What is eCommerce customer service?

Importance of eCommerce customer service

Imagine you’re choosing between two online stores selling the same product at a similar price. One has a 90% customer satisfaction rating. The other has just 40%. Where would you spend your money?

Excellent eCommerce customer service is a critical driver of sales and loyalty. 

Don’t believe us? Believe these stats:

• 90% of Americans consider customer service a key factor when deciding where to shop online.
• Businesses that prioritize customer experience can grow revenues 4-8% faster than their competitors.
• 89% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases after a positive customer support experience.
• 72% of customers share a great experience with at least six others – and bad news travels even faster.

But let’s face it. You’re not striving for outstanding eCommerce support for the sake of it. You want what it delivers: a reputation for reliability, trust, and customer care. A reputation that keeps customers coming back and sets you apart in a crowded market.

Here’s how nailing your eCommerce customer support can drive long-term growth:

Increased social proof

Social proof is a powerful trust signal in the world of eCommerce support. It’s the evidence customers rely on to decide whether your store is worth their time and money. 

Think positive reviews, testimonials, and word-of-mouth recommendations. The kind of endorsements that can sway undecided shoppers.

If your eCommerce customer support software helps customers get quick, helpful responses, they’re way more likely to leave positive reviews and recommend your brand to others. 

This creates a positive feedback loop. Great support leads to more positive reviews, which builds trust and attracts more customers. It’s a virtuous cycle. And it’s one of the simplest ways to set your store apart.

Increased repeat customers

Repeat customers are the backbone of your business. Too many brands focus on acquiring new customers while neglecting the ones they already have. But loyal, repeat buyers are often your most valuable asset, spending 67% more on average than first-time buyers.

The key to keeping them coming back? Excellent customer support for eCommerce. Quick response times, personalized interactions, and smooth problem resolution build trust and loyalty – and make customers far more likely to choose your store over a competitor’s next time.

Centralizing your support with a tool like eDesk’s Smart Inbox is a simple way to stay on top of customer queries, reduce response times, and build those long-term relationships that really drive growth.

Increased revenue

Better customer service for eCommerce doesn’t just keep customers happy – it drives serious revenue growth. Happy customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, refer friends, and spend more on each order. In fact, 68% of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products from brands known for great eCommerce support.

By investing in eCommerce customer support software that centralizes communications and automates routine tasks, you can cut response times, resolve issues faster, and create a smoother customer experience. This kind of efficiency boosts sales, reduces churn, and ultimately drives higher lifetime value.

Ready to take your support to the next level? Book a personalized demo and discover how eDesk’s powerful tools can help you boost your bottom line.

Avoid bad publicity

Nothing can sink a brand faster than bad press. In today’s world, where a single tweet or scathing review can go viral, eCommerce support services are your first line of defence.

When customers feel ignored or mistreated, they don’t just walk away – they share their frustration, potentially dragging your brand’s reputation through the mud. On the flip side, a quick, empathetic response can turn an unhappy customer into a loyal advocate.

Centralizing your support through a tool like eDesk’s Smart Inbox means you can track every customer interaction, resolve issues faster, and keep your brand’s reputation intact. It’s a small investment with big returns.

Types of eCommerce customer support channels

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

Phone support

Phone support is a popular way to provide customer support for eCommerce. It gives customers the chance to speak directly with a support team member, which can be ideal for complex issues that are hard to explain via email or live chat. 

Because automating phone support entirely is impossible, the main downside is the high labour costs and the need for a dedicated customer service eCommerce team, making it a better fit for more established online store support operations.

Self-service support

Self-service support can significantly boost conversion rates by reducing friction in the customer journey. Instead of waiting for a support agent, customers can access the information they need themselves via a knowledge base, FAQs, or tutorial articles and videos – a common feature in eCommerce customer support software. 

The benefit of self-service support is that it reduces the need to hire a big eCommerce customer service team or waste time on common queries. For example, eDesk integrates self-service options that use AI to suggest relevant articles and auto-resolve common queries, cutting response times and improving customer satisfaction.

However, self-service isn’t always enough on its own, as it can struggle to handle complex queries, making it best paired with other eCommerce support services. With that in mind, it’s best to combine self-service with other types of eCommerce customer service support, too.

Helpdesk

A good eCommerce customer service helpdesk does so much more than just organize tickets.

It automates workflows and prioritizes urgent messages – like the way eDesk combines a ticketing system with features like live chat and automated workflows. By leveraging AI to route tickets, provide real-time order data, and automate responses, teams can resolve issues faster and focus on high-value interactions.

A good helpdesk makes it easier for your eCommerce support services team to manage high volumes of customer interactions, and it helps you avoid the inefficiency of switching between platforms.

Helpdesks are essential for better, faster eCommerce customer service,  which ultimately improves customer satisfaction, boosts your bottom line, and grows your business. What’s not to love about that?

Email

Email remains one of the most common eCommerce support channels. The advantages are huge, like giving your team more time to investigate and resolve complex queries, without the immediate pressure of phone support, where customers need an instant response.

However, on its own it lacks the automation capabilities of dedicated eCommerce customer support software, which can make it harder to scale as your business grows.

That’s why many businesses choose to integrate email into a broader eCommerce support platform, so they can rest assured that every interaction’s tracked and managed in one place for a smoother customer experience.

See all compatible integrations (over 250!) that eDesk offers.

Live chat and chatbots

Live chat allows customers to connect instantly with your eCommerce support team via a pop-up, while chatbots use AI to handle routine queries automatically. Together, they can reduce response times, improve customer satisfaction, and keep your team focused on more complex issues. 

It’s a smart way to scale your support without sacrificing quality. However, chatbots are most effective when paired with human support, ensuring more challenging questions are escalated as needed.

eDesk combines these strengths, offering real-time chat for personalized support and AI-powered bots for fast, automated responses – an ideal combination for businesses looking to streamline their eCommerce customer support software strategy.

Social media platforms

Social media is increasingly becoming a critical channel for eCommerce customer support. However, it’s most effective when integrated with other support options like live chat or social media support software.

Opting for eCommerce customer service software solutions that display all your conversations and tickets in one. As an example, eDesk centralizes all your social media messages, tickets, and customer data. Plus, AI-powered tools prioritize urgent messages and automate routine responses – so your team can pick up every conversation exactly where it left off.

How to improve customer service for eCommerce

Even the best eCommerce customer support software won’t deliver results if your overall approach to customer service is lacking. To stand out in a crowded market and build long-term loyalty, you need a strategy that prioritizes speed, personalization, and seamless communication.

Here are some proven ways to level up your eCommerce support:

Centralize multichannel customer support like Cymax

Homeware sales leader Cymax Group built its brand on customer satisfaction. But as they expanded to dozens of marketplaces, managing customer messages became a major challenge. Logging into separate platforms for each channel was time-consuming, pulled the team’s focus away from growth, and made it difficult to deliver the seamless eCommerce customer service customers expect. 

This lack of centralization also made it harder to track order histories, customer preferences, and past interactions – all crucial for building loyalty.

The solution

With eDesk, Cymax Group brought all its messages into a single platform, using AI-powered tools to prioritize urgent tickets, automate routine responses, and provide real-time order data. This reduced response times, boosted team productivity, and gave agents the context they needed to deliver better eCommerce customer support. 

With everything in one place, their team could resolve issues faster, keep customers happier, and focus on growth – a win for both their CX and their bottom line. To streamline even further, Cymax chose to centralize support with our Smart Inbox, giving their team a single view of every customer interaction.

Improve response times like CarParts.com

Speed matters in eCommerce support. If a customer has a query about a product and you don’t reply quickly, there’s a good chance they’ll take their business elsewhere. In a competitive market, every minute counts, and slow response times can cost you sales, repeat customers, and brand loyalty.

CarParts.com understood this, but with millions of customers generating a constant flow of tickets, their support team was struggling to keep up. They needed a smarter, more scalable approach to customer support for eCommerce – one that could handle high volumes without sacrificing quality or efficiency.

The solution

Streamline your customer service like MyBoatStore

Like many businesses, MyBoatStore faced a surge in support tickets during COVID-19. Without the resources to expand their support team, they needed a way to scale their eCommerce customer service without compromising on quality.

The solution

MyBoatStore turned to eDesk’s eCommerce customer service software to consolidate messages from Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces into a single dashboard. This streamlined their workflows, reduced response times, and made it easier to keep track of customer interactions – all from one platform.

With eDesk’s AI-powered automation, the team could handle routine queries faster, freeing up support staff for more complex issues. Real-time order data also allowed agents to resolve problems quickly without switching between platforms, reducing the risk of missed messages.

Through centralizing and automation, MyBoatStore maintained a high standard of customer service during a critical growth period, bolstering their reputation and customer loyalty.

For more success stories about improving eCommerce customer service with the help of a killer customer service platform, read our customer stories. 

Find out how Wetsuit Outlet improved customer response times by 38% with eDesk providing eCommerce support.

7 ways to improve eCommerce customer service

1. Don’t ignore bad reviews

On the rare occasion that you receive poor reviews for your products or eCommerce 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 customers, making them more likely to become a repeat customer.

2. Commit to SLAs

An SLA (service-level agreement) does exactly what the name implies. It commits you to a certain level of customer service in eCommerce. 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.

It might seem daunting to commit to high standards in customer support for your eCommerce store. But it can encourage you to prioritize your eCommerce support service by setting out targets and KPIs to meet.

3. Introduce automation

Most of the time when companies provide poor customer service in eCommerce, 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 features come in. And it’s why the very best eCommerce customer support software in 2025 will put automation to work for you.

With automation features, you can improve your eCommerce 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 online store support 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.

4. Use insights to inform your strategy

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.

No more wondering which products create the most support tickets. No more pondering which products pull in the best reviews. In-depth product insights help you 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. In 2025, the best eCommerce customer support software gives you powerful insights, turning yesterday’s data into tomorrow’s strategy.

5. Know the context

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.

In 2025, customers will no longer stand for eCommerce 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.

Best-in-class eCommerce customer support software in 2025 gives you this overview. For instance, eDesk’s customer view puts all of a customer’s previous site and team interactions at your fingertips. 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.

6. Reward loyal customers

Banks offer cash for new accounts, and stores give 10% off first orders. These perks are great for attracting new customers … but don’t forget about the value of your existing ones.

The key to cultivating and sustaining brand loyalty is rewarding customers for shopping with you regularly. Using eCommerce customer support software that tracks purchase history and loyalty status makes this easier.

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 the love.

7. Speak your customers’ language

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 smart AI-driven auto-translate features.

What customers expect in 2025

Just as the world of retail changes, eCommerce customer service adapts with it, and so do customers’ expectations of their favorite brands and businesses. Here are just some of the ways you can future-proof your business by meeting customers’ expectations in 2025.

Speedy delivery times

Ever wondered how Amazon gets so many sales? Huge inventory of products and cheap prices aside, many buyers flock to Amazon because they’re guaranteed one thing – quick delivery. In fact, some Amazon shipments can even be delivered to you the same day you order them, making next-day delivery look slow.

With next-day delivery now a common offering, it’s moving from a perk to an expectation. And the potential revenue boost can make it worth the cost.

Most eCommerce customer support software platforms include live chat – a powerful tool for nudging customers toward checkout. Use it to highlight perks like next-day delivery while they’re browsing. As an example, eDesk’s live chat gives you real-time, personalized support, integrated customer data, proactive prompts, self-service options, and performance insights. It’s all designed to reduce cart abandonment and boost conversion rates.

Free shipping and returns

72% of consumers cite free shipping as their main reason for shopping online. Uncertainty is one of the biggest friction creators in a retail journey, and customers don’t like feeling uncertain about what the cost of shipping will be once they get to checkout.

If your budget doesn’t allow for free shipping and returns, be upfront about shipping costs at every point in the user journey. That way, customers won’t get a nasty shock when they arrive at the checkout to see an extra $10 added to the basket for shipping.

If you’re unable to absorb the cost of free shipping for all purchases, consider offering it only for baskets over a certain amount. That way, not only will you entice more customers, but you’ll also increase your average order value because customers will add small extras to the basket to reach the threshold for free shipping.

Personalized digital experiences

From targeted ads to tailored product quizzes, personalization is everywhere in 2025. In fact, 75% of business leaders now consider it essential for digital experiences.

There are multiple ways to create a personalized approach with your eCommerce support strategy. A good place to start is by personalizing email marketing. If you’re sending out product recommendations to subscribers, use automation software to recommend a product similar to ones they’ve previously bought or shown interest in.

If you use live chat, remember to use your visitors’ names, and take advantage of tools like eCommerce customer support software that provide a full history of a customer’s orders and interactions. For instance, eDesk’s customer view gives you a history of all of their entire orders and customer service interactions. That way, you can take a tailored approach to the interaction, taking the context into account.

Self service tools and live chat

Picture the scene. You’ve just finished work and you’ve got a precious ten minutes before you have to pick up your kid from school. Bingo – time for some online browsing. You find the perfect product but you just have a quick question about the delivery.

You search for a response but your only option is to call the eCommerce contact center. You’re put on hold for 15 minutes, you give up, and shop elsewhere. That scenario could be easily avoided with self-service FAQs or a live chat feature.

By allowing customers to find the information they need quickly and easily, you remove friction from the online shopping experience. The less friction, the more likely they are to convert – a total win for your eCommerce support services.

And speaking of wins, if you do nothing else in 2025 for your eCommerce customer service strategy, make sure you do the following.

The two biggest wins for eCommerce customer support in 2025

If you do just two things in 2025, make them these.

There are likely to be tons of things on your priority list for 2025, and having a killer eCommerce 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.

Increasing average order value

Increasing the number of orders you get is one thing, but increasing the average order value is arguably just as important. Think about it: convincing a user with purchase intent to simply add one more product to their basket is much easier than convincing a new visitor to your site to make a purchase.

One of the most straightforward ways to increase the average order value on your site is by using live chat prompts. This is a core feature of the best eCommerce customer support software. By reaching out to a browsing customer at the right moment, you can nudge them to add an extra product to hit the free delivery threshold, or you can highlight a relevant bundle deal that offers even better value for money.

Offering a customer loyalty program is another proven tactic. As well as improving eCommerce customer service by making regular customers feel important, a loyalty program encourages customers to buy more than they usually would to score points in the loyalty program. It’s a savvy way to not only make customers feel valued, but also increase the price of the average checkout. Win-win!

Increasing eCommerce conversion rates

One of the most significant metrics any online store support team uses to measure success is its conversion rate. A conversion rate simply refers to how many customers ‘convert’, i.e. carry out a desired action, usually making a sale.

Don’t underestimate the impact that eCommerce support can have on increasing conversion rates. A whopping 96% of consumers say that customer service (in eCommerce or otherwise) is an important factor in staying loyal to a brand, showing just how much consumers value that personal touch.

An easy way to increase conversion rates is with social proof. Social proof does what it says on the tin – uses social cues to build trust in a particular brand, and you can utilize it for yours.

Part of the reason why Amazon is so successful is because it allows customers to scroll through thousands of reviews before committing to a purchase, making them more likely to trust the legitimacy and quality of the product. You can implement the same approach by lining the pre-purchase stage of the user journey with social proof.

As well as reviews and testimonials, include user-generated content, which is considered the holy grail of social proof. Include images of your products as posted by social media users, or even hire content creators to take a video with your products involved – videos are especially high-converting in the TikTok age.

Whatever techniques you use to increase conversion rate, put eCommerce customer service at the heart of it. More happy customers mean more praise for your products and site, which in turn means more happy customers!

The bottom line

Providing excellent ecommerce customer service is one of the most effective ways to boost sales, increase customer loyalty, and strengthen your brand. Research shows that a positive customer experience drives repeat purchases, reduces churn, and turns satisfied customers into your biggest advocates.

If you’re struggling to keep up with customer enquiries across multiple channels, the right ecommerce customer support software can transform your approach. Platforms like eDesk use AI and automation to streamline support, centralise messages, and provide real-time insights – helping your team respond faster, cut manual work, and deliver a seamless customer experience.

Here’s just some of what we’re packing:

• Centralized inbox for multichannel support
• AI-powered automation for faster responses
• Real-time customer data for personalized support
• Advanced reporting and insights to track performance
• Seamless integrations with 250+ platforms
• Customizable workflows to fit your business needs

Ready to experience the power of better, faster customer support? 

Here’s how to take the first easy step:

• Book a personalized demo
• Start a free trial
• View pricing and plans