eCommerce Inboxes: The Ultimate Guide

Who Uses eCommerce Inboxes?

Like so many seemingly simple aspects of an eCommerce platform, inboxes are often treated as an afterthought. Many companies will simply use the messaging system as it comes out of the box and instead change their business logic to accommodate something that's locked down. They force themselves, and their customers, to work around any failings the messaging system might have.

But creating an inbox that meets both your customers’ needs and those of your employees can make all interactions go so much more smoothly. This is especially important when everyone is inundated with dozens—or hundreds—of messages a day from disparate sources. You want a messaging system that works with your business logic, not one that forces you to change your business logic to its needs.

Let’s look at what a smart inbox looks like on an eCommerce platform including the flexibility it delivers to accommodate the needs of any business model.

Overwhelmed Inboxes

Your employee’s traditional inbox can get overwhelmed by internal emails, customer emails, personal emails, and spam. A robust eCommerce inbox system is the go-to messaging center for all things customer-related, doing away with the other distracting messages.

Lack of Alerts

You can’t rely on a customer coming back to your site in order to get an update from their inbox. Customers should get to choose the way that they’re contacted, whether that’s via email, chat, or text.

Too Many Channels

A messaging center that’s too simple makes customers bounce back and forth between messaging systems. For instance, a customer might get a quote from your salesperson, then go back to their own email system to get the quote approved. Once that quote is approved, the process is reversed, which means one more step at which messages can get lost. Keeping all messages in one spot makes the process much smoother.