If you sell online, on your own website, or on marketplaces like Shopify, Amazon or eBay, customer support is the cornerstone of your success!
But… Coordinating customer support, across different channels and with multiple points of contact, and keeping track of every single conversation, can be extremely difficult and time-consuming!
Every slow response, missed query or poorly handled problem will lose your sales, and customers.
Luckily, you can use e-commerce help desk software to easily manage and seamlessly solve all your online customer support problems from one place!
In this guide, we’re covering how e-commerce help desk software works, what it can do for your business, the most important features to look for in a great solution, and how to choose the best option for your individual needs.
To make it even easier, we’ve also put together a list of the best commerce help desk software tools to choose from.
Let’s dive right in!
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Quick Comparison – Best E-commerce Help Desk Solutions
This is our quick comparison, with each help desk software’s review site scores, pricing and our P2P review score. Check out the full reviews below for pros and cons, and more details on features and pricing:
E-commerce help desk software is customer service software designed specifically for e-commerce. It helps you manage queries from multiple channels, across different platforms and message formats by sending them to a single dedicated inbox.
You can see all your queries in one place, organize them and delegate who deals with them. You can also track progress, see message histories and find all the customer’s relevant information in the same place.
Aligning order fulfillment and customer support streamlines the workflow and improves the customer’s experience of your brand. Support agents can see all the relevant information and provide accurate answers efficiently.
Good e-commerce help desk software will also allow you to scale customer support as your business grows, keeping up the same level of immediate, personalized interaction with your clients.
Whatever your needs, there is a great, scalable, solution that is ideal for you and your unique business.
E-COMMERCE HELP DESK SOFTWARE IS:
Customer service software that is specifically designed for the needs of an e-commerce business. Most e-commerce help desk software are multi-channel help desks. They centralize all channels of communication into one place, from where it can be seen, prioritized, delegated and resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Let’s take a look at how using the right help desk software will benefit you:
Why Your E-commerce Business Needs a Help Desk
Maintaining great customer support and responding to queries accurately and efficiently is essential for success in e-commerce.
As your business grows, it can be challenging to keep up with the volume and pace of queries, especially when customers expect a speedy response.
Missed queries, slow responses, frustrated customers having to repeat their problems to different support staff… Those are some of the quickest ways to lose current sales, customers and future sales!
Immediate, accurate, and helpful support closes sales and keeps your customers happy! Great customer support is the key to customer retention and the foundation for customer loyalty.
E-commerce help desk software will solve the problem of managing and maintaining great customer support, even at high volumes.
THE BOTTOM LINE…
Using the right e-commerce help desk software enables businesses to provide seamless, efficient, and effective customer service and support – the cornerstones of success in e-commerce!
8 Key E-commerce Help Desk Features
With so many options to choose from, it can be overwhelming to choose which e-commerce help desk software is the best for your business. So, how do you choose?
The best help desk software for your business is one that is designed for businesses like yours. Businesses using the channels you use; at the scale you’re using them.
Help desk software aims to fulfill the same basic function of streamlining of simplifying customer support. However, some are designed with specific channels and platforms in mind.
As such, help desk software designed for large corporations might be an excellent option and provide a powerful platform but it might not be the best for e-commerce specifically.
When it comes to choosing the best e-commerce help desk software, designed specifically for e-commerce, it often comes down to features and how they align with your specific needs.
The one that is best for a seller on Amazon or eBay won’t necessarily be the best option for selling from a single website or Shopify store. The same goes for enterprises and start-ups, where scale and cost might be more significant factors.
These are some of the most important features to look out for when you’re comparing your e-commerce help desk options:
1.Integrations
Integration is key for effective e-commerce and the solution you choose must seamlessly transfer your customers data back and forth from your social media, CRM, website and e-commerce platforms.
This will drastically improve your customer service, help you create more targeted marketing campaigns and more accurate product recommendations to boost your sales.
If you sell on marketplaces like Megento, Prestashop, Shopify, Amazon and eBay, look at how the software ties into those platforms and if there will be any add-ons needed to fully integrate. If you’re using CRMs like Salesforce or Zoho, check how it integrates with those too.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are increasingly important for direct sales and customer engagement. Look at how the help desk software will handle communication from your social accounts and how well it allows you to engage on those platforms.
Any channel where there is communication with your customers can be streamlined to improve your service and increase your sales with e-commerce help desk software.
2.Speed and Agility
Quick response times, page loading, and agility when moving between different platforms makes a huge difference to your efficiency and productivity. Look for e-commerce help desk software that works well for your needs and won’t slow you down.
You can use GTmetrix or Pingdom to do a speed test before and after you implement the help desk, to see how it influences your loading speed.
3.Prioritization
Good e-commerce help desk software will allow you to prioritize certain queries or channels, which helps you keep your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with certain platforms.
Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay use seller response time as part of their seller metrics and not responding within the 24-hour window can lower your metrics.
Your e-commerce help desk software can automatically help you sort your queries by SLA, allowing you to prioritize the most urgent ones and keep or improve your seller metrics.
4.Message Templates and Automation
Common queries, that require more or less the same response each time, can be automated by using pre-set email and message templates. Instead of generating a new message every time, you can select and send a template in seconds.
Some solutions will provide further automation features that can save you time and increase the conversion rate from support ticket to paying customers. The more efficient your support desk is, the more sales you can make.
5.Personalization
Some help desk software allows you to tag a customer and pull all their relevant information so you can send a personalized and accurate response every time. This information includes their name, contact information, details of their order, and fulfillment progress.
6.Live Chat
Real-time chat support directly from your page is a great way to let customers connect with you quickly and get the answers they need quickly.
Depending on the software, this can be customized and personalized to your needs and can even be automated to some extent to direct the query to a self-help answer or the right team member for resolution.
7.Collaboration: Team tagging, Notes, and Internal Team Conversations within Queries
Some e-commerce help desk software allows you to tag specific team members into a conversation so they can give input on their area of expertise.
They also allow for team members to leave each other notes on specific queries and to have conversations within the conversation thread that don’t send to the customer. This means that all the info needed is there for any team member to see if they pick up where someone else left off.
8.Demos and Free Trials
Investing in good e-commerce help desk software is a big step and can make a huge difference to your success as an e-commerce business. One of the most important things to look for is a free trial that will allow you to test out the software and see how it will work for you.
Once you know it works and what you need more of or less of, you will be better equipped to select the right package for your needs and have a clear picture of how it will work for you in real-life before you spend money on it.
12 Best E-commerce Help Desk Solutions
So, we have been over why you need it, how it can help you and what to look out for when making a choice. Now we present you with a list of the 11 best e-commerce help desk solutions.
We have chosen a selection of different options, suited to a variety of needs. Whatever your specific needs, there is sure to be a great option on this list!
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a comprehensive help desk and asset management solution. They offer a wide range of features and integrations, suitable for businesses of all sizes. Their pricing is affordable and they offer a free version.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is available in 29 languages and comes in three premises-based or cloud-based editions.
It is designed to simplify complex ticketing and customer service processes with automations that are fully customizable and easy to manage. The software is complex and extensive but easy to navigate and use once it is set up.
Their system makes for faster and simpler incident resolution, with capabilities to analyze the root cause the prevent repeat incidents. They also offer custom feature requests, which make it even easier to build a system that is the perfect fit for your business.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: n/a
Capterra: 4.3/5 from 156 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.2/5 from 173 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Easy to use and understand, very intuitive, and self-explanatory
Simple to manage staff and productivity without conflicts or dependencies
Highly customizable for different company needs
Quick and knowledgeable support
Integration with multiple platforms, including monitoring, user management tools, and API-based integrations
Detailed reports that are easy to export for management presentations
Great automations that can be controlled manually to fine-tune services
Ability to analyze root causes to reduce repeat incidences
Ticket management system works very well and includes in-built asset management
Useful search options to find past tickets and keywords/terms quickly
Free tools offered are great for small businesses
Offers feature requests to meet customer’s needs
Cons:
Initial configuration is complicated but to be expected for all the functions offered
Feature requests can be slow
Vast software with a lot of functions can be overwhelming for smaller users
Some users lost data when upgrading
Support can be slow (call center based in Delhi)
Frequent updates, which are incremental so you can’t just run the latest one only
Limited CRM integrations
Pricing:
Free Trial: 30 Days Unlimited and Free Forever Standard Plan, limited to 5 technicians
Offer Standard, Professional & Enterprise Plans: Quotation on Request
Gorgias is an all-in-one e-commerce help desk software that is designed specifically for Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. It centralizes all communication, from all channels and platforms, into one place so you can manage your queries and responses efficiently and accurately.
It offers features that streamline the communication process and make your customer support easier and quicker so you can focus on giving quality support. The features include templates and automation to speed up response times. It also offers live chat and loyalty and subscription management tools.
Gorgias automates the sorting and updating of queries and orders, sending them to the right places for action and saving you valuable time. It stores customer histories for continuity, which allows you to provide personalized customer service and nurture long term relationships.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: 4.8/5 from 419 reviews
Capterra: 4.6/5 from 19 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4/5 from 6 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Exceptional customer support – responsive and detailed, through the chat function
The interface is simple, clean, and intuitive.
Integration with Shopify is very good and allows full access to Shopify API data.
Very efficient, email templates improve response times and short keys save time. Templates and automation save a lot of time for repetitive questions and answers.
Frequent updates and improvements.
Gorgias provides great user guidance in the form of blogs, guides, and webinars to allow users to make the most of the software.
Tagging functionality allows for specific team members to be tagged into conversations or queries and notes functionality allows for notes to be left for other team members on any open query.
Keeps full history of customer’s info so it is always easy to access.
It is easy to sort and categorize tickets by the platform.
Search functionality allows for quick searching through message history.
Great integration for Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce.
Integrates across multiple platforms for centralized communication, including social media integration.
Cons:
Great for emails but replying to social media comments is not as smooth.
Pay per ticket gets expensive when there is a high volume of social media activity.
Mobile app chat function is limited when trying to see the information about the customer’s journey and history.
Ideal for direct online stores and Shopify integration but external sales channels like Amazon and eBay require third-party add-ons to work well.
The chat team can’t be set to ‘offline’.
Spam filtering needs improvement.
Integrations can be buggy and slow, switching between platforms can be slow.
Initial setup can be quite complicated but very easy to use once it is set up. Support documentation not very clear.
LiveChat is a premium help desk software that helps eCommerce store owners integrate live chat functionality into their websites. It allows you to connect with your customers across multiple channels and manage all interactions from a single place.
You can have the same LiveChat account connect with multiple customized chat widgets over different websites. This makes things easy for you to manage while also increasing customer engagement due to a better response rate.
The tool gives you access to important customer information you need to close the sale or solve any other customer problems via chat. This information may include their name, email, order ID, etc. Besides, you can automatically assign customer queries to the relevant teams.
It also offers a great deal of analytics including customer satisfaction ratings and agent efficiency. The software also integrates with other marketing tools such as ChatBot, Google Analytics, Mail Chimp, etc.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4.6/5 from 1117 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.5/5 from 688 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
All customer information is readily available with the chat and can be leveraged to personalize the chat experience for the customer.
You can custom design the chat window to go along with the theme of the website you want to use it on.
Chat performance analytics give you good insights into how well you and your team are handling customer queries.
The chat interface itself is easy to use specifically for agents who are not very tech-savvy.
The tool is also inexpensive compared with other similar platforms.
Integrating chat with apps such as Messenger, or WhatsApp is a brilliant feature.
Cons:
Chat alerts aren’t very proactive and hence not helpful.
The system can get a bit laggy when there is too much load on it. It can’t handle more than 200 customers at a time smoothly.
Freshdesk is an award-winning cloud-based help desk software, designed to help you with your CRM. It is a feature-rich software that provides a host of features, including fast and efficient ticketing, automation, an information center and a social and community center.
It provides ticket tracking and collaboration tools for agents (private notes, chats, notifications when another agent is viewing/working on a ticket, etc.) that boost productivity and enable you to focus your energy on providing great customer support.
Freshdesk allows you to manage all your customer queries through one, centralized space. It connects with multiple channels and platforms to pull all the info you need so you can respond as quickly and effectively as possible, to keep your customers happy and improve your sales.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4,5/5 from 2223 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.4/5 from 2342 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Simple interface and easy to use/manage tickets.
AI features are a plus.
Software is easy to use and little training was needed for agents to use it effectively.
Real-time help from Freshdesk agents is available.
Great collaboration tools for agents (private notes, chats, etc), notifications when another agent is viewing/working on a ticket.
The built-in dashboards and actual ticket management features are great. FreshDesk, FreshCaller and FresChat integrated well together, allowing for different functions to be consolidated into one stack.
Some users reported great customer service that went above and beyond to help.
Allows for ticket prioritization and tracking to make sure the most important ones are dealt with first.
Easy to use and navigate for anyone, even with no IT experience or previous experience with similar software.
The free plan is unlimited in length so you can use it until you outgrow it and then upgrade to a paid plan.
Allows you to send tasks to any employee in the company and organizes what tasks need to be completed so multiple people can work on the same ticket, as and when needed.
Offers a public customer portal.
Cons:
Challenges searching through older tickets and migrating old tickets when joining Freshdesk. Filtering on tickets can be unresponsive at times.
Some users reported frequent service outages and system glitches.
Certain features cannot integrate with other third-party ticketing systems.
The user interface can be cumbersome when ticket volume is high.
Search functionality is limited and makes it difficult to retrieve information quickly.
System reports are bulky to create and often unable to include all of the data elements needed. While the data does provide good insights, you can’t export the tables (or data) as they’re in PDF.
Poor spam filtering lets a lot of spam emails into the ticketing system.
Some users reported very poor customer service and challenges with time zones for customer support. Automated support is available but the turnaround time for actual in-person help is 24 hours.
Pricing (yearly):
Free Trial: Yes (21 days, unlimited features)
Helpdesk: Free to $99 per agent/per month, billed annually
Omnichannel: $79 to $139 per agent/per month, billed annually
Add-ons: from $75 per agent/per month or $29 per employee/per month for field service
Hubspot Service Hub is designed from a CRM perspective to engage and retain customers through great support.
It helps you do this through features like conversational tools, help desk automation, a knowledge base for reference and automation, customer feedback surveys, and reporting. It also offers live chat, mobile app, and WhatsApp integration.
HubSpot is a great option for smaller businesses and helps you provide that very personal and attentive customer support that is great for building long term relationships and keeping your customers happy.
Useful for those with little technical skill as editing ‘contact us’ pages etc. is easy.
Easy to create filters for tickets, change ticket status, and update fields. You can also add ‘snippets’ for frequent responses.
Conversations can be looped together without duplicating tickets and any duplicated tickets can be merged easily.
Allows you to create surveys, see which users a replying, create automated messages, and tag team members on tickets.
Easy to pull up all info on a customer and briefly see the query and resolution timeline.
Allows and sales and service teams to be on the same page and share info on tickets.
HubSpot updates the software on the back end with the items that the HubSpot Community of Users upvotes as important to them. Continually improving.
Standardized workflow or rigid asset templates are particularly helpful, particularly for businesses with unique customer lifecycles and B2B SaaS platforms.
Email automation and personalization is good.
The dashboard provides a detailed and holistic view of the customer from CRM to help desk, with proper insights.
Works well with WhatsApp integration.
You can create Chatbots with ease.
Works best if you’re using HubSpot Sales and Marketing, as well as Support.
Cons:
Some users found it slowed their site down enough to lose points on Google mobile page insights.
Pricing can be limiting for smaller companies.
Challenge with limited properties pushed from Shopify to HubSpot and associating sales to different email addresses as opposed to contact forms, phone numbers sometimes need to be added manually.
The free trial version has very limited functionality.
Ticketing feature is a bit limited compared to competitors and does better with smaller volumes. If the customer replies to a closed ticket it doesn’t automatically reopen.
You can’t see if another team member is on the ticket at the same time as you.
Limited reporting.
Prone to bugs and systems crashes.
No public access for customers to view their cases in the support portal.
Zendesk is one of the most established help desk software options. They serve businesses from small-medium companies to multinational organizations. Their packages are customizable, and you can add different features as you need them.
It offers ticketing, a wide range of integrations with different channels and platforms, recording of phone calls, reporting, and ticket tracking to name just a few. Zendesk is designed with multiple functions in mind and can serve e-commerce and other sectors efficiently.
The software can help you help your customers, save time with workflows and automation and provide excellent customer service from one location.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: 2.9/5 from 115 reviews
Capterra: 4.3/5 from 126 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.2/5 from 2275 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
All messages from all platforms are integrated to one place, which makes it very efficient. You can see each sector (phone, email, help-center, and chat) in one place.
Records phone calls, which is a plus.
Streamlined and efficient, easy to customize.
Some users reported good customer service.
Allows for the attachment of all types of content, from photos and files and special attachment formats.
Allows for internal conversations regarding the customer’s issues before releasing an external answer or question response, which is very helpful.
Wide array of APIs for integration and customization.
Combination of WYSIWYG and HTML Knowledge Base article editor – allows for an increased number of users publishing articles.
The tabs on each ticket issue are great and you can see who else is currently viewing the tickets you are looking at.
Cons:
The free trial has the features of the top tier, so capabilities are very limited after the free trial if you don’t choose the top tier package.
Slowed down the site for some users.
Installing the app does not automatically create a Zendesk Support account, which is needed for the app to work. The app can’t sync to the account until it is set up separately.
Price plans and packages are complicated and require add-ons for full functionality.
Some users reported that there was a lag between emails sent and arriving in the workspace.
Not always clear and user friendly, takes time to work out how to use it properly.
Some users found it to be quite slow and buggy at times.
Limited reporting on the cheaper plans, which makes it expensive for limited reporting.
Initial setup and getting the admin side properly set up is time-consuming.
Some users here reported very poor customer service, which was slow and unknowledgeable.
The metrics are geared more for a large support center and agent productivity, rather than customer experience.
Pricing (yearly):
Free Trial: Yes
Support: $5 to $199 per month, depending on features
Support Suite: $89 to $149 per month, depending on features
Custom-built: Custom pricing depending on features
Sales and Platform: Numerous packages available
Add-ons and additional features for all plans: pricing varies
UVdesk is a cloud-based application with some great features to satisfy your customers and make your life easier. It allows you to control your workflow and boost productivity by doing so much for you automatically.
UVdesk creates tickets from social media comments, emails, and messages. It provides live chat functions and automated responses to frequently asked questions. The form builders, information center and customizable options allow you to make it very personalized for you and your customers.
UVdesk is very easy to use and customize, which makes it very efficient to use. This gives you more time and energy to focus on your customers and giving them the best experience possible!
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: 4.8/5 from 18 reviews
Capterra: 4.3/5 from 12 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.3/5 from 2 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
It’s easy to use and simple to install and set up.
Offers Live Chat Support for the customers and live chat that feature did not slow down the page.
Generates tickets if someone comments/messages on any social media handle.
Great customer support, responsive and attentive to detail.
Allows you to manage multiple stores and marketplaces from one place.
Allows you to create personalized feedback, contact us and suggestion forms.
Tickets can be assigned to different team members and can be prioritized.
A wide selection of integrations.
Constantly improving and developing new tools to keep it up to date.
Good reporting and filtering. Agent Insights tool allows you to measure the capabilities of specific agents.
The knowledge base feature can generate frequent questions and answers. Predefined templates for common queries save a lot of time.
It has a very user-friendly interface.
Highly customizable, can have multiple forms with multiple fields.
Great for small-medium sized businesses.
Cons:
Lacks some branding flexibility for standard functions.
The free version does not offer all functions but is still a good option.
Comprehensive functionality and configuration can be a bit complex for some users.
Pricing (yearly):
Free Trial/Open Source: Free
Pro: from $96, depending on number of agents
Enterprise: from $360, depending on number of agents
Help Scout takes automation to a new level, it helps you identify customer needs and the solutions needed to meet them. It keeps conversation histories accessible from within the message window when responding to clients and allows you to share internally so you can collaborate with your team to come up with the best solution to their query.
The automation features allow it to answer frequently asked questions for you and provides you with relevant content too. This cuts down the time spent on common queries and streamlines the process for unique queries, allowing you to provide fast and insightful customer support.
Improved response times, accuracy and personalization improve the customer support experience and help you nurture that connection with your customers.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4,7/5 from 163 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.3/5 from 225 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Very easy and intuitive to use.
Great customer support that is quick and helpful.
Search functionality is great and uses keywords so you can create automated responses to frequent questions. The reporting is also useful for creating guides based on real search terms.
The ticketing system integrates with Infusinsoft and Trello, so you transfer information between teams.
Allows you to assign tickets and leave notes for teammates, which makes customer support more efficient and accurate for that specific client. The private conversations/notes that are attached to a customer conversation give you a record of why that specific solution was chosen.
You can use one email account, yet have multiple people responding to those incoming emails and you can assign them to specific people.
Links to previous conversations are provided in the sidebar within a conversation, so you can access them easily.
Shows you when customers viewed the emails you sent so you can see if you need to follow up or not.
They’re a certified B Corporation, which means they meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
Provide really good resources for their clients to make the most of the software and they constantly do upgrades and updates to improve.
Cons:
Workflow automation is not very well organized and would be better with more customization capabilities.
Some users reported that it was slow to load and felt ‘clunky’ at times but was great at other times.
Permission levels for team members do not allow much flexibility and it does not keep a log of who changed what.
Customer service can be slow, and it can be difficult to connect with a human support agent if you need more than a pre-defined response.
Reports can be inaccurate, and some information doesn’t pull to the reports at all, making it difficult to use the reports.
Some users reported system glitches, errors, and bugs that lead to emails going to the wrong recipients.
Front collates all your incoming queries, sorts and manages them, from various channels. It allows you to see all your tickets in one place, making large volumes of incoming tickets manageable. This improves response times and allows you to give your best support to your customers.
Reminders, personalization, and the ability to share drafts internally to verify that information is correct makes giving timely, accurate, and personal responses easy, every time.
Internal reporting allows you to measure and track performance for your team, record responses sent and gather customer information through surveys.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4.5/5 from 199 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.6/5 from 610 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Easy and accessible when doing the initial set up and easy to use. The user interface is attractive and well designed.
Features help teams work together for sales and support. The abilities to share, assign, comment on, snooze and resurface issues make ‘zero inbox’ possible.
Great for categorizing and efficiently assigning inbound messages, with tags, notes and color-coding. Displays who in the email chain has read the email. Allows team members to converse within the thread but out of sight of the customer.
Quick sharing of drafts, which is great for confirming accurate information across multiple departments before sending it to the client.
Allows for integration with external CRM.
Cons:
Some users reported that customer support was not great at all and issues took a long time to be resolved.
Some users had bugs and glitches when using Gmail.
Templates and rules are not very customizable, which limits functionality.
Does not allow for ‘lite agents’ that only use it from time to time. All agents are paid for, regardless of how often they use it/if they’re filling in for another agent.
HappyFox is a cloud-based e-commerce help desk software. It is very easy to use, which makes it quick to set up and get going, even for those who don’t have experience with similar software.
It generates tickets automatically from emails and social media, sending them to a single place for you to manage them all with ease. The software comes with everything you need to run, no add-ons needed.
Automation helps you decrease the hours you would spend manually dealing with every query and helps you provide accurate feedback to your clients as quickly as possible. Features include knowledge base building, surveys, reporting, assigning to specific team members, and customization options.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4.6/5 from 82 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.6/5 from 118 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Easy to use across teams, easy to view data, and easy to customize.
Creates a knowledge base for automation and template purposes.
Surveys are useful for qualifying pain points, issues, and solutions to get a full picture of customer satisfaction.
Excellent customer support, which is available 24/7, and smart guidelines that help users improve.
Sends updates to both email and phone notifications, allows for incoming tickets to be assigned to specific team members if needed. Assists communication between teams and departments.
The interface is attractive and simple to use once it is set up.
Offers good customization for reports, branding SLAs, and ticket types.
Cons:
The initial set up was lengthy and complicated.
Responding to tickets on mobile is limited.
Some users reported notification delays that caused response delays.
Pricing:
Free Trial: Yes (access to a trial account, after watching a demo, on request only)
Agent-Based and Unlimited Agent Plans: Pricing on request, contact them via their website
Kayako e-commerce help desk software helps you provide great customer service. It collates your incoming queries, from multiple channels, into one shared inbox for you. It also allows for easy integration with live chat software if you need one.
Kayako provides customer support in different languages, making it ideal for stores with international customers. Tickets and conversations are customizable, allowing you to further personalize your support for your customers.
They have a mobile app that can sync with all the smart devices, allowing you and your customers to be connected in real-time from anywhere. These features make Kayako a great choice for building and maintaining close relationships with your customers, for increased loyalty and retention.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: N/A
Capterra: 4/5 from 154 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.1/5 from 196 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Allows for tickets to be sorted and organized into folders, assigned to teams or departments, keeps a full history of communication on tickets to refer to. Very efficient at organizing and streamlining incoming messages from various platforms.
Offers live chat for immediate responses to customers.
Offers simple ticket handling features and acts as a support portal that one can use fast and free as a cloud solution for a small team or company.
Great customer support, professional and responsive.
Very easy to use and simple to customize. The Control panel and dashboard are clear and uncluttered.
The KQL Report Generator feature is easy to understand and allows you to extract relevant information and set statistics based on your own specifications.
Offers a public customer portal for customers to view their tickets.
Provides very good reports on an individual level of what is being done for a customer or specific issue.
Cons:
Some users found the interface was not very user friendly and was difficult to navigate.
Some users found the sales team to be aggressive and that the product offering changed without warning or choice.
Allows for limited customization with fonts and colors.
Not as advanced as competitors in terms of integration options.
Working with different queues in different departments can be confusing and overwhelming for some.
Some features are present but not fully functional in a way that makes them valuable. For example, the timekeeping feature tracks the time and if it is billable or not but does not send that information to reports so you can’t work out the cost to the company associated with it.
Re:amaze streamlines conversations with customers well. Automated chatbots, live chat, and message templates help you keep your responses quick and accurate.
It allows you to collate several support sites into one place for centralized control and responses that you can manage easily.
Built-in reporting features keep conversations up to date and organized. The automated workflow keeps your conversations moving and helps you keep your customers happy and feeling connected and cared for.
Customer satisfaction surveys, both quantitative and qualitative, help you keep your finger on the pulse and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.
Review Scores
Shopify App Store: 4.9/5 from 157 reviews
Capterra: 4.9/5 from 54 reviews
G2 Crowd: 4.6/5 from 124 reviews
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Great customer support that is detailed, quick, and helpful.
A “lean, affordable, and completely effective” option.
Integrates seamlessly with Shopify, even at a very detailed level.
Displays all customer information (order number, tracking number, past correspondence, etc.) in the same window as the email, so that we can quickly and effectively help customers.
Initial setup is easy and simple and there is a lot of material available to learn how to use it effectively.
Allows you to filter by store and/or ticket type, which is very convenient if you have more than one store.
Integrates with social media platforms and various e-commerce platforms, including BigCommerce.
Regular updates and improvements to the software.
Automation and templates make responding to common questions much quicker and easier, saving time.
A great option for a company that has multiple staff members accessing the same email box, such as an info or sales email.
Cons:
Some users reported issues with Facebook integration and replying to messages via Facebook when the customer was not online at the time.
Some users reported back end issues with the live chat function.
Is not HIPAA compliant, for those in the medical field.
Spam filtering could be improved.
Limited text formatting in emails so users can’t insert things like tables.
Pricing (yearly):
Free Trial: Yes
Basic: $29 per team member/per month
Pro: $49 per team member/per month
Plus: $69 per team member/per month
Starter: $59 flat rate per month (Basic plan features, limited to 500 conversations a month)
Top Pick #1: Best E-commerce Help Desk Software for Small Entities
Gorgias – Gorgias is a great option for smaller businesses. It is designed specifically for e-commerce stores and meets those needs perfectly, which means you’re not paying for features that you won’t use as an e-commerce business.
It is well priced and can scale with your business as you grow. Gorgias received great reviews for their customer service, which is especially important for smaller businesses that need additional support.
Top Pick #2: Best E-commerce Help Desk Software for Large Entities
Freshdesk – Freshdesk is a very well-established software that can scale with your business as you grow. It received great reviews and offers a comprehensive suite of features. The pricing is a little on the high end for smaller businesses but for bigger businesses it is more affordable and well worth the price!
E-commerce help desk software is designed to help you streamline, manage, prioritize and delegate all customer support. It centralizes incoming messages from various sources, such as email, website forms, social media messages or live chat messages to one place so you can respond efficiently and accurately. It also helps you automate as much of the process as possible to save time and energy. Read the full guide and review here to find the best one for you.
Do I need an e-commerce helpdesk solution for my business?
Yes. If you sell online you need to have a way to manage your customer service and support in the best way possible. Customer support is crucial to the success of any online store and help desk software will help you provide the best customer support you can. Read the full guide and review here to find the best one for you.
Will help desk software integrate with my social media accounts?
Yes. Most e-commerce help desk software integrates with social media accounts and turns messages, comments and posts into tickets to be responded to via the centralized inbox. This helps you keep on top of your social media queries as well as your emails and direct messages. Read the full guide and review here to find the best one for you.
