— eDesk

What is eCommerce customer service?

As a new eCommerce seller, you’ll focus on inventory, building your store, and marketing—but don’t overlook customer service. It’s key to success and includes answering product questions, handling returns, and keeping customers informed. Support is often provided via email, phone, chat, or helpdesk tools, with many stores starting small using chatbots. Leading brands prioritize live chat and automation to streamline support and enhance the customer experience.

Importance of eCommerce customer service

Imagine you're choosing between two online stores selling the same item at a similar price—one has a 90% approval rating, the other just 40%. Most shoppers would go with the better-rated store, and the reason is clear: customer service matters.

In fact, 90% of Americans consider customer service when deciding where to shop. Businesses that prioritize it can grow revenues 4%–8% above their market. After a positive service experience, 89% of customers are more likely to buy again, 83% feel more loyal, and 72% will share their experience with others.

These stats highlight why excellent customer service is critical to eCommerce success.

Centralize multi-channel customer support like Cymax

Cymax Group, a top online homeware retailer, values customer satisfaction—but selling across dozens of marketplaces made it hard to maintain. Their team had to log into each channel separately to manage customer messages, making the process slow, manual, and inefficient. This fragmented approach drained time and resources, pulling focus away from growing the business.

The Solution:

Centralizing was key to solving Cymax’s challenges. As online furniture demand grew, Cymax embraced digital innovation to meet customer expectations. Using eDesk, they consolidated all messages into one platform, giving the customer service team full visibility across channels. This improved response times, boosted productivity, and helped the team meet performance goals.

Increased social proof

Social proof is evidence provided by other shoppers that a company is trustworthy. Common examples of social proof include reviews, testimonials, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Think about it. If you need a new hair stylist, and you’re stuck between two, you’re more likely to opt for the one who comes recommended by your best friend.

The better your customer service experience is and the more customer satisfaction your buyers experience, the more likely users are to leave positive reviews. The more positive reviews you have on your profile, the more likely you are to attract new customers. This creates a positive feedback loop that eventually transpires into increased revenue.

Increased repeat customers

Repeat customers are the bread and butter of your business. Too many businesses overlook the importance of repeat customers and instead spend all their time trying to attract new ones with deals and rewards. Repeat customers, however, are responsible for a significant portion of your sales.

One of the easiest ways to ensure your customers come back time and time again is to provide a great customer service experience.

Having a bad customer service experience can discourage consumers from shopping in the same place again, whereas quick response times and helpful support improve customer engagement.

Improve response times like CarParts.com

Fast response times are crucial - delays can drive customers to competitors. CarParts.com recognized this and aimed to lead on speed. But with millions of global customers, managing the high volume of support tickets was a major challenge.

The Solution:

CarParts.com turned to eDesk to centralize inbound queries and automate manual tasks, saving time and boosting efficiency. With global customer volumes, teamwork was vital—eDesk made collaboration easy through message tagging and shared threads. Its reporting tools helped the team improve response times and overall service by identifying exactly where improvements were needed.

Increased revenue

Improving your customer service solutions allows you to increase your revenue in a couple of ways. Not only will more customers flock to your store as a result of recommendations from friends or social proof, but better customer communication allows you to charge more for your products.

In fact, a whopping 68% of consumers are willing to spend more on products from a brand that’s known for its excellent eCommerce support.

Streamline your customer service like MyBoatStore

MyBoatStore faced the same issue as many other businesses during COVID-19 – a dramatic uplift in support tickets. Without an increase in resources and with an already stressed customer service team, MyBoatStore felt challenged by the sudden increase in customer service queries. That’s when they turned to eDesk to streamline their customer service strategy.

The Solution

Instead of switching between marketplaces, MyBoatStore used eDesk to consolidate all customer messages from Amazon and eBay into one dashboard. This streamlined workflow boosted productivity and helped restore their strong pre-pandemic customer service reputation.

Avoid bad publicity

Reputational damage can be fatal for a brand, and one of the worst reputations to cultivate is poor customer service. If your customers are unhappy and turn to social media to express their disappointment, negative posts about your company can go viral.

Once your business has had a PR disaster, it can be really challenging to get consumers back on side, so the easiest way to maintain your reputation is to avoid a disaster in the first place.

eCommerce customer support channels

Now you understand the ‘why’ of good customer service, let’s dive into the ‘how’. Here are some of the most common types of eCommerce customer support channels and their benefits.

Phone support is a popular way to provide customer support for eCommerce. Customers get the opportunity to speak to a member of the support team and explain their query through an eCommerce contact number, which is perfect if it’s something that’s difficult to explain via live chat or email. The main downside to phone support is the high labor costs and the need for a permanent customer service team. There’s little option for automating phone support, so it’s often the reserve of more established e-commerce stores with the budget for a customer queries team.

Having self-service support available for customers can increase your conversion rate significantly. Instead of having to wait for a support agent to become available, customers can access the information they need themselves, with the help of a knowledge base, FAQs section, or tutorial articles and videos. The benefit of self-service support is that it reduces the need to hire a customer service team or waste time on common queries. On the other hand, self-service support often isn’t equipped to deal with some of the more complex queries customers submit. With that in mind, it’s best to combine self-service with other types of customer service support, too.

A customer service helpdesk is the perfect all-in-one solution for saving time while also guaranteeing an excellent experience for all users. With a helpdesk such as eDesk, you can control all your customer interactions from one easy-to-use dashboard. Combining a ticketing system with features like live chat, your customers can contact you via multiple channels all in one place, making life easier for your customer service team. Plus, with eDesk, you can have order information to hand, so there’s no more flicking back and forth between windows to answer simple queries. A helpdesk solution is perfect for automating manual tasks, which leaves you with extra time to spend growing your business. It’s a win for your customers and a win for your bottom line.

Want a deep dive on eCommerce helpdesk software? -> Best eCommerce Help Desk Software: The Complete List

Email is one of the most common ways for customers to interact with a support team, and it comes with several advantages. Receiving emails instead of phone calls allows your support team adequate time to look into the query without having to respond immediately. Unlike helpdesk software, however, there’s much less automation involved with email. Using email as your main eCommerce support channel will require having a relatively large, fully-trained team, so it can be tricky for smaller companies to keep on top of.

Live chat software allows customers to speak directly to the customer service team using an instant messaging pop-up. Chatbots commonly use AI and machine learning technology to create automated responses to commonly asked queries, in a similar type of instant messaging pop-up to live chat. Both of these customer service channels can provide good results, but a chatbot should always be paired with another channel for best results. That way, any queries that the bot can’t answer can be directed to the support team. Live chat is an excellent way to reduce response times, and it works best as part of an entire helpdesk solution.

Consumers are increasingly looking to social media as a way to interact with their favorite brands and businesses. Offering users the opportunity to interact with you directly on social media can be useful, but it works best when paired with other channels, such as live chat or social media support software. Make sure to opt for customer service software solutions that display all your conversations and tickets in one place, so you’re able to pick up where you or other team members left off.

7 ways to improve eCommerce customer service

On the rare occasion that you receive poor reviews for your products or customer service, it’s tempting to leave them and hope none of your potential customers see them. News flash: they’ll see them, and it looks even worse if you leave genuine reviews and complaints without a response.

Instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away, leave a polite response apologizing for the issue and laying out how you’ll fix it – either with a refund, troubleshooting, or a vow to do better in the future.

That way, when potential customers see negative feedback on your profile, they’ll know that you take the opinions of customers seriously. Plus, you’ll improve the mood of the unhappy customer, making them more likely to become a repeat customer.

An SLA is a service-level agreement that does exactly what it says – commits you to a certain level of service. This agreement is typically made between a business and its clients/customers, and there tends to be a penalty for not meeting the service agreement. An example of a service-level agreement between you and a customer might be that you commit to responding to all their support tickets within 24 hours.

While committing your customer support team to high standards in SLAs might seem daunting, it can encourage you to prioritize your customer service by setting out targets and KPIs to meet.

Most of the time when companies provide poor customer service, it’s not because they don’t care about their customers. In the majority of circumstances, small business owners simply lack adequate time and resources to give customer queries the attention they deserve.

That’s where automation comes in.

With automation features, you can improve your customer service while actually spending less time on it (yep, really!).

With eCommerce customer service software that puts automation at the center of its strategy, you can automatically consolidate customer communications from all your sales channels alongside related order details for speedy responses.

Plus, you can instantly reply to common queries using rules to identify tickets that are suitable for template responses.

Not sure how well your customers think you’re performing? Customer service data will tell you. The best eCommerce customer service software offers insights, which let you know whether your business is heading in the right direction, using crucial metrics and trends.

Through powerful reports that highlight which products create the most support tickets or which products encourage the best reviews, you can use yesterday’s data to build tomorrow’s strategy.

From in-depth product insights, you’ll learn how to solve problems before they arise in the first place. Does one product keep attracting negative reviews? Discuss issues with your suppliers to get them fixed. Do customers return certain products at a higher frequency? Create a product video to give consumers a more accurate idea of what they’re ordering before it arrives.

With customer data, you can learn what’s helping and what’s hindering your revenue growth, and adjust your eCommerce support strategy accordingly.

The best e-commerce customer service approach involves empathizing with your customers, and the best way to create empathy is to see things through their eyes…literally.

In 2025, customers will no longer stand for customer service that stops and starts. If they begin a conversation with you on Facebook messenger, they don’t want to have to relay it to the agent working on your ticketing system. Customers expect you to have an overview of their previous interactions with your entire team.

With customer view, you can get an overview of all of a customer’s previous interactions with your site and your team. Using the full context of their order history and previous interactions, you can exceed expectations with communication that’s tailored especially to their situation. The best part? You can do it all quicker than ever.

We’ve all seen the ads for banks that offer money to new customers and stores that give users 10% off on their first order. There’s nothing wrong with using these incentives to attract and convert new customers, but don’t forget about your existing customer base in the process.

The key to cultivating and sustaining brand loyalty is rewarding customers for shopping with you regularly. Whether it’s offering free shipping on their next purchase or giving them $5 off for every $200 they spend, these small incentives differentiate you from competitors and leave your customers feeling valued.

Literally. If you open up your store to a global audience, you can’t expect your customers to always share a language with you. Show your international customers that you value their custom just as much by working with a live chat provider that offers auto-translate features

What customers expect in 2025

Speedy delivery times

Fast delivery is a major driver of Amazon's success—and customers now expect it. Offering next-day delivery, even at a cost, can boost sales. Use live chat to highlight quick shipping and encourage conversions.

Free shipping and returns

72% of consumers shop online mainly for free shipping. Unexpected fees at checkout cause friction, so be clear about costs upfront. If free shipping isn’t feasible for all orders, offer it for purchases over a certain amount to attract more customers and boost average order value.

Personalized digital experiences

Consumers now expect personalized experiences across all brand interactions. From targeted emails to tailored live chat, personalization is essential—75% of business leaders consider it a must-have. Use tools like automation and customer history views to deliver more relevant, context-aware support.

Self service tools and live chat

Long wait times and limited support options frustrate shoppers and lead to lost sales. Providing self-service FAQs or live chat helps customers get quick answers, reduces friction, and boosts conversions.

Key areas for eCommerce teams to work on in 2025

There are likely to be tons of things on your priority list for 2025, and having a killer customer service plan in place will help with them all. But here are just two things we recommend your team prioritizes if you want to see profits soar this year.

Boosting eCommerce Conversion Rates

Conversion rate is a key success metric—and great customer service plays a big role. In fact, 96% of consumers say it impacts brand loyalty. One of the most effective ways to increase conversions is through social proof, like reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content. Just like Amazon, showcasing real customer feedback builds trust and drives sales. Whatever strategy you choose, excellent customer service should be at its core.

Increasing Average Order Value

Boosting average order value is just as important as gaining new customers. It's easier to upsell to someone already ready to buy—live chat prompts and bundle offers can help. Loyalty programs also encourage repeat purchases and larger baskets, while making customers feel valued.

The bottom line

Great customer service is key to attracting and keeping loyal customers. A positive experience drives repeat purchases and word-of-mouth. If managing support is a challenge, helpdesk software like eDesk can centralize and automate your efforts—helping you stay ahead of competitors and grow your sales.