows ticket reviews to be routine. This means customers will always receive high-quality support.
Every customer interaction is reviewed with AI QA — not just a sample. This gives support leaders full visibility into performance and service quality.
AI QA saves time and improves agent and AI Agent feedback. By automating ticket reviews, agents receive instant, unbiased feedback, and leaders can focus on big-picture CX improvements.
But answering tickets isn't enough. Responses must also be high-quality, whether from humans or AI. And while customer satisfaction (CSAT) is the standard measure of how successful these interactions are, they have major limits.
CSAT scores don’t tell the full story about whether agents were helpful or if they used on-brand language. These gray areas in quality lead to missed sales, higher return rates, and frustrated customers during peak periods.
AI quality assurance (QA) is changing that. In this article, we’ll see what QA looks like today, how AI can simplify the process, and how CX teams can use tools like Auto QA to improve quality across all conversations.
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Traditional customer support QA is falling by the wayside
Today, QA in customer support is a largely manual responsibility. Customer conversations are reviewed by CX team leads to ensure customer satisfaction and identify areas for agent coaching. Team leads evaluate agent responses against a checklist of best practices, including the proper use of language, product knowledge, consistency, and helpfulness.
However, reviewing tickets takes a long time.
QA is important, but it's hard to prioritize when customers are actively waiting for help with refunds, urgent order edits, or negative reviews. And when CX teams are under-resourced and short-staffed, it’s easy to put QA on the back burner.
What’s more, as AI plays a bigger role in responding to customers, quality assurance must evolve to ensure the quality of AI-generated responses, not just human responses.
Over time, the lack of QA in CX can hold back support teams for three reasons:
Delayed feedback makes it harder for agents and AI tools to improve.
Leaders have less time to train agents and refine workflows.
Inconsistent service risks losing customer trust and loyalty.
What is AI-powered QA in CX?
AI-powered quality assurance (QA) uses AI to automate the process of reviewing customer interactions for resolution completeness, communication, language proficiency, and more.
Instead of team leads spending hours manually sifting through tickets, AI takes over and evaluates how well tickets were resolved by agents.
Shifting this traditionally manual work to an automated process pulls teams out of the weeds and into more beneficial work like speaking to customers and upselling.
Manual QA is prone to inconsistent checks and fewer tickets reviewed compared to AI-powered QA.
With AI QA, routine ticket reviews are not just an optional part of your customer service strategy, they become a permanent part of it. The road to greater customer trust, resolution times, and stronger product knowledge becomes easier.
Manual QA is like trying to review a handful of tickets during a flood of new customer requests. Team leads can only focus on a small sample, leaving most interactions unchecked. Without complete visibility, creating a standard across all interactions is challenging.
Now, switch over to AI QA. You don’t have to choose between QA duty or answering tickets — QA checks are automatically done. You’ll still need to monitor AI’s performance, but now there’s more time to focus on creating strategies that improve the customer experience.
Here’s how AI QA and manual QA measure up to each other:
Feature
AI QA
Manual QA
Number of Tickets Reviewed
All tickets are reviewed automatically.
Only a small sample of tickets can be reviewed.
Speed of Reviews
Reviews are completed instantly after responses.
Reviews are time-consuming and delayed.
Consistency
Feedback is consistent and unbiased across all tickets.
Feedback varies depending on the reviewer.
Scalability
Scales, regardless of ticket volume.
Struggles to keep up with high ticket volumes.
Agent Feedback
Provides instant, actionable feedback for every resolved ticket.
Feedback is delayed and limited to a few cases.
Leader Advantage
Frees up leaders to train the team and improve workflows.
Disadvantageous, as leaders spend most time manually reviewing tickets.
7 benefits of using AI quality assurance in CX
AI quality assurance helps CX leaders move beyond manual reviews by offering fast, thorough insights into performance and customer needs. Here are seven key benefits it brings to your team.
1. Improved visibility into customer interactions
AI QA reviews every ticket, giving CX leaders a complete view of agent performance and customer trends. Nothing slips through the cracks, so you can act on real data each and every single time.
What the team wins: Key areas to focus on to improve the customer experience.
What the customer wins: A consistent support experience where their concerns are fully addressed.
AI QA feedback can highlight confusing policies or common product issues that lead to unhappy customers. With instant feedback, teams can quickly make changes and create better, consistent customer experiences.
What the team wins: Faster fixes for recurring issues.
What the customer wins: A smoother, frustration-free experience.
3. Faster identification of process gaps
Agents can receive feedback that instantly highlights gaps in workflows or unclear escalation steps. This is an efficient way to resolve issues within the wider team before they become more significant problems.
What the team wins: Process issues are solved quickly.
What the customer wins: Faster resolutions with little to no delays.
4. Standardized scoring for AI and human agents
AI QA evaluates both AI Agent and human agent interactions using the same criteria. This creates a level playing field and ensures all customer interactions meet the same quality standards.
What the team wins: Fair evaluations for both AI and human responses.
What the customer wins: High-quality support, no matter who handles the ticket.
5. More time for coaching and training
With less time spent on manual reviews, leaders can dedicate more energy to team development. Training sessions guided by AI insights help agents improve quickly and ensure the team delivers support that aligns with protocols.
What the team wins: More focused skill-building based on data.
What the customer wins: Clearer and more accurate support.
6. Drives continuous knowledge for the entire team
AI QA is helpful for showing agents which areas they need more training on, whether it's being better about using brand voice or polishing up on product knowledge. This leads to better support processes and stronger product understanding across the team.
What the team wins: Better support tactics and product expertise.
What the customer wins: Faster resolutions due to knowledgeable agents.
7. Enhanced customer experience through consistently high-quality support
Since all tickets are reviewed, teams can feel confident they’re delivering high-quality support on a regular basis. Customers get clear, helpful answers, while agents gain insights from every ticket with AI feedback.
What the team wins: Consistent support performance.
What the customer wins: Reliable support they can trust.
How accurate is AI QA?
AI QA analyzes tickets using predefined categories to evaluate how complete and helpful agent responses are. Let’s take a closer look at how it maintains accurate ticket reviews with an AI QA tool like Gorgias’s Auto QA.
It measures multiple metrics
Auto QA evaluates tickets based on three key areas: Resolution Completeness, Communication, and Language Proficiency.
For Resolution Completeness, it checks if all customer concerns were fully addressed. For example, if an agent resolves only one of two issues raised, the ticket is marked incomplete. Tickets where customers resolve issues on their own or don’t respond to follow-ups can still be graded as complete if handled appropriately.
Communication quality is scored on a scale of 1 to 5, assessing clarity, professionalism, and tone. Agents earn higher scores when they provide clear solutions and remain positive throughout the interaction.
Finally, Language Proficiency evaluates whether an agent displayed high proficiency in the language of the conversation. The score considers how well spelling, grammar, and syntax were employed.
Gorgias’s Auto QA scores agent responses based on communication and completeness.
Teams can improve AI with their own feedback
Auto QA isn’t set in stone. Team leads can expand on AI-generated feedback by adding their comments. For example, if a resolution is graded as ‘Incomplete,’ a team lead can explain why and provide additional context. This helps clarify the evaluation for the agent and also helps the AI model improve over time.
How to get started with AI quality assurance using Auto QA
Ready to bring the benefits of AI QA to your team? Here’s how to get started with Auto QA:
Audit your current QA process to identify gaps. How do you currently review tickets? Pinpoint areas where manual QA falls short, such as inconsistent feedback or missed interactions.
Pilot Auto QA with a small team. Introduce Auto QA to a small group of agents to test its impact. This allows you to find out how the new QA process fits into your workflow and how it affects agent performance.
Use AI insights to refine processes. Analyze the feedback Auto QA provides to identify process gaps or recurring issues. Use these insights to update your workflow, improve training, and address root causes of customer pain points.
Gradually scale adoption across the team. Once the pilot is successful, roll out Auto QA to more agents. Make sure everyone is trained on how to use its insights and integrate the tool into daily operations.
Monitor and provide feedback to improve AI accuracy. Review Auto QA’s evaluations to ensure accuracy. Add manual feedback as needed to fine-tune its scoring on future tickets.
Measure the impact on performance and satisfaction. Track key metrics like ticket close rates, resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores. Use this data to understand how Auto QA transforms your QA process and drives better results.
Make high-quality responses a standard with Auto QA
AI QA isn’t just about automating ticket reviews — it empowers CX leaders to focus on what truly matters: training and improving processes.
Leave spot-checking and inconsistent application of policies and brand voice in the past. As a built-in feature of Gorgias Automate, Auto QA makes high-quality customer interactions your brand’s standard.
Gorgias’ partnership with Attentive improves customer experiences and drives even more revenue for retail and e-commerce brands by allowing customer support teams to answer customers’ questions via text message.
With this integration, retail and e-commerce brands on Shopify can ensure their customers are getting the best support experience possible, as customer support teams can now directly answer customers’ requests sent via text message.
“We are thrilled to partner with Gorgias to empower our clients to directly and instantly resolve customer needs, resulting in more revenue,” said Jordan Sucher, Product Manager at Attentive.
“We’ve found that Attentive clients who quickly respond to shoppers’ inquiries received via text messaging are driving 31% more spend from customers who receive replies vs. those who do not.”
How it works:
Brands can choose between automatically forwarding all messages to their customer support team, or having shoppers confirm they would like assistance.
Message forwarding: All text messages received from a customer are automatically forwarded to Gorgias so they can quickly assist the customer with their request.
Support confirmation: Help shoppers when they need it most: After a customer responds with a text message, they will be prompted to confirm they want a customer service representative for assistance.
“Our team at Gorgias is excited to expand our partnership with Attentive. Through this integration, we’re strengthening the relationship between brands and their consumers and empowering them to communicate more easily, quickly, and effectively, creating a more seamless mobile shopping experience”
Philippe Roireau, Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Gorgias.
Want to learn how to personalized mobile messaging can help your brand?
Want to learn how to create your helpdesk in minutes to start offering support in SMS, social media, email, WhatsApp, and beyond? Request a demo with Gorgias →
The Peak Season is a stressful period for most merchants. According to a recent study, 75% of them are concerned about the rising customer service needs during that time of the year. Let’s walk through some of the best practices to make the most out this increase in customer service needs.
But first, let’s read about a customer support story that happened a while ago.
The Black Fridge Story
Dan is hanging-out in his kitchen when he realizes that his fridge is no longer working. He decides to contact the customer support team of the fridge merchant and waits for an answer. Unfortunately for Dan, this happens a week before Black Friday and the merchant team is lost under the huge spike in tickets.
So Dan waits three days before his request is taken care of by a contractor hired two days ago to help with the workload. Dan gets redirected to the manufacturer of the fridge and, also after 3 days, gets a first answer.
Dan gets into what is called ‘the maze’ and gets redirected to another person. Seven days after he first contacted the merchant, he finally gets a technician to come at his place fix his fridge. The technician comes over but realizes he need some parts to fix the fridge that take another 7 days to be delivered. The parts that arrive are not the right ones and a new order needs to be made.
It’s been more than two weeks since Dan first tried to get help and this makes him crazy. He goes back to the fridge merchant to ask for a fridge replacement and gets a response after 4 days. He gets told that replacements cannot be made as it goes against the merchant policy.
Dan starts telling the story on social media to kill the merchant reputation. The story goes viral and eventually Dan gets his fridge replaced.
Nobody wins in this story, and this terrible situation could have been avoided with a few of the coming tips.
Tip #1: Leverage support to promote your marketing efforts
What’s the open rate of your email promotions? 5, 10, 20%? And what’s the open rate of customer service messages? Probably close to 100%. So what if you made these promotions in those customer support tickets to leverage on the support you’re making?
Tip #2: Your support staff should be your sales associates
Make sure your customer support heroes provide the same experience to your potential customers as if they were physically going to a store and being advised. You’ll end up making relationships with your customers and turning them into ambassadors for your brand.
Tip #3: Create macros for the most common Peak Season questions
We pulled out the tickets of 600 customers to understand some of the most common questions that your team can expect to receive. Here are the results we got.
Those make up for 40% of your requests. You can actually prepare for it to decrease your response time. There are three ways to do so:
Make sure you have one macro for each question. If you are not familiar yet with macros, check this out.
Make sure your FAQ sectionis up to date to answer these questions.
Set up automatic responses so they get answers straight away to these common questions.
Tip #4: Respond faster to wow your customers
People usually expect you to answer within two hours if not more. By responding in a few minutes you’ll make your customers amazed by your efficiency and will prevent them from going to your competitors. Best, they’ll spread the word on how professional you are and you might end up gaining a few more customers on the way. Here’s an interesting graph we came up with using our customer service statistics.
The repeat rate is the % of your customers who are going to make a new purchase after they already made an order. As you can see, people who already called for the customer service help and got a good experience out of it are way more likely to make a new purchase.
Tip #5: Staff to handle the support spike
You might want to hire a few temporary people to handle the spike in tickets. Bear in mind however that these guys don’t know your product so make sure to train them a few days before accordingly. Make it a rule that if one of your support guys can’t answer a question within five minutes, then it’s best for them to pass it over to somebody else, instead of rushing into giving a wrong answer and end up like Dan in our fridge story.
Tip #6: Build a wall of love to boost morale and track comment
While your team maybe be stressed out by the workload, make sure you build a system that highlights the best reviews and show them they are making people happy and doing a good work.
Takeaways
By increasing the number of people on your customer support team (tip #5) to handle the tickets spike and focusing on not only answering requests fast to impress them (tip #4) using of macros and other tools (tip #3) but also giving them a proper experience (tip #2), you’ll be sure to turn your customers into ambassadors for your brand but also increase your repeat rate. Make sure to also leverage the support spike by including promotions in your requests answers (tip #1). Finally, don’t forget to cheer up your team by creating a wall of love (tip #6) to let them know about the great reviews they get from happy customers.
Being a support agent has got to be one of the most trying jobs a person can have. Dealing with unhappy customers in your helpdesk isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. So, if you want your team to treat your customers as invited guests, even under tense circumstances, it’s your job to motivate them. These excellent customer service quotes can help.
Here’s How to Leverage Customer Service Quotes to Inspire Your Support Team
Whether you’re a support team manager or the owner of your company, you know that keeping your staff encouraged and upbeat at work is crucial to efficient customer service operations, especially in the face of challenging interactions with frustrated customers. It’s one way to reduce the load on your support team. So, you need to do what you can to keep your environment cheerful.
Think of your team as a group of football players and yourself their cheerleader. You need to use positive language, words of affirmation, and other motivational tactics to keep your support machine well-oiled and increase customer loyalty. So, where do customer service quotes come in?
Chalkboard/Whiteboard
Yes, offices still use whiteboards or chalkboards. If you’re one of them, this might be the best way to deliver your quotes. If you work in an office with your team, you can use a chalkboard or whiteboard, posted in a visible place, to display your motivational tidbits for the month. You don’t need any animations or tricks to get the point across — just make sure the quote is written legibly.
Email
Email is one of the most commonly used communication channels in every business. So, alternatively, if you work with a remote team, a monthly email with a quote followed by your own thoughts can help promote an optimistic vibe within your operations. Your staff is likely checking emails all day anyway. So, you can be sure they’ll see your message, and they can save it to their personal desktop if they want to. (By the way, check out these 16 email templates to help your agents deliver quality service quickly.)
Desk Reminder
Everyone has a desk, right? If this is true, and if your team is small enough, you can give (by hand or mail, depending on where your staff works) each employee a poster or card to display at their own desk. They can pin it to the wall behind their workspace or keep it in a drawer to remind them each time they open it.
Custom Calendars
And, if you’re feeling creative, you can create custom desk calendars with a new quote displayed for each month of the year. This idea is nice because it’s functional as well as fun. Plus, it gives staff the feeling that they’ve gotten a gift. Gifts in themselves are pretty effective workplace motivators.
Mass Text Messages
Finally, if you want to leverage technology, consider setting up a staff opt-in for an SMS campaign wherein you send the quotes directly to the mobile phones of your support agents. Or, send a text message to each support agent individually. The great thing about this idea is that your agents are likely on their phones when they’re not working, so it keeps your operations at the front of their minds.
A Customer Service Quote for Each Month of the Year
Now, let’s look at a year’s worth of quotes to keep your team feeling like their perky, happy selves. Whether you’re sending out a monthly email all year long, or posting your quote next to the portrait on the wall of your employee of the month, you’ll need twelve of them -- one for each month of the year. So, here you go!
January: “A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.”
David J. Greer
January is the beginning of a new year. In most places, it’s still cold outside, the holidays are over, and your staff are just getting back into the swing of things after the holiday rush at work and festivities at home. When it comes to an inspiring customer service quote, you need one that sets the stage for the rest of the year.
What better place to start than reminding your staff that their performance at work will affect the entire company. The above quote is from David J. Greer, coach and author of Wind in Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth. In this book, Greer uses sailing metaphors and experiential wisdom to convey some powerful business messages.
The above quote should warm your team up nicely. And, it should remind them that, at the end of the day, a review can make or break your business. So, their job is to deliver the kind of experience that enhances your company’s word-of-mouth marketing, not harms it.
February: “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Steve Jobs
The second month of the year is a time of romance. February 14th is Valentine’s Day. At this time, most people across the globe celebrate their love in remembrance of St. Valentine, the patron of affianced couples. So, your quote for the month should at least attempt to reflect this. And, it should inspire the team to want to lean-in more intimately to customers’ needs.
Fortunately for you, the late Steve Jobs, magnate, entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Apple, said just what your team needs to hear. His advice is to get close to the customer. You and your team can use the tokens of affection you see around you as reminders of how to treat shoppers that come to you with their problems.
This customer service quote serves as a reminder that the relationship between your brand and your shoppers should feel like a personal one -- there should be a spark ready to ignite. And, when you really care about people, you naturally want what’s best for them. Since you’re theoretically the experts in everything related to your product offering, you should know what to offer before their questions are even asked.
March: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”
Jeff Bezos
March is the month for St. Patrick’s Day (and my great grandmother’s birthday) celebrations and Spring Equinox. In a nutshell, festivities and fun happen in March. People are getting out and having a good time. So, this month’s customer service quote should reflect this.
And, guess what? Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur, investor, and CEO/ founder of Amazon, can shine some light on what you need. Follow his lead and be amazing hosts to your party guests. You can’t offer your shoppers drinks, but you can give them an experience that they won’t forget. And, if your team is having fun, so will your customers. Make each day better than the last.
Help you support team imagine that your brand is a party and everyone on the other end of the line is a welcomed friend. Cultivating a great shopping and support experience is a surefire way to increase your eCommerce conversion rates and make every day more enjoyable. When everyone is having fun, everyone wins!
April: “Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!”
Gene Buckley
April showers bring May flowers. The word April is derived from Latin aperit, which means “open.” And, one of the most important customer service skills your agents can possess is the ability to be open to the needs of your shoppers. At the very least, the needs of the customer must come before those of the support staff. So, remind your team with the perfect customer service quote.
Gene Buckley has you covered. The senior director of customer success, health, and life sciences at Microsoft knows the right time to be smart -- in the shower. The right time to be smart is not when your customer needs you. Actually, when you’re working, you need to be humble.
Here’s a brighter, more emotional way to say the customer is always right. Save your critical thinking for the moments when you’re alone -- before you fall asleep at night and in the shower. When you’re serving, be present and serve. Listen and make sure the customer knows you’re listening.
May: “Make a customer, not a sale.”
Katherine Barchetti
In May, flowers are starting to bloom, Spring is officially in the air, and people are experiencing more happiness in general. For some people, life seems more colorful. So, this month, you might want to keep things simpler than usual. You might want to inspire agents with a quote that gets straight to the point.
The retail success story, Katherine Barchetti was Pittsburgh’s retail success story. While her stores are no longer open, her wisdom lives on. She built an empire based on the idea that the customer was much more important to success than sales. In reality, the two go hand-in-hand. But, her words are a great reminder for any support agent.
Envision your customer as a person, not a series of dollar signs. You don’t like being treated like a thing, and neither do your shoppers. Help your agents remember this wisdom with the above quote. In the end, this is the simplest idea at the core of every successful customer service ecosystem.
June: “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”
Henry Ford
June is the first month of Summer. Children are getting out of school, barbecues are starting, and people are getting outdoors more. They’re also spending. And, if you focus on the right things, you could be a major player in where they spend. And, the right things aren’t what most people think. How can you remind your agents what the right frame of mind is at this time of year?
Henry Ford, the magnate behind Ford motors, requires no introduction, as his empire is strong even decades after his passing. What did Ford have to say about customer service? Basically, he said it is everything. Absolute devotion to service is his idea of the key ingredient for success. And, it would be unwise to disagree. So, share his wisdom with your agents in June.
Let this serve as a reminder of how truly important the job of a support agent is in the big picture. Service is the heart of a thriving brand.
July: “Customers want positive, consistent experiences. Consistency creates confidence, which can lead to retention and loyalty.”
Shep Hyken
July is when freedom rings. In the United States, independence day falls in July, when people are getting together playing games and lighting off fireworks. Hint: this happens every year, consistently. And, people continue to celebrate the same way each time. So, it might be a helpful idea to share a reminder with your staff about the value of consistencye, potentially with the help of call scripts. But, how?
Take a look at this quote from Shep Hyken, who speaks nationwide to expert audiences about customer service and experience. He says that consistent positivity is what drives retention and loyalty from shoppers. Hyken has been featured on major television channels and is trusted and endorsed by enterprise brands. His advice is worthwhile for any support team.
Not only is the job of a support agent to be positive and make customers happy -- true satisfaction also stems from a consistent experience of your brand. When people know what to expect from you, they begin to trust you. And, when people trust you, they want to put effort into maintaining a relationship.
Your support agents, by delivering a consistent, positive experience, play a major role in the success of your company. Share this quote to remind them.
August: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Bill Gates
August is the time of year when parents are getting ready to send their kids back to school. Schedules are being rattled yet again. And, it’s the time of year when people are soaking up the last of their Summer vacations, which might cause a bit of anxiety. There’s so much going on that consumers might be a bit more on-edge than usual. How can you help your agents cope?
Your go-to for this month, Bill Gates -- principal founder of the Microsoft corporation -- provides an excellent reminder of the fact that not every learning opportunity comes wrapped in a pretty package. In fact, the dissatisfied customers you come across can be the best teachers. Use this as a reminder to find the silver lining and take everything you can from every situation.
Not every support experience within your operations is going to feel pleasant. So, use dissatisfaction as an opportunity to learn about products, service tactics, and communication. Your agents should be learning how to transmute tense situations into opportunities to optimize your brand experience. So, this month use the above quote to remind them of this.
September: “Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.”
Sally Gronow
Ah, September -- the beginning of Fall and prep time for your final quarter operations. You’re probably getting ready for the busiest season of the year. While you’re trying to figure out how to cut costs, your support agents are still plugging away at their jobs, wondering if they’re going to have to help train the new prospects showing up for your customer service interviews. What’s a good quote to share with your team?
Sally Gronow is the head of customer service at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water in the UK. And, while you may not have heard of her, she has a simplistic yet genius answer. Your support staff could find great wisdom in the reminder that a crappy experience is going to cost so much more than a great one, even if it takes more effort to provide it; use the idea to keep your service team motivated this month.
Sometimes, it can feel like a lot of work to help a customer through an emotionally mucky issue. But, in the end, it will take a lot more effort to dig yourself out of the hole created when you fail to help them. Poor reviews, loss of retention, and devastating negative word of mouth can kill your business. The responsibility of going the extra mile to deliver satisfaction falls on your support team.
October: “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department; it should be the entire company.”
Tony Hsieh
October is a time for harvest; this is the time of year when people come together to reap the rewards of the past year’s efforts. Community is one of the main themes of the month outside the office. So, you should try to create the same theme inside your company. And, luckily, just the quote exists to remind your support team.
The CEO of Zappos (an outrageously successful online shoe and clothing retailer), Tony Hsieh, said something that fits perfectly with the idea of community. He said that customer service is more than just one group of people within a company, that it should be everyone in the company. And, his wisdom is the perfect reminder for this time of year.
You may or may not be able to depend on the other forward-facing departments to have the same level of impact as the service team. But, remember that a support agent’s job is the backbone of the company. And, together, your team can move mountains. In the end, the ability to serve the customers well is the central indicator of a successful company.
November: “Next time you get bad service, speak up. Remember: it’s your money you are defending – money you worked hard for. Tell the company and others. Use the internet and social media. That’s how customer service will improve for all of us.”
Larry Winget
For every retailer, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days you’ve been prepping for all year. And, your support team knows this. If you participate in the promotions, these days are going to be your busiest days of the year, especially where customer support is concerned. It might be a good idea to get your team ready by flipping the script -- what are consumers (not CEOs and support experts saying?
Larry Winget, author and self-proclaimed “Pitbull of Personal Development,™” encourages consumers to speak out when their expectations aren’t met by customer service teams and brands. The people are cheering each other on with empowering words to ‘say something’ when they’re dissatisfied. So, while your team is under enough pressure to succeed already, it’s crucial that they know how a bad experience could affect your operations.
Just to stir things up a bit, throw in a customer service quote from a consumer. Make sure your support staff knows that everything they say and do will be scrutinized by the customers they are serving. And, it also has the potential to be seen and heard by the public. So, remind your team to give people something positive to talk about!
December: “Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.”
Sam Walton
You’ve made it through Black Friday, but your year isn’t over. Consumers are still shopping for last-minute holiday gifts and they’re celebrating. They’re giving each other gifts, sharing time together, and partying it up this time of year. What they’re trying to do is exceed their loved ones’ expectations to express their love.
Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club, said something that fits the sentiment perfectly. He said that companies should go above and beyond the expectations of their shoppers. And, that’s how he grew a small kingdom for himself, from the ground up.
Here’s a little reminder that the best practice for agents is to take each interaction a step further than expected -- from dissatisfaction to delight. Keep your team reminded of this and you might be able to crown yourself as well.
What other customer service quotes do you use to motivate your team?
Building and promoting a Shopify store can be a grind. That's why more and more stores are looking for ways to boost their cred (and profitability) through brand marketing partnerships.
Teaming up with another brand to boost awareness and profits is nothing new. Everyone from Bonne Belle & Dr. Pepper to BMW & Louis Vuitton has joined marketing forces in the past—with epic results.
The good news is, you can use some of the past brand marketing partnerships to build your own partnership ideas for your Shopify store.
In this guide, we're going to walk you through six examples of successful brand marketing partnerships, and how you can replicate their success stories into your Shopify store.
Why should Shopify stores look to partner with other brands?
Partnering up with another brand is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book.
However, a lot of Shopify owners struggle to see how a partnership can work in eCommerce. The reality is, it's the message behind the partnership, and the way a campaign is built, that makes it successful—not the platform the products are being sold through.
The positives for partnering with another brand are endless. Firstly, your store builds up a strong partnership with another brand and boost your bottom line. And if the partnership is successful, it can make your store a more sought after choice for other stores wanting to partner up.
The big win of partnering up is, more often than not, one of the brands is a little less known than their partner. Not everyone will be willing to spend their hard-earned cash in an eCommerce store that hasn't built up its name yet. But partnering with a brand that's doing well in the eCommerce space? Yeah, that's going to drive traffic straight through your doors.
Not only will partnerships make you more reputable, but it can also decrease the risk for shoppers that are making a purchase on a new site for the very first time.
When it comes to marketing budgets, it's only natural that one partner will have a larger budget than the other. If you're joining up with another brand, the budget burden of marketing a new campaign or product is instantly halved.
But it's not just about chopping your marketing budget. Any influencers, bloggers, and high-level journalists that your partnering brand has relationships with can also be opened up to your store. Use them to your advantage.
#2. More resources = better offers and giveaways for your customers
Okay, so the advantage of being able to join budgets with a partnering store is a big one.
If you do decide to join forces with another store, you can pool money for a cash award or products for a bundled giveaway in exchange for a customer's email address.
The reward? You will be collecting a bunch of new email addresses for remarketing campaigns later, long after the partnership has run its course.
#3. Partnerships can create a ton of awareness for both brands
Whether the partnering store is selling similar products to yours or they're in a completely different field, combining brands means you can bring a ton of awareness to your brand through new audiences.
"Well-crafted partnership brand marketing should include every possible touchpoint that your business has with its customers—both traditional and non-traditional marketing, including the Internet, special events, advertising, promotions, public relations, packaging, merchandising, and a host of other marketing components," he writes.
"Marketing alliances don't just present an opportunity to create promotions; they also establish a base from which to create distribution opportunities, providing a great chance to leverage either geographic distribution or merchandising within a store."
Okay, so now you know why you should be partnering up with another brand. Let's look at how you can use past successful brand marketing partnerships to supercharge your own successful campaigns.
6 examples of successful partnerships you should steal
Apple and Hermès
The popularity of the Apple Watch has been insane. The product has outsold every last one of the biggest names in the watch industry over the past two years:
In 2018 alone, Apple sold 22.5 million of its trademark watches. It makes sense, then, that fashion giant Hermès was keen to get a piece of the (Apple) pie.
The partnership between the two brands was first carved out in 2015. It proved so popular that Apple geared the release of the third Apple Watch around the new Hermès Apple collection.
It's a super smart collab. Not only has Apple been able to market the Hermès version of the watch at three times the regular sales price ($1400 a pop), it has also exposed their product to more fashion-conscious consumers.
"I think some of those collaborations have been good for both brands because it elevates some of these long-term heritage brands to a new level of technological synergy that can help them get younger customers," she said.
How can you use it in your own store?
If you are struggling to crack into a new market, this type of campaign is perfect for getting consumers to look at your products in a whole new light.
Has a tech store caught your eye recently that you can see matching up with the quirkiness or edginess of your own store? Do you own an office supply store that is struggling to crack into the millennial market?
Reach out to a brand which is absolutely nailing the market you are trying to crack. See if they would be interested in building a product, or joining promotional efforts. Chances are, your potential partner is also struggling in the market that you're dominating.
2. Spotify & Hulu
Spotify and Hulu have recently decided to bundle up their products and offer them both at a discounted price.
The partnership works on a two-tiered system.
For the first 3 months, the user gets Hulu for $2.97. After that, they will get both services for $5 cheaper than if they were paying for both services separately.
It's super smart if people were already thinking about signing up for Hulu (it might be the push they need to sign up). And if a customer is already paying for both services separately, it will be saving them money.
It's also a win-win for Spotify and Hulu. Both brands are opened up to a different target audience, and a lot of consumers may be curious to give the products a try purely because of the low price tag.
These partnerships take a lot of work, but the benefits can be worth it.
How can you use it in your own store?
Even if you aren't selling tech, you can still use this example in your own store. Pair up with another Shopify store, and ask them if they would be willing to bundle some products with yours for a discount.
The best way to do this would be to run a promotional campaign that boosts both brands. Try selling the product bundles on a separate landing page, so you're able to track and measure their success effectively.
3. HDX Hydration and Clean Bottle
Everybody loves free samples.
The key to making sure you aren't throwing away money with free samples is partnering up with a store that aligns with your target market.
HDX Hydration sells clean, healthy hydration mixes for bottled water. They were only just starting out in their Shopify journey when they approached Clean Bottle to collaborate.
HDX Hydration knew they had to crack their target market to succeed. By teaming up with a company that produced easy-to-clean water bottles, they quickly narrowed in on their target market.
The company approached Clean Bottle and asked them to ship free samples of their product with their purchases. This ensured that their freebies were landing in the hands of customers that were already qualified for their product.
How can you use it in your own store?
Team up with a company that could include your free samples in their shipments. Or go one step further, and offer to include their free samples in your shipments as well.
By having a minimum spend, your partner will also increase their profits on their sales. The allure of a free gift is sometimes all it takes to push the customer to spend more.
4. BuzzFeed & Best Friends Animal Society
There is a reason so many brands team up with a charity. Consumers love to feel like they're helping out society when they make a purchase.
BuzzFeed recently teamed up with Best Friends Animal Society to boost pet adoption numbers.
The idea was simple. The animal charity would tap into BuzzFeed's 200M+ readership, and BuzzFeed would publish an article called, "We Interviewed Emma Watson While She Played With Kittens And It Was Absolutely Adorable."
Obviously, not everyone has a massive readership like BuzzFeed, but the idea is used by charity groups everywhere. Pair up with a company, and consumers will feel better making purchases when they know their money is going to charity.
How can you use it in your own store?
Pair with up a charity for social cred. Studies show that consumers are more responsive when there is a single charity involved, so approaching one and inviting them to partner up is enough.
Pick a charity that will align with your brand. A 2015 study by the Huffington Post found 92% of companies said brand alignment is the single most crucial factor when selecting a charitable partner, so choose wisely.
For example, if your store sells organic candles, then a charity that helps with environmental causes would be a better fit than a charity that helps with cancer research. Apps like Easy Donation can be customized to include your chosen charity at your checkout.
Making it easier for a customer to donate can be crucial to the success of the partnership and the amount of money you end up raising for them.
5. H&M & Alexander Wang
Who remembers when Alexander Wang partnered up with H&M? Yeah, it was weird. But it worked.
While H&M is known for their bargain purchases, an entry-level Alexander Wang product can cost hundreds of dollars. The collab seems like an unlikely partnership—until you strip it back to find out what each brand gained from it.
While H&M were able to boost their status as a credible and fashionable brand through the partnership, Wang was also exposed to a new target audience. Customers that might not have thought about high-end fashion before were suddenly being exposed to it in their typical purchasing environment.
The success of the collaboration isn't a one-off. Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, and Balmain have also had successful partnerships with the clothing shop.
How can you use it in your own store?
If you're selling up-market items of any description, you're already limiting your market to those with expensive taste.
Think about stores that share a similar style, but offer products at a completely different price point. Reach out and ask if they would be willing to run a cross-collaboration, where you each featured your products on each other's sites for a month.
JCPenney ran a similar campaign recently with brand Sephora. They included a link to the brand in their top navigation, that allowed customers to shop from the Sephora collection directly on JCPenney.
This allows for one-stop shopping and is ideal if you're collaborating with another store but want to retain traffic.
Better yet, you could connect with a brick and mortar store that doesn't have an online presence. Offer to sell their products on your site for exposure, and in return, ask them to give coupon codes to every customer that makes a purchase in their store.
6. LucasFilm & CoverGirl
Makeup and… Star Wars? It happened.
In 2015, LucasFilms paired up with CoverGirl to create Light and Dark Side makeup lines to win over a younger, female audience.
The partnership meant both brands were given extensive press coverage during the lead up to the film's premiere. And it paid off. 8 weeks of high impact Primetime TV promoting and micro-targeting resulted in a 725% boost in retailer sell-in, and the campaign became the #1 trending topic on Facebook.
It's not the first time CoverGirl had paired up with a film. In 2013, they teamed up with The Hunger Games in a similar campaign that resulted in a 400% sales increase for CoverGirl.
How can you use it in your own store?
This campaign should be mirrored by stores who are already successful and are looking to open up new target markets. If you are just starting out, try a less-risky partnership from one of the other ideas on our list.
If you're up for it—think outside the box. Reach out to a store that you would never think of partnering up with.
If you own a clothing store, why not try collaborating with a fellow pet supply store? As of now, 70% of all U.S. households now own a pet, and the market was valued at $72.1 billion in the U.S. alone last year. It's statistics like this that prove thinking outside the box could be worth its while when it comes to brand partnerships.
Brand partnerships are perfect for Shopify stores—if they are executed correctly
There are a ton of reasons why brands enter into partnerships (and you may be wondering why you haven't tried it before now).
Using another brand can boost your credit and your marketing capabilities. Plus, brand collaborations also offer your store a unique way to expose your brand to an entirely new target audience.
But partnerships aren't easy. To make brand collaborations work, you need to pick the right partner, and put in the groundwork. Use famous collabs (that have worked) from the past to brainstorm ideas about how you could partner up with another brand, and don't be afraid to think outside the box when you're approaching brands to join forces with. Sometimes, the most unlikely brand marketing partnerships turn out to be the most successful.
Shopify Plus has a ton of features that make them stand out from other e-Commerce platforms. One of the main differences between Shopify vs Shopify Plus is the open app marketplace for standard users and the Shopify Plus technology partner program. And, successful store owners know you should always hire a Shopify expert over a run of the mill agency.
That’s why the partner program is so helpful. So, what exactly makes these certified technology and service partners stand out from the rest? Read on to find out.
What is the Shopify Plus Partner Program?
Anyone running an online store has heard of Shopify, and high-volume sellers have explored the Shopify Plus platform. And, when thinking of making the switch, it’s important to know what help is available.
The standard Shopify platform has other types of partners such as affiliates and developers.
The Shopify Plus partner program, first launched in 2016, is a directory of hand-selected technologies and services that have been vetted by the platform itself.
Partners are proven to have expert e-commerce and platform experience, so they can be trusted by any Shopify Plus merchant.
Both technology and service partners have access to an exclusive resource database to help them grow with the Plus platform and continually provide better service to their users. The community works together as a team, collaborating to create a Shopify Plus partner ecosystem; this gives merchants access to a holistic growth platform rather than standalone services and software options.
Anyone who wants to become a Shopify Plus partner goes through a rigorous screening process. Applications are taken seriously and only top agencies and software solutions are chosen.
How Many Partners are There?
Currently, Shopify Plus has 65 technology partners and 127 service partners (51 agencies and 76 solutions). Like the platform itself, the partner program is an exclusive community. While these numbers are likely to grow with the platform, they probably won’t scale as quickly as the standard Shopify options because of what it takes to get in.
Technology Shopify Plus Partners Overview
With a standard plan, you have access to nearly any Shopify app you can think of. With a Plus plan, the platform recommends and enables easy integration with only the best e-commerce software.
Technology partners give merchants seamless integrations with popular tech:
SEO/ SEM
PIM
Search
EDI
Accessibility to these options helps online store owners accelerate growth through the use of advanced software.
What Technologies are Available?
26 different types of e-commerce software are available from technology partners in the Shopify Plus partner program. Everything from affiliate marketing to POS and warehouse management can be enhanced with an app. 11 of these options work with the Shopify Flow app, which turns tasks into automation.
Not all Shopify Plus apps are yet compatible with the Flow interface, but those that are stand out from the rest. Take a look at compatible apps in the Shopify Plus partner technology section to see what they can do for your online sales operations.
The Engagement Cloud by dotdigital can help you build committed, enduring relationships with your customers. Connect with and empower your shoppers with a suite of tools including email, mobile, social, and advertising. Implement automation, segmentation, and rich customer profiles.
In a nutshell, this is an advanced customer relationship management (CRM) platform to integrate with your Shopify store. It collects, stores, and analyzes data about your customers to help you make the most informed shopper interaction decisions.
Use Gorgias, the complete Shopify helpdesk, to help your customer service representatives view all of your messaging platforms from one location. Your reps can edit customer orders without leaving the app. And, you can automate answers to simple, frequently asked questions, freeing up time for your team to focus on answering more complex queries.
Trust a top rated solution to provide your shoppers and customers with the best possible service experience of your e-commerce brand.
One of the most full-featured e-commerce email marketing campaign platforms is available on Shopify Plus with Flow integration. Klaviyo makes your email campaigns more intelligent and effective through powerful segmentation, detailed analytics, and informative reports.
This platform shines brightly in a sea of fierce competition because it has everything you need to create, implement, automate, and analyze your email marketing efforts with the least amount of work. Users are satisfied and it’s made the cut.
Listrak is a customer data empowered digital marketing cloud that promises to deliver results. From a 360-degree customer profile to customer insights, AI personalization, and conversion rate optimization (CRO), this platform will help you orchestrate all of your cross channel marketing promotions.
Compared to other similar platforms, Listrak users have three times higher engagement, six times higher revenue, and two times higher conversion. Overall, it is a trusted solution to bring your marketing efforts to the next level.
Loyalty Lion knows that an online merchant’s future success depends entirely on its existing customers. So, they deliver a solution for web retail store owners to create data-fueled loyalty programs as unique as their brand. This app is proven to help businesses increase customer retention and sales.
In addition, it’s trusted as a solution for thousands of e-commerce companies worldwide. It enables top-of-the-line rewards programs that can award a specified amount of points for any action taken on the connected website and more.
Nosto helps you personalize the customer experience you deliver. It collects data to analyze shoppers’ omnichannel behaviors and purchases. The world’s leading digital commerce AI can give your website visitors targeted, personalized recommendations based on what trends it recognizes in their behavior.
Top machine engineers, data scientists, and PHDs have been working for the past seven years to continually improve the patented technology. If you want to inspire your customers, this app is well worth looking into.
Leading the way in e-commerce email marketing, Bronto by Oracle integrates seamlessly with Shopify Plus. The API is versatile with many tools to help you deliver optimized campaigns. You can store customer data and purchase information in the existing CRM, or integrate it with another. Create personalized email campaigns that you can send at the right time, to the right shoppers.
Automation is handled through an easy-to-use drag and drop interface, so most merchants aren’t overloaded with the frustration of learning new, complicated technology.
Smile.io is the solution that can help you turn first-time shoppers into lifetime buyers. The app is reward program management made easy. You can design a program your way, then make changes instantly, in real time. Using the system will negate the need for your IT or dev team to work on your promotions by simplifying the processes.
You can view your program member details to see what actions users have taken and see their points balances and other information. A simple reporting dashboard will help you see important customer data that can help influence better future campaigns.
Another great reward platform management platform (created by Yotpo) on the Shopify Plus technology partner program is Swell. Using this app, you can create tailored customer experiences using multiple campaign options. Maximize engagement and enhance your brand with 15 out-of-the-box campaigns that will drive high-value purchase behaviors.
The flexible program logic includes granular campaign settings that enable you to customize your program to your own specific goals. Using the VIP tiers, you can encourage your customers to take actions that drive them up the ladder for higher reward benefits.
Tapcart will help you retain customers by creating your own aesthetically appealing mobile app. Sync it with your store and experience eight times more sales from customers who download and use your app. Nurture more customer loyalty, improve your buyer retention, and boast about your newfound 26-second average checkout time.
The beauty is that you can design and update your app from anywhere, including your mobile phone. So, change your colors and fonts and upload new content on the go. Leverage built-in oush notifications to get your customers back after shopping. Tapcart integrates with many other e-commerce apps available with Shopify Plus.
Leverage a full-suite e-commerce solution to create more happy customers and drive more online sales.
Reviews and Ratings
Visual Marketing
Loyalty and Referrals
Customer Insights
You can use Yotpo to showcase user-generated content (UGC) across your website, easily collect reviews, and display your visual content with reviews to optimize your brand image. In addition, you can Q&A for more detailed product descriptions.
Use your UGC across multiple marketing channels and build loyalty programs that encourage repeat purchases.
Shopify Plus service partners are the best of the best agencies and solutions for e-commerce business services. Those who leverage them know they are the smartest options for building their brand.
Service partners work in a wide range of fields.
Product Development
Retail Strategy and Activations
e-Commerce Business Strategy
Functional e-Commerce Strategy
Technical e-Commerce Strategy
Brand Strategy and Identity (Marketing)
Expert agency knowledge assures high-volume sellers the most robust strategies, including customer service, increasing their likelihood of success. Service partners are likely to understand the tools available from technology partners, so they open highly-targeted, specialized doors for online store owners.
What Services are Available?
According to the service partners page on the Shopify Plus website, Between the 127 service partners recommended by Shopify Plus, there are solutions and agencies in 40 countries and 22 industries providing 19 different services.
3-D Modeling - Leverage one of five trusted 3-D modeling services to help your business achieve commercial success. In e-commerce, this is a powerful way to compete with the best.
Furniture retailers and others have been using this technology to deliver three-dimensional image representations of what their products will look like in the customer’s home. Work with agencies and solutions that already know your audience and best practices.
Accessibility Compliance - You should adjust your website for accessibility. Why? Because you create better experiences for customers with disabilities. This fact is just as true as it is offline -- there’s a reason brick and mortar businesses install wheelchair ramps and use braille.
Your digital store is no different. Getting an expert to help you will improve your reputation and brand recognition because you will become more inclusive.
Automation With Shopify Flow - Being the first ecommerce automation platform to streamline manual tasks, Shopify Flow has become a must-have for high-volume online stores. Integrating your store with the system will free up time for your team so you can focus on the tasks that really matter.
You can even use the platform to track, analyze, and report on how well your automation helps your bottom line. Doing so informs your future automation strategy. You should select a service that understands your needs.
Brand Strategy and Brand Identity - Customers purchase products because of a story that they have bought into. I believe it was Seth Godin who said something along the lines of, “If we all made purchase decisions based on the truth, everyone would drive a used Honda.”
Your brand identity is your story, and it’s why people choose to purchase from you or click away forever. Shopify Plus’ partner brand services work with companies like you every day and know what it takes to tell a tale of success.
Business Strategy - Your business strategy is your company’s foundation. It is everything you stand on. All e-commerce companies need a strong business strategy to survive. And, they need to continually make updates based on the insights they receive about their sales.
So, you need to have someone analyze your business plan, from time to time, helping you make adjustments where they are needed. Choose someone you can trust from the Shopify Plus partner program directory.
Content Strategy and Development - The fundamentals of creating a successful content marketing strategy are complex, to say the least. Many online store owners get this part wrong from the beginning.
One of the best ways to make sure your content is helping you drive sales is to hire an expert. Choose a vetted partner to give yourself the highest chance for success and rest easy knowing you’re making the right moves.
Digital Marketing Strategy and Execution - Just because your store exists online doesn’t make you a digital marketing expert. After all, the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s important that you work with others who understand this.
Your service provider should see what creates success and what causes failure daily. Use the partner of your choice to ensure the highest chance of increased ROI from your digital marketing efforts.
Fulfillment Services - Outsourcing the fulfillment process to a third-party vendor can improve your operations by freeing them up from a lengthy returns process and human error on your part. Put someone trustworthy in charge of your order fulfillment so you can focus on running a business without excess stress.
If they’re in the partner program, you can rely on them to live up to their word, otherwise, they wouldn’t be there.
International Expansion - If you’re looking for an undeniable opportunity to scale your operations, look no further than international expansion. By selling your products overseas, you open new sales channels worldwide.
And, if you implement your ideas with best practices in mind, you’re most likely to see increased sales and profits with your online store. Make the most of your exports and new stores with someone who knows exactly what to do and has proven their expertise.
Mobile App Development - The development of mobile apps for sales has revolutionized the way people shop. Use an app to send push notifications to your shoppers, provide an enhanced and convenient experience, and watch the sales roll in -- if you do it right anyway.
Find a consultant who works on a daily basis with brands like yours to shine on the Shopify Plus platform. If you get this right, your sales could start to increase faster than you think.
Ongoing Website Management - You already know that your online store isn’t a “set it and forget it” machine. It requires maintenance. And, the more often you upgrade your website, the better.
Furthermore, not everyone knows the ropes of the inside of Shopify Plus’ e-commerce platform. Since the partner service developers have undergone rigorous scrutiny before being able to join, you are most likely to find a solution with one of them.
Product Development - When it’s time to come up with new products to sell in your store, you need a lot of information. But, what factors are most likely to bring you success? And, what factors are likely to cause your inevitable failure as an online store? Work with someone who knows so that you don’t have to make a costly mistake.
Retail Strategy and Activations - Your business strategy should include -- but won’t always be synonymous with -- your retail strategy. While you may end up getting lucky with a business strategist who also has retail strategy expertise, this isn’t always going to be the case. When you need someone to help you determine how you’re going to sell your products, check out the partner program first. This is where you’re most likely to find exactly what you need.
Systems Integrations - You’re not going to become a high-volume online seller by cutting corners. You will want to use the best quality and most effective tools you can afford. But, you don’t want to get tied into any contracts you can’t uphold, and you shouldn’t have to take risks with your software.
So, find an integration specialist from a trusted source to make the most of your Shopify Plus store operations. Make sure the tools you use are compatible with one another to avoid customer-end hiccups that could destroy your sales.
Virtual and Augmented Reality - Hand-in-hand with 3-D modeling, virtual and augmented reality can serve you by bringing your products into the customer’s home before they ever make a purchase. Work with someone seasoned with the intricacies of the processes.
Website Audit and Optimization Strategy - Your website audit and optimization strategy will fall in line with your digital marketing, but won’t always be the same. Instead, sometimes you will need someone to come in and go over your website with a fine-toothed comb to tell you what you could be doing better, and what you’re already doing well.
Website UX Design and Development - A user experience (UX) designer will audit your website, much like referenced above, but their focus will be on how a customer will experience your site as opposed to search engines, etc. Consult an expert by checking out the partner program directory.
Wholesale/ B2B - Are your a wholesale or B2B seller who seems to run into the problem that people assume all best practices are suited to B2C operations? If so, you’ll need wholesale and B2B services to keep your strategy on track.
Your market is completely different than someone in retail, so get help with your strategy from someone who knows your audience well. Choose a wholesale specialist to consult with about your operations.
e-Commerce Strategy - Now, this one should be a no-brainer, and you’ve made it this far, so you’re an expert, right? Well, wouldn’t it be nice to work with someone who is an expert in your niche, on your platform, and knows today’s best practices?
Probably, yes. So, make sure you’re getting the right person by looking in Shopify Plus partner directory first.
Final Thoughts
Are you ready to grow your Shopify store, or looking to upgrade to Shopify Plus? Learning about the partner options available with the platform will help you make an informed decision. And, there’s more where that came from. Subscribe to the Gorgias newsletter to receive more industry knowledge to help you make the right e-commerce decisions.
Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Shopify is an e-commerce platform for both online stores and retail POS (point-of-sale) systems. Shopify describes itself as “One platform with all the ecommerce and point of sale features you need to start, run, and grow your business.”
According to Shopify, more than 800,000 businesses in 175 countries use its e-commerce platform. For the calendar year 2018, the platform’s total gross merchandise volume exceeded $41.1 billion. In a recent earnings forecast, Shopify expects 2019 revenue to be between $1.48 billion and $1.50 billion.
Out of the box, Shopify offers a low threshold for entry and is easy to set up and use. Shopify offers several basic plans and pricing models for a variety of business types and sizes. Their entry pricing model serves as an excellent example for current and future startups to emulate.
However, for more robust businesses and existing enterprises looking to migrate to a new e-commerce platform, there is Shopify Plus. Launched in 2014 the Plus option is geared towards enterprise level businesses. As a result, it is more robust. In this article, we’ll explore Shopify Plus, look at Shopify Plus pricing, and compare it to a few other e-commerce platforms.
Advantages of Shopify Plus
While Shopify is adequate for your average e-commerce outfit, larger enterprises have more extensive c-commerce needs. Consequently, these companies need better-than-average solutions. As a result, many flagship brands, including Kylie Jenner, Red Bull, and others, use Shopify Plus.
For example, Shopify Plus comes with unlimited staff accounts along with personalized help and support. On top of that, it can handle over 10,000 transactions per minute. This means that large-volume retailers don’t need to worry about whether their site will crash. Marketing educator, consultant, and SEO specialist Nate Shivar lists a several of Shopify Plus’ other main advantages.
International Deployment — Built-in tools like geo-targeting, currency, and language options to easily and quickly expand internationally
APIs, Integration & Extensions — Add-on friendly and easily extensible with its own App Store ecosystem
Predictable Pricing — Starts at $2,000 per month, which includes a lot of beneficial services:
Development and Maintenance — Includes hosting, servers, bug fixes, order management, bandwidth, feature implementation, and file storage are all part of the platform
Technical Support and Account Management — Dedicated account manager for each client
Marketing — Includes many standard marketing tools
All of these features make Shopify Plus an ideal option for launching an e-commerce site or adding e-commerce options to existing sites.
As stated above, the Shopify Plus annual licensing fee starts at $2,000 per month. So you could plan on spending at least $24,000 per year on the license alone. In addition, you will spend an extra percentage depending on your revenue. Since Shopify Plus bases pricing on usage and sales volume, the license cost increases when you exceed $800k in a month.
On top of the basis licensing fee, Shopify Plus also has a fee structure based on revenues. This is the actual pricing of the platform. There is a ceiling to this pricing — the maximum license fee is $40,000 monthly. For example, according to Shopify Plus pricing, a $1,000,000 per month company pays $2,500 in monthly licensing fees. In order for that same merchant to pay the maximum $40,000 monthly license fee, they would need to reach $16 million in monthly sales.
So what does $2,000 a month buy you on the Shopify Plus platform? This monthly license covers a number of services, including:
Hosting Fees
Maintenance Costs
Version Upgrades
Native Multi-channel Capabilities
Shopify’s POS solution — along with integrated selling solutions for eBay, Facebook, and Amazon
Account Management — including a dedicated Launch Manager and Account Manager who typically provides:
General Shopify support and suggestions
About 3 hours per month of basic front-end development work
Guidance for growing your store
Onboarding support
General Shopify Plus solutions advice
Overall, the Shopify Plus pricing structure is competitive. Especially considering that this cost includes hosting. Specifically, this pricing positions the platform on the lower end for enterprise-level e-commerce solutions.
But what if you already have an e-commerce presence? Can you migrate to Shopify Plus? The short answer is ‘Yes’. If your business already has an online store, but have thought of switching to a new platform, then this Shopify Plus pricing guide is perfect for you. This guide won’t dive into the technicalities of migration, but it will mainly focus on options and pricing.
Moving an Existing E-commerce Site to Shopify Plus
An increasing number of retailers have chosen to move to Shopify Plus including MVMT, Gymshark, Hawkers, puravida, and Emma Bridgewater. Of course the Shopify Plus website touts all the platform’s features, benefits, and perks. However, Shopify does not explicitly list the cost of migrating your site from your current e-commerce platform to Shopify Plus.
In general, the lack or standard pricing for moving your site to Shopify Plus is mainly because each business is unique. Specifically, Shopify Plus asks you to contact them, so they can walk you through the process, plans, and pricing. This makes sense, especially considering that your specific Shopify Plus pricing depends on several factors including scale, revenue, traffic, and others.
Side Costs of Shopify Plus
Although Shopify doesn’t outline the side costs of migration, at the same time, there are some sample prices from third-parties that serve as solid guidelines. Based on a hypothetical mid-level Shopify Plus project, we’ve outlined some more specific pricing for a mid-level enterprise’s first year of using Shopify Plus. Overall, a mid-level user could expect to spend between $130,200 and $270,200 during their first year with Shopify Plus. Below is a cost breakdown:
$60,000 to $200,000 — The average build cost for a Shopify Plus site; depends on the scope of the project and complexity of the site
$24,000 annually — Annual Shopify Plus licensing cost, starting at $2000 per month; this increases based on your revenue level
$36,000 annually — BAU development costs
$7,200 annually- Third party services for shipping, personalization, search, etc.
$3,000 annually (about $250 per month) — Average yearly app costs
Factoring in Costs for Shopify Apps
Shopify Plus has a great deal of functionality. At the same time, third-party apps boost and extend its capacity even further. These apps meet needs like enhanced SEO tools, enterprise-level functionality, and enhanced site personalization. As a result, when talking about Shopify Plus pricing, be aware that you’ll need to spend money on additional apps for improved functionality of your e-commerce site.
In general, the norm for Shopify Plus third-party apps to pay a monthly licensing fee. One of the great benefits of this pricing model is the low cost of entry. Yet at the same time, paying a monthly fee for numerous apps tends to add up. If you are accustomed to Magento, which generally offers one-off license fees for apps, this will require an adjustment to your budgeting.
So even though you’ll spend less money up front, your total monthly costs for Shopify Plus apps may be more than you’re accustomed to. What’s more, apps have different monthly costs — licensing fees for Shopify Plus apps range from $50 to $500 each. However, one major benefit of monthly app licenses is that if you don’t like an app or find you don’t need it, you simply stop using it and find another app.
Be aware that if your business requires a specialized, custom-made app, then you’ll pay a premium for it. For example, development firms tend to charge $90 to $175 per hour for built-from-scratch apps. So the actual cost of the app will depend on its complexity, function, and size.
Regarding site design and build, Shopify Plus does offer templates you to purchase. Yet if you choose a template, you’ll inevitably want to personalize it to differentiate your site from all the other e-commerce sites out there. This means you’ll pay for personalization, either in the form of a tailor-made site or a heavily-modified template.
Whether you do this design and build work in-house or contract with a design firm or a freelancer, it is important to factor in this cost. Depending on your needs, the estimated cost for this service might range between $75,000 and $100,000 (or more). And of course, the actual cost hinges on the complexity of your site and your business’ specific needs. Larger merchants with more complex needs will spend considerably more during the design and build process.
When migrating your site to Shopify Plus, make sure you work with a firm or freelancer who specializes in this platform. Overall, the firm you choose should be both creative and practical. This means they should deliver a unique, attractive, user-friendly site which also delivers exceptional functionality on every level.
Because of this, finding the right agency to build your site is key to success. Consider working with a Shopify Plus Technology partner to ensure you get the build possible.
Payment Processing Costs Via Shopify Payments
On top of the licensing fees, every merchant pays payment processing costs to a payment processor. This is true whether you use Shopify Payments or third-party processor. At the same time, you might find lower charges by using a third-party payment processor. In addition, be aware that Shopify does charge a 0.15% fee if you use a third-party payment provider.
Shopify Plus Pricing Compared to Other Platforms
How does Shopify Plus pricing stack up to other e-commerce platforms? Below we examine a few of the most popular platforms and compare them to Shopify Plus:
Shopify Plus vs Shopify
When talking about Shopify Plus, it’s helpful to introduce regular Shopify. With this plan, you get a 14-day free trial period without any up-front setup fees. Simply you can jump in and set up your store while you decide which pricing plan best fits your needs. There are three monthly pricing options:
Basic Shopify (for starting your new business) - $29 per month
Shopify (for growing your business) - $79 per month
Advanced Shopify (for scaling your business) - $299 per month
Each of these plans comes with different options and levels of service for your business. All three come with an online store, sales channels, 24/7 customer support, unlimited products, the Shopify POS app, and other features. Yet, as you can imagine, the more you pay, the more options you get for your business.
For example, the Basic plan includes 2 Staff Accounts while the Shopify and Advanced Shopify include 5 and 15 Staff Accounts respectively. In addition, Advanced Shopify has exclusive features like an Advanced Report Builder and Third-party Calculated Shipping Rates. However, Shopify Plus definitely has even more to offer.
First released in 2008 by Varien, Inc, Magento is an open-source platform. Written in PHP, Varien originally developed this e-commerce software with the help of volunteers. Varien released the first general-availability version of Magento on March 31, 2008. After changing hands a couple of times, Adobe later acquired the platform. On November 17, 2015, Magento 2.0 was released.
Overall, Shopify Plus is less expensive than Magento 2 Commerce. According to Ecommerce Guide:
The ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ of a website built on Shopify Plus tends to be cheaper than a site built on Magento 2 Commerce.
The site also suggests that this lower cost makes Shopify Plus a better option for businesses that are currently at lower revenue levels. The article also details a few other costs comparisons between Shopify Plus and Magento:
Design/ Build Costs — Magento Commerce builds tend to cost more than Shopify Plus projects. One reason for Shopify Plus’ lower build cost is that the builds involve less integration work and less backend development. In the end, less time working on the build means you spend less money up front. Specifically, Ecommerce Guide estimates spending about $100,000 for a Shopify Plus build and between $150,000 to $500,000 for a Magento 2 Commerce build.
License Fees — Although both Shopify Plus and Magento 2 Commerce come with a license fee, Shopify Plus charges on a monthly fee while Magento charges an upfront, annual license fee. As is the case with Shopify Plus, Magento also bases the fee on your business’ revenue level. However, Magento bills you up front annually as ‘Gross Merchandise Value’. So for Magento Commerce licensing fees, expect to pay about $2,000 per month if you’re at the lowest monthly level fee.
Hosting — As stated above, the $2,000 per month Shopify Plus license fee includes hosting. Shopify Plus hosting includes security patches, SSL certificates, PCI compliance, and other things. In comparison, Magento offers two options. Magento 2 Commerce Cloud has a similar hosting package but at a slightly higher monthly fee. Magento’s base cost is around $3,333 which includes the license and hosting.
Site Maintenance — For monthly maintenance, fixes, and updates, Shopify Plus is typically cheaper than Magento.
At the end of the day, Shopify Plus is generally less expensive than Magento 2 Commerce. At the same time it depends on your business’ specific needs.
Shopify Plus vs WooCommerce
For small to large-sized online merchants that use WordPress, WooCommerce is a popular open-source e-commerce plugin. Designed specifically for WordPress, it launched September 27, 2011. The fact that the plugin is free (the base product) easy install makes it an attractive to businesses of a certain size.
In a comparison article, Simon Gondeck puts Shopify Plus up against Woo Commerce. He bases his comparison on several factors. Gondeck uses the example of a lower mid-market ecommerce business making between $1 million and $10 million in annual sales.
For a Shopify Plus site, he estimates the build cost (design and development) to be around $30,000. The monthly license fee is $2,000 per month, but Gondeck adds an estimated $2,000 per month for ‘developer maintenance costs’. At the end of the first year, he estimates the cost for a Shopify Plus site to be about $78,000. However, once the site is fully developed, the second year cost would drop to an estimated $48,000 per year.
For WooCommerce, Gondeck estimates the build cost to be about the same as Shopify Plus (around $30,000). However, he believes WooCommerce has lower month to month maintenance fees and costs. Although the developer maintenance costs are similar (about $2,000 per month), the monthly license fee (which includes the domain and hosting costs) is only about $200 per month. With all the costs totaled up, WooCommerce comes in at around $55,200 for the first year with an ongoing annual cost of about $26,400 per year.
Yet in the end, Shopify Plus pricing comes out slightly higher than WooCommerce in a head-to-head comparison. Gondeck recommends Shopify Plus for its simplicity and ease of use out of the box. He specifically recommends this e-commerce platform “for larger businesses with no current ecommerce presence.”
Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce develops e-commerce software for businesses. According to the company, the BigCommerce platform has processed $16 billion in total sales.
Like Shopify, BigCommerce has also launched an enterprise-level platform, BigCommerce Enterprise. Launched in May 2015, the platform was designed to accommodate high-volume retailers. And like Shopify Plus, BigCommerce also hosts some big name brands such as Skullcandy and Ford. So how does Shopify Plus pricing compare to BigCommerce Enterprise?
As we’ve already said a couple of times, Shopify Plus pricing starts at $2,000 per month with increases based on your sales volume. Also, Shopify Plus has no hosting fees, support fees, or monthly maintenance costs. In contrast, BigCommerce Enterprise’ pricing various greatly. Like Shopify Plus, BigCommerce doesn’t explicitly list prices for the Enterprise platform. However, according to WebMakeWebsites, you can get a basic plan for around $400 per month.
However, Nate Shivar puts the BigCommerce Enterprise’s monthly price at around $1,000. Yet, depending on your business’ capacity and needs, the high end of the monthly fee can add up to $15,000 per month. In the end, Paul Rogers states:
The pricing of Shopify Plus and BigCommerce generally comes out very similar — the licensing is comparable (with BigCommerce Enterprise being based on order volume and Shopify Plus being a GMV model with a minimum fee) and build costs are generally in the $75k – $200k bracket for both, in my experience. Shopify Plus does have some additional charges if you choose to use an external payment provider, but this is relatively low (0.25%).
Like Shopify Plus pricing, your actual BigCommerce pricing monthly depends on your sales, traffic, and other factors.
In Conclusion: Advantages of Shopify Plus
Without a doubt, Shopify is one of the top e-commerce platforms available today. And with Shopify Plus, enterprise-level businesses benefit from exceptional functionality to meet all their e-commerce needs. Compared to popular platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, Shopify Plus is a great platform for new e-commerce sites or for companies looking to migrate to a more robust platform. So whether you’re already at the enterprise level or you have plans to scale up to the next level like Campus Protein, Shopify Plus is certainly one of your best e-commerce options.
Gorgias is a customer support helpdesk providing flawless customer service for Shopify stores. Currently, we partner with over 1,000 merchants and our Starter plan is only $10/month. Get started for free or schedule a demo today! Or Contact Us Today to learn more about what we can do for your Shopify site.
This is quite scary, as this metric helps define the overall profitability of the product, and set reinvestment schedules for the growth of your company.
If costs overtake margin, you lose money with every sale.
While the Gorgias mission is to turn customer service from a cost center into a revenue generator, we do need to acknowledge the raw costs of customer support in order to bake it into our calculation of margin.
What metrics are we going to cover:
Cost per support ticket.
Cost per order.
Cost per revenue.
Why should you track these metric?
It helps baseline your opportunity for growth and profitability.
You can make concerted efforts to lower your cost with customer service improvements.
You can track indicators that something is going wrong with your business, and may require extra attention from the Head of Ecommerce or COO.
You can hold your head of customer service accountable for staying within appropriate margins, and incentivize them accordingly.
Now, let’s get into it…
Step 1: Calculate your Cost Per Ticket
Here’s the data you need to collect:
Total cost of customer service. This includes technology, employees, managers, office space, equipment, travel… Everything. This should be easy to calculate if your accounting department is doing their job; they should be able to just hand you over a number. A monthly breakdown of the trailing 12 months is best.
Tickets per month. This can be found in your Gorgias dashboard under “Statistics.
Be sure to set the dates to match appropriately:
Now that we have these two numbers, we can get an understanding of our cost per support ticket.
Simply divide: In this example, we’ve got 1651 tickets in December. We spent ~$4500 on customer service. Therefore each ticket costs us $2.73.
Knowing your average cost per ticket helps you understand the time and value behind resolving customer inquiries. If this number goes up, then you’re inquiries are getting more complex - its either taking more time or more people to answer the same number of questions.
If you ever see this number spike, it’s likely due to a flaw in your product design. Immediately begin looking for commonalities among tickets, inspecting your inventory, and trying to get to the root of the problem before you make even more customers unhappy.
Step 2: Calculate Your Support Cost Per Order
Next up, you need to know your support cost per order, in order to bake customer support into your margin.
Here’s the data you need to collect:
Orders per month.
To find this, simply log in to your Shopify dashboard, go to Orders, and add in a couple filters:
You can then “select all” and it will tell you the count of orders. For additional accuracy, you may want completed orders, not including refunds or other issues.
For our example month, we placed 2621 orders. That gives us a cost per order of $1.73
According to our Ecommerce Customer Service data, we estimate that small stores will see 88 support tickets per 100 orders, or roughly 1.1 support tickets for every $100 in revenue.
While large stores, with over $500k revenue/month, will see only 56 support tickets per month and .4 support tickets per every $100 in revenue.
How does your support cost per order compare with these benchmarks? Let us know in the comments below.
Calculate Your Cost Per Revenue
Sometimes it's helpful to calculate your cost per revenue as well, which is simply grabbing your net sales number from Shopify and dividing by tickets.
Data you need to collect:
Revenue.
Step 3: Consult with COO / Head of Ecommerce
You were previously calculating your margin without including the cost of support…
Even though support drives customer satisfaction, retention, and, in some cases, sales, it also has a clear impact on margin.
How does this new metric affect your COGS? Your margin?
If your average order value is $50, with a $13 margin, you now have only a $11.27 margin.
How does that affect your advertising objectives?
How does it affect your ability to invest into product research?
What can you do to improve your cost per order?
A lot. Mostly, this is called: ticket mitigation.
Here’s some of the more common opportunities:
Updating your FAQ page.
Improving your product detail pages.
Video explainers.
Onboarding videos.
Educational retargeting campaigns,
Stricter / more clear checkout processes.
Improved notification emails to users.
Faster shipping.
Implementing new channels like SMS, on-site chat, or phone.
Final Thoughts
When you hire a new support agent, or manager, you will see your costs go up.
This is the nature of business: you’re investing in a new hire with the expectation that there will be more demand for them to fulfil.
You’re job, as an operations manager, head of Ecommerce, or COO, is to make sure those costs don’t get out of control while you look to scale your business.
Figure out what margins are acceptable to you and invest in growth cautiously. We’ve seen all too many companies fail because they oversupply and hit stretches of low demand.
That being said, if the business has healthy cashflow, and reasonable growth, I’d invest more in customer service before upping my ad budget.
It takes time to onboard new agents, and if you don’t have someone matching that demand, you’re creating unhappy customers, which is a surefire way to eat your margins even faster.
Often, a support team answers the same questions over and over…
Or issues returns repeatedly for reasons that could be addressed internally…
Maybe the sizing isn’t well represented, the fulfillment house has mixed up SKUs, or your product images aren’t clear or detailed enough.
If you can lighten the load for your customer support team, you can save significant time and costs, while at the same time improving the buying experience for your customers.
The goals here are to:
Reduce repeat inquiries
Shorten first response times
Speed up problem resolution time
Lower overall customer care costs
The key is to address your customers questions and issues before they ask your support team. Here's how you do that:
A Better FAQ Page
91% of shoppers would gladly try to answer their own questions first using an online knowledge base or FAQ page before reaching out to a customer service team, according to a survey by Coleman Parkes for Amdocs.
This means that your FAQ page is a huge opportunity to answer your customers’ most common questions and issues so they don’t need to reach out to customer support.
FAQ information typically falls into one of two distinct buckets: product-specific and buying process.
Product Specific: Common questions about individual products may be better off addressed on the product pages rather than in a broad FAQ page. You may need to provide clearer or more comprehensive product descriptions, or consider more or better photography to clear up common product questions.
Buying Process: Questions about shipping, returns, policies, and other operational topics are best addressed in a single easy-to-find page like an FAQ.
When is the last time you cross-checked the content of your FAQ page with the data from your customer support team?
There are many customer support tools like Gorgias that will make it easy for you to track the reasons behind why users submit a ticket.
Once you begin tracking the topic, or tag, of your questions, you can easily identify the questions that top the list, and permanently add the responses to the FAQ.
Bonus points: Prioritize the FAQ page based on the frequency of each customer service inquiry so that the most relevant answers are closer to the top.
Your next step is to set up a monthly meeting with your head of customer service to review the feedback coming in from your customers and ask yourself:
What are the most frequent topics of support inquiries?
What issues take up the majority of your support team’s time and resources?
What issues are emerging or could emerge do to seasonality or new initiatives within our company?
Remember, an FAQ page is:
Easy to find
If shoppers can’t find it quickly and easily, they won’t use it and all your work answering all of their questions will go to waste. If you have an answer on your FAQ page, yet people are still inquiring, they might be having trouble finding the page.
Searchable
Include a search bar so that shoppers can easily find the answers for their specific problem without having to read through everything else.
Easy to read
Use simple, conversational language. Technical slang gives most of us a headache, and leaves most people reaching for the closest live human to explain it in terms they understand.
Now that you have your FAQ page squared away, be sure to track visitors to the page and note any changes in volume, and look for changes in your support ticket volume around those related questions.
Remember: You should never answer a support ticket only by referencing your FAQ page. Always include the information they are asking for directly within your response. After that, let the customer know that there is an FAQ page for more information, to avoid future tickets.
See Where Your Customers Get Tripped Up
Have you watched actual customers explore your online store to see where they stumble?
Customer behavior tools like Hotjar make it easy to review how customers navigate your website. One way that customer behavior analysis tools can help you understand exactly how your customers are using your site is with heat maps.
A heat map is a visual representation of the most popular (hot) and unpopular (cold) elements of a website page. They can give you an at-a-glance understanding of how people interact with individual website pages. Elements that get the most views and interaction are shown in red, so you can immediately spot what your users are clicking on. Those that most people tend to ignore appear in blue.
Once you know which parts of your website are most (and least) useful to shoppers, you can tweak those elements to make the on-site experience easier to use.
Customer behavior data can inform on-site improvements, such as:
Identifying any “dead” pages so you can remove them
Recognizing “deep” content that requires too many clicks for customers to reach, and making it more visible or accessible
Ensuring that customers can easily see and access main links, buttons, and CTAs
Making sure that important elements are getting the attention they deserve
Checking whether any static elements are getting clicked too often, and adjusting them to clarify that they aren’t a linked object
It may require some A/B testing to ensure your changes deliver results.
Learn from Returns
According to a recent Shopify post, during the holiday season, Ecommerce returns surge to 30 percent (or as high as 50 percent for “expensive” products).
Return deliveries are estimated to exceed $550 billion by 2020 in the U.S. alone.
Many of those returns are probably associated with a customer support ticket - whether customers are asking questions about the product they received, or need help processing their return.
Anything you can do to reduce the number of returns - and the number of customer support requests associated with them - can mean a huge boost for your bottom line.
So, what causes returns?
Returns can often be traced back to a disconnect between customer expectations and the reality of the product once they receive it. It may be that:
It doesn’t fit the way they expected
It doesn’t look or feel like they thought it would
Delivery came later than they expected (or not at all)
All of these problems (and more) can be prevented in advance with improvements to your website content.
Sizing Issues
While fit can be a difficult factor to get right online, including detailed dimensions is a big step in the right direction. Some apparel merchants are taking sizing one step further with interactive fit guides, like the one above Nudie Jeans, which uses an app integration called Virtusize:.
Appearance Issues
Poor quality or not enough product images can make it difficult for customers to accurately understand what your product will look like when it arrives at their home.
You can easily reduce your return rate by making sure your product photography is clear and high-quality, and illustrates all of the primary parts of each product. More complicated or detailed products can also benefit from a video or 360-view.
Detailed product descriptions can also help address confusion about product appearance and feel. Sol de Janeiro does this with a multi-tab product content area that defaults to a brief product highlight, with additional tabs to provide more details.
Fulfillment Issues
Are orders not being fulfilled to the right customers?
Are deliveries taking longer than they should?
Analyzing your fulfillment data and using that information to make adjustments to your website content - such as average delivery times - can help eliminate a source of customer support calls.
For example, maybe you want to be able to deliver every order within two days, but your current fulfillment resources simply can’t make that happen consistently. Being up-front and clear about realistic delivery times (like The Black Dog does in their Shipping FAQ page, above) will help set customers’ expectations appropriately.
Bonus: To get setup on two day shipping, consider our partners at ShipBob.
Final Thoughts
Continue to study your on-site data using Google Analytics or Shopify’s native analytics and look for high exit % pages. These may be pages where prospects or customers are running into a dead end and being forced to turn to support.
You can also create a goal in Google Analytics that corresponds to contacting support, then reverse the user path to determine which pages lead to them submitting a ticket / hitting that “contact” or “support” button.
Chances are, there are a few areas of “low hanging fruit” that can make significant improvements to your customer support load once you find them and address the root concerns. And with those small fixes, you could see a big impact on your bottom line, and a better on-site experience for your customers.
Read more about customer support on our trusted partner’s site, Growth Spark: