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Customer service is essential to every business, and ecommerce stores are no different. So, to maximize customer loyalty and simplify customer experience, most ecommerce brands rely on the functionality of customer service platforms. But there are so many customer service software on the market, making it a challenge to understand where to start when looking for one that’s right for your business and customers. With this in mind, I compared and evaluated the different standout ecommerce customer service tools I identified, along with what sets them apart, prices, pros and cons, and screenshots of each solution.

What Is Ecommerce Customer Service Software

Ecommerce customer service software refers to specialized digital tools and platforms designed to facilitate and optimize customer support and interaction for online retail businesses. This software enables companies to manage and respond to customer inquiries, complaints, and requests through various channels such as email, live chat, social media, and phone, often offering features like ticket management, knowledge bases, order tracking, and automation. It aims to enhance customer satisfaction, improve response times, and streamline communication between the ecommerce business and its customers, ultimately contributing to a positive shopping experience and long-term customer loyalty.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Ecommerce Customer Service Software

Here’s a list of the top ecommerce marketing software I evaluated for your consideration. You can learn more about each option’s essential features, pricing, and why I believe they’re worth your attention.

1

Richpanel

Best all-in-one ecommerce customer service software

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.9
22 reviews

14-day trial + free demo available

From $24/user/month

Richpanel is an all-in-one ecommerce customer service software solution that offers a self-service customer portal and agent helpdesk.

Why I picked Richpanel: The platform makes an excellent addition to this list because Richpanel is an all-in-one option that provides everything your business needs to handle customer support functions. Richpanel does this by helping customer service teams and departments implement a self-service portal with an “Amazon-like” experience with options to track orders, request returns, exchange items, and more without needing to reach your service team. The second function Richpanel provides is an agent helpdesk that helps your customer service team manage all customer interactions across all channels, including email, live chat, social media, or calls, and a ticketing solution that presents your agents with customer information such as order history, enabling them to better serve your customers.

Richpanel Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include automations to help your customer service team eliminate repetitive tasks and maximize productivity. Richpanel’s agent hand-off capabilities help provide all customer context to ensure they get the information they need to offer a quick resolution.

Integrations include native integrations to empower your customer service team to manage everything from one screen, such as Aircall, Attentive, Blotout, Hubspot CRM, Magento, ReCharge, Segment, Shopify, Smile.io, and WooCommerce. You can also use Richpanel’s API to create custom integrations.

Pros

  • Clean user interface
  • Comprehensive information
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • Can be slow at times
  • Limited number of integrations
2

Help Scout

Best for email customer support

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4
300 reviews

15-day free trial

From $20/user/month

Help Scout is an email-based ecommerce customer service software that enables online stores to manage multiple workflows across various departments.

Why I picked Help Scout: The platform is a popular ecommerce customer service software that offers a robust shared email inbox that manages all support requests from a central area. Help Scout is an email-based customer service platform that helps your teams manage internal and external email interactions. Help Scout uses automation to help your team manage customer service emails by tagging them to ensure they go to the correct department and create customer service reports.

Help Scout Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include tools to get you started right away, such as ticket management and email templates. You can also use one email account but allow multiple people to respond to incoming emails and assign them to specific individuals.

Integrations include connections with the tools you’re likely already using, such as Aircall, Freshbooks, Highrise, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Mixpanel, Pipedrive, Shopify, Slack, WooCommerce, and other software options. If you need custom integrations, you can create them using a paid Zapier account or Help Scout’s API.

Pros

  • Quick and helpful customer support from the vendor
  • Simple collaboration capabilities
  • Intuitive software layout

Cons

  • No telephone support capabilities
  • Limited customization options
3

Odoo CRM

Best free ecommerce customer service software

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4
70 reviews

Free

Odoo CRM is a free ecommerce customer service software that helps agents track and manage top customer service opportunities to make buyers and potential buyers happy.

Why I picked Odoo CRM: With Odoo CRM, you get a free ecommerce customer service software and relationship-building platform that your teams can use to communicate with buyers who need help. Your teams can also follow up with customers’ questions over the phone or through integrating email capabilities. Odoo allows you to create dial queues on customers and automatically manually or automatically from the browser.

Odoo CRM Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include predefined reporting dashboards, or you can create your own that fits your needs and share filters with the rest of your team. Odoo CRM also provides an activities and call management tool that enables you to organize activity sequences per customer service opportunity.

Integrations include connections with over 160 tools and business solutions, such as Boss Insights, Google Analytics, Hubspot CRM, Mailchimp, Microsoft Teams, Pipedrive, QuickBooks Online, RingCentral MVP, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and other software options. You can also create custom integrations with your current systems through the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account.


Pros

  • Reminders and scheduled notifications work well
  • Simple user interface
  • Easily creates customer support tickets

Cons

  • Lack of documentation and learning resources
  • Some performance and speed issues
4

LiveAgent

Best for live chat support

30-day free trial

From $15/agent/month

LiveAgent offers advanced live chat functions that help your customer service agents manage all customer queries from multiple channels.

Why I picked LiveAgent: I added LiveAgent for consideration because it combines robust live chat capabilities with a help desk system. You can use LiveAgent’s live chat functions to automatically create multiple canned responses to answer frequently asked customer questions, assign chats to different team members, send customer feedback surveys, and more. Your agents can follow customer interactions through a resolution journey across multiple channels while staying in the same ticket thread.

LiveAgent Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include an extensive ticketing system that empowers customer service teams to handle all customer inquiries from a single interface. You can also take advantage of the platform’s gamification capabilities that encourage your team to perform better in a fun, motivational environment.

Integrations include connections with many popular ecommerce business tools to enhance customer satisfaction, such as Intercom, Magento, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, Prestashop, ShipStation, Shopify, Slack, WordPress, Zoho Mail, and other software options. You can use a paid Zapier account or LiveAgent’s API to create custom integrations with your toolset.

Pros

  • Live chat tools enhance customer relationships
  • Excellent automation capabilities
  • Intuitive and user-friendly

Cons

  • Mobile app needs work
  • Only allows one pre-defined answer to a ticket
5

Tidio

Best for small businesses

7-day free trial + free plan available

From $29/month

Tidio is an ecommerce customer service software that allows small businesses to deliver high-level customer experiences.

Why I picked Tidio: The platform is an excellent option for small businesses because these organizations can add Tidio to a website in five minutes without having any coding expertise. All of your customer interactions are located in the Tidio panel, and the vendor offers a mobile application that simplifies your customer service processes. Your small business can also use Tidio to get information regarding what website visitors are doing and where they came from and monitor critical analytics.

Tidio Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include triggering live chats on your website to answer visitors’ questions in real time. You can also make product recommendations or give custom discounts based on the visitor’s browsing behavior.

Integrations include connections with tools such as Active Campaign, Agile CRM, Google Analytics, Hubspot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Zendesk, and other software options. You can create custom integrations whenever necessary through Tidio’s API or a paid Zapier account.

Pros

  • Excellent pricing for small businesses
  • Shows all website activities
  • Allows users to see who’s on their site

Cons

  • AI isn’t suitable for complex queries
  • Setting up chatbots can be cumbersome
6

Gorgias

Best for ecommerce platform integrations

7-day free trial

From $10/month

Gorgias can integrate with stores using some of the top ecommerce platforms and help digitize customer service functions.

Why I picked Gorgias: The platform is a well-known ecommerce customer service software that’s specifically designed to work on major ecommerce platforms. Gorgias started as a customer service tool for Shopify but then extended its reach by integrating with other large ecommerce website builders such as BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce. These integrations allow you and your team to handle all customer service tasks directly from your ecommerce platform.

Gorgias Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include the ability to proactively deliver fast responses, both manually and through automation, across multiple formats and channels. Gorgias also provides access to AI-based article recommendations that scan through all company articles and find one that includes an answer to customer questions.

Integrations include connections with top tools used by many ecommerce organizations, such as BigCommerce, Cloudtalk, Klaviyo, Magento, Recharge, Returnly, ShipMonk, Shopify, WooCommerce, Yotpo, and other software options. Gorgias also allows users to create custom integrations with their current systems through the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account.

Pros

  • User-friendly features
  • Solves many customer service pain points
  • Integrates with multiple ecommerce builders

Cons

  • Slight learning curve
  • Reporting functionality is limited
7

Textline

Best for providing SMS-based support

14-day free trial

From $59.97/month

Textline empowers ecommerce businesses to modernize customer support through an SMS channel.

Why I picked Textline: Many modern customers prefer to text customer support over other communication channels, so to help your brand capitalize on this, I added Textline for consideration. With Textline, you can securely communicate with ecommerce customers using various phone numbers. Your team can use the platform to schedule texts, implement automated replies, and include URLs, images, and other file attachments to messages.

Textline Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include tools to help you track team availability and conversations and monitor conversations. You can also send surveys to help you discover customer needs and confidently provide solutions.

Integrations include connections with third-party applications to help you add texting to your current customer experience workflows, such as Aircall, Gorgias, Help Scout, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Talkdesk, Zendesk Support, and other software options. You can also use the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account to make custom integrations.

Pros

  • Easily schedules messages
  • Simple communication tracking
  • Excellent vendor customer support

Cons

  • Analytics needs improvement
  • Search function is challenging
8

eDesk

Best for customer service automation

14-day trial + free plan available + free demo available.

From $69/user/month.

eDesk offers customer service automation capabilities to help online brands deliver excellent customer service everywhere they sell.

Why I picked eDesk: I chose to add eDesk to this article because you can use its automation tools to provide the support your customers expect from an online business. The platform’s automations can handle all the heavy lifting for your teams by suggesting answers depending on text analysis and previous replies related to similar issues, helping your teams from constantly searching for data and typing replies. In cases where the automations aren’t providing a suitable answer, your agents can reduce response times through the platform’s stock answers, template replies, and snippets.

eDesk Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include routing support ticket capabilities to help you optimize team workflow by sending customer issues to agents best suited to resolve them. eDesk also offers a comprehensive dashboard with reports to help you analyze and conduct performance checks.

Integrations include connections with over 250 marketplaces, web store platforms, and social channels to ensure you can support customers wherever you sell, such as AfterShip, Aircall, BigCommerce, Gmail, Klaviyo, Magento, PrestaShop, ShipStation, Shopify, WooCommerce, and other software options. You can also use eDesk’s API to create custom integrations with your systems.



Pros

  • Displays all customer interactions on one screen
  • Ticket assignment decreases response times
  • Links sales directly to the platform

Cons

  • User interface needs more customizability options
  • Vendor’s customer support needs work
9

Freshdesk

Best for omnichannel support

21-day free trial + free plan available

From $18/user/month

Freshdesk is a cloud-based omnichannel ecommerce customer service software that enables teams to simplify customer support requests into a single location.

Why I picked Freshdesk: The platform offers intuitive capabilities your team can use to track and manage support tickets and customer interactions across multiple channels, such as email, phone, chat, and social media. When using Freshdesk, you can convert requests from these channels into tickets and unify ticket resolution. Freshdesk helps your business manage all customer queries in one centralized space, allowing you to connect with several channels and platforms to gather all the information your teams need to quickly and effectively respond and keep customers happy.

Freshdesk Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include a customizable dashboard that allows you to manage teams and make data-driven decisions to increase productivity. Freshdesk also offers auto-assignment rules that automatically assign support tickets based on your agents’ skills or availability or distribute them equally among your team members.

Integrations include connections with over 1,000 third-party applications, such as Dropbox, Google Analytics, Hubspot CRM, Mailchimp, Microsoft Teams, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Zoho CRM, and other software options. When using Freshdesk, you can create custom integrations with your current systems through the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account.

Pros

  • Many AI and bot tools are available
  • Easy for beginners
  • Excellent omnichannel customer support capabilities

Cons

  • Vendor’s customer service needs work
  • Large number of features create a learning curve
10

Zendesk

Best for large ecommerce businesses

14-day free trial

From $49 per user/month

Zendesk offers end-to-end customer service solutions for enterprise-sized organizations that cover an array of customer helpdesk needs during every step of the customer journey.

Why I picked Zendesk: The platform is one of the most popular overall customer service software on the market, especially for large ecommerce businesses. Zendesk offers a suite of tools your business needs to manage customer service across several channels, such as email, voice, live chat, social media, and more. Even with the most complex ecommerce enterprise operations, Zendesk offers an AI tool that provides built-in intelligence and context to help your agents resolve issues faster through automatically generated suggestions and reduce repetitive work throughout your customer service workflow.

Zendesk Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include the ability to hold internal conversations regarding customer queries before passing along external answers to customers. Zendesk also allows users to configure trigger automation to assign tasks, create customer service tickets, or send emails based on time-based triggers or specific actions.

Integrations include connections with over 1,300 applications to make Zendesk work perfectly for your business, such as Aircall, Intercom, Mailchimp, Nutshell CRM, PandaDoc, Recurly, Shopify, Slack, Trello, Zoho Analytics, and other software options. You can also use a paid Zapier account or Zendesk’s API to create custom integrations with your business’s toolset.


Pros

  • Easily filters support tickets into various queues
  • Comprehensive enterprise solutions
  • Robust reporting and analytics features

Cons

  • Customer support needs work
  • Some social media integrations don’t connect well

Best Ecommerce Customer Service Software Summary

Tool Trial Info Price
1
Richpanel

Best all-in-one ecommerce customer service software

14-day trial + free demo available

From $24/user/month Website
2
Help Scout

Best for email customer support

15-day free trial

From $20/user/month Website
3
Odoo CRM

Best free ecommerce customer service software

Not available

Free Website
4
LiveAgent

Best for live chat support

30-day free trial

From $15/agent/month Website
5
Tidio

Best for small businesses

7-day free trial + free plan available

From $29/month Website
6
Gorgias

Best for ecommerce platform integrations

7-day free trial

From $10/month Website
7
Textline

Best for providing SMS-based support

14-day free trial

From $59.97/month Website
8
eDesk

Best for customer service automation

14-day trial + free plan available + free demo available.

From $69/user/month. Website
9
Freshdesk

Best for omnichannel support

21-day free trial + free plan available

From $18/user/month Website
10
Zendesk

Best for large ecommerce businesses

14-day free trial

From $49 per user/month Website

Other Options

The following is an additional list of other ecommerce customer service software options that will help you directly impact customers’ experiences.

  1. HubSpot CRM

    Best for beginners

  2. Salesforce Service Cloud

    Best AI-powered ecommerce customer service software

  3. EngageBay

    Best for engaging web visitors.

  4. InMoment

    Best for customer experience analytics.

  5. Smartsupp

    Best for delivering personalized experiences.

  6. HelpCrunch

    Best for customizable chat widgets.

  7. LiveChat

    Best for online chat and web analytics.

  8. Issuetrak

    Best for tracking customer tickets, issues, and requests.

  9. Kixie

    Best advanced calling and texting solution.

  10. Supportbench

    Best for scalable solutions.

Selection Criteria For Ecommerce Customer Service Software 

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best customer service solution for ecommerce businesses for this article:

Core Functionality

A software’s core functionality determines how it fits within a specific category, such as ecommerce customer service. So, to make it onto this list, I focused on solutions that all provide the following functionality for ecommerce brands.

  • Multi-channel communication; this enables businesses to manage customer inquiries and interactions across various communication channels, such as email, live chat, social media, and phone.
  • Ticket management and tracking; organize and prioritize incoming requests, track their status, and assign them to appropriate team members for resolution.

Key Features

When choosing the best ecommerce solutions for this article, it can often come down to the tool’s features and how they align with specific needs. The following are some of the most crucial features I looked for when comparing the options in this list.

  • Service Level Agreement Management: Configuring business hours and service level agreement targets for various customer requests within a help desk solution will immediately set expectations between your brand and customers.
  • Custom Support Portals: By hosting a customer portal that’s customizable to meet your needs, you can enable your business to offer simple self-service experiences for online shoppers.
  • Help Desk Reports: Built-in help desk reports and analytics help you track and measure your support team’s performance in real-time or periodically as needed.
  • Live Chat: Real-time chat support from your website lets you quickly connect with customers, provide the answers they need, or direct the query to a suitable team member.
  • Collaboration Tools: Many ecommerce customer service solutions enable teams to tag specific people into a conversation for their input; they can also allow team members to leave notes on specific customer inquiries and have conversations that aren’t sent to the customer.
  • Message Templates: Ecommerce customer help desk tools can offer pre-built message templates to ensure your team provides instant answers instead of generating new messages for the same common query.

Usability

Time-strapped ecommerce customer support teams don’t have time to work with software that is awkward, unintuitive, and requires extra training. A platform’s quick response time, page loading speed, and agility when switching between features significantly impact your team’s efficiency and productivity. I look for top ecommerce customer service platforms that are intuitive, easy to set up, and simple for teams to understand and implement in their daily workflow. They should also offer remote access if you and your team aren’t tied to an office; allowing everybody on the customer service team to respond to queries while on the go will help your business continue to build loyalty and make buyers happy.

Software Integrations

A significant factor in implementing ecommerce customer service software is to improve productivity and minimize the number of tools required to complete tasks. Integrating with your current toolset is essential for effective ecommerce business operations, and the platform you choose must offer simple customer data transfers from your social media, CRM, shipping and fulfillment tools, marketing solutions, and ecommerce platforms. This significantly improves customer service, helps create targeted marketing campaigns, and ensures you receive accurate product recommendations to increase sales.

Automation

Automation capabilities within an ecommerce customer service platform can improve your business’s workflows and customer interactions. Setting up a solution that handles specific processes and actions, such as sending follow-up emails, can save your team time and money. So, I ensured to add options that offer automation features to help you deal with simple customer service tasks and customer questions, allowing you to focus on more complex issues. You can also use the money automation saves for better customer service agent training.

People Also Ask

There are many frequently asked questions people have when searching for new ecommerce customer service software, and you might have some too. So, to make this article more beneficial, I added some of the top questions people also asked about these tools and answered them to help you during this time.

Other Ecommerce Customer Service Software Reviews

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are many customer service software on the market, and you might need more options to ensure you implement the best solution for your business’s needs. To help, here are some more ecommerce customer service software reviews that list and evaluate other platform options worth considering.

The Takeaway 

Clearly, there is a significant number of ecommerce customer service software options available to help your business improve customer experience, satisfaction, and sales. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and only you can determine which solution is best for your organization. But, to help with this process, I recommend utilizing as many free trials as possible that are offered by vendors and conducting customer satisfaction surveys. This will help you develop a more informed opinion about what your brand needs for its customer support team.

If you need more help for other functions, departments, or teams within your business, sign up for The Ecomm Manager newsletter and get new software reviews and ecommerce advice sent directly to your inbox.

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By Francois Marchand

Francois Marchand is The Ecomm Manager's content strategist and editor. He is passionate about helping and educating business leaders, ecommerce professionals, and digital marketers grow their skill sets to stay ahead of the competition. Francois holds a BA Specialization in Communication Studies & Journalism from Concordia University (Montreal, QC) and 20+ years of experience in ecommerce, marketing, traditional and digital media, and public relations, including The Vancouver Sun, National Post, CBC/Radio-Canada, Unbounce, and Vancouver Film School. He also hosts The Ecomm Manager Podcast, discussing ecommerce best practices, customer experience, branding, inventory management, shipping and delivery, and analytics with expert guests.