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Conversational Commerce Trends

The State of Conversational Commerce: 5 Trends Reshaping Ecommerce in 2026

Explore 5 key trends from The State of Conversational Commerce Trends Report in 2026.
By Gabrielle Policella
0 min read . By Gabrielle Policella

TL;DR:

  • AI is resolving tickets, not just replying. AI now handles 31% of customer interactions for ecommerce brands, and that number is expected to nearly double within two years.
  • Every channel is becoming a storefront. Conversations are replacing the traditional browse-and-buy journey, with 79% of brands reporting sales from AI-driven interactions. 
  • AI is shortening the buying cycle. 93% of AI-influenced purchases happen within the first 48 hours of the conversation. 
  • CX teams are changing, not shrinking. Ecommerce brands are actively hiring for more technical roles to implement, coach, and maintain AI. 
  • The winning model is hybrid. AI handles volume and speed, while humans handle complexity and judgment. 

The way shoppers buy online has shifted and customers are at the center. 

They no longer want to scroll through product pages, dig through FAQs, or wait 24 hours for an email reply. They open a conversation, ask a specific question, and expect a useful answer in seconds. Brands that can’t deliver these experiences at scale are seeing customer hesitation turn into abandoned carts and lost revenue. 

This shift has a name: conversational commerce. It's the practice of using real-time, two-way conversations as your primary sales channel, through chat, AI agents, messaging apps, and voice. 

What started as an experiment for early adopters has become a key growth lever, with 84% of ecommerce brands treating conversational commerce as a strategic pillar this year vs. last year. 

Bar chart showing percentage of customer interactions handled by AI: 31% in 2025 and 47% within the next two years.

We surveyed 400 ecommerce decision-makers across North America, the U.K., and Europe to understand how conversational commerce and AI are reshaping the ecommerce landscape. These findings are complemented by aggregated and anonymized internal Gorgias platform data from 16,000+ ecommerce brands.

The State of Conversational Commerce in 2026 trends report breaks down all of the findings, including five key trends shaping the ecommerce landscape. 

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Trend 1: AI is table stakes for ecommerce and it’s no longer just about efficiency

A few years ago, adding an AI chatbot to your site that could provide tracking links and Help Center article recommendations was a differentiator. Today, it's table stakes. McKinsey found that 71% of shoppers expect personalized experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don't get them. 

Right now, most ecommerce professionals use AI, with 93% having used it for at least 1 year. Enthusiasm is accelerating quickly, with only 30% of ecommerce professionals rating their excitement for AI at 10/10 in April 2025. Similarly, while AI adoption rose steadily year over year, it reached a clear peak in 2026.

Bar chart showing ecommerce professionals using AI: 69.2% in 2024, 77.2% in 2025, and 96% in 2026.

The use cases driving this adoption are practical and high-volume:

  • Order tracking and status updates
  • Returns, exchanges, and refund requests
  • Shipping FAQs and delivery estimates
Bar chart showing AI use cases across ecommerce: customer support automation (96%), AI product recommendations (88%), automated tracking updates (69%), AI personalization (64%), inventory control (51%), dynamic pricing (36%), and order fulfillment (18%).

These are the tickets that flood brands’ inboxes every day. AI agents resolve them instantly, without pulling teams away from conversations that actually require human judgment.

Explore AI adoption and use case data in more depth in the full report. 

Trend 2: Conversations are the new path to checkout

The traditional ecommerce funnel, visit site, browse products, add to cart, check out, is losing ground. Shoppers now discover products on Instagram, ask questions via direct message, and complete purchases without ever visiting a website.

Side-by-side comparison of page-based and conversation-led customer journeys, highlighting AI-driven real-time recommendations, proactive information, and post-purchase support within a single conversation.

Conversational AI is actively increasing revenue, with 79% of brands reporting that AI-driven interactions have increased sales and conversion in their business.

Bar chart showing percentage of customer interactions handled by AI: 31% in 2025 and 47% within the next two years.

The practical implication is that every channel is becoming a storefront. Creating personalized touchpoints with customers earlier in the journey, through proactive engagement, is impacting the bottom line. 

Read the full report to explore how AI conversions have increased QoQ by industry.  

Trend 3: AI is accelerating the purchase cycle

Pre-purchase hesitation is one of the biggest conversion killers in ecommerce. A shopper lands on your product page, has a question about sizing or compatibility, can't find the answer quickly, and leaves. That's a lost sale that had nothing to do with your product.

Conversational AI changes that dynamic. When a shopper can ask a question and get an accurate, personalized answer in real time, the friction disappears. 

Brands using Gorgias saw this play out at scale in 2025. When AI Agent recommended a product, 80% of the resulting purchases happened the same day, and 13% happened the next day. 

AI chat interface recommending apparel items based on cart contents, alongside statistic stating 93% of purchases occur within 48 hours of an AI agent’s recommendation.

Brands are further accelerating the buying cycle through proactive engagement. On-site features such as suggested product questions, recommendations triggered by search results, and “Ask Anything” input bars drove 50% of conversation-driven purchases during BFCM 2025. 

Explore how AI is collapsing the purchase cycle in Trend 3 of the report.

Trend 4: AI is making CX teams more technical 

There's a persistent narrative that AI is making CX teams redundant. The data tells a different story. 62% of ecommerce brands are planning to grow their teams, not cut them. But the scope of those teams is changing.

Bar chart of expected headcount changes over 12 months: 21% increase significantly, 41% increase somewhat, 28% stay the same, 9% decrease somewhat, and 1% decrease significantly.

New roles are emerging around AI configuration and quality assurance. Teams are investing in technical members to write AI Guidance instructions, develop tone-of-voice instructions, and continuously QA results. 

CX teams are also bridging the gap between support goals and revenue goals, as the two functions increasingly overlap.

Donut chart indicating 77% of companies report at least some convergence between support and sales functions due to AI.

The result is CX teams that are more technical than they were before. Agents who once spent their days answering repetitive tickets are now spending that time on higher-value work: complex escalations, VIP customer relationships, and improving the AI systems and knowledge bases that handle the volume.

Learn more about the evolution of CX roles in Trend #4. 

Trend 5: The future is hybrid: AI-first, humans when it counts

Despite increasing AI adoption, data shows that ecommerce brands shouldn’t strive for 100% automation. Winning brands are building systems in which AI handles repetitive tier-1 tickets, and humans handle complex, sensitive cases. 

Chart showing which inquiries are handled by AI vs. humans.

AI handles speed and scale. It resolves order-tracking requests at 2 a.m., processes return-eligibility checks in seconds, and answers the same shipping question for the thousandth time without compromising quality. 

Human agents handle conversations that require context, empathy, or decisions that fall outside the standard playbook. There are several topics where shoppers still prefer human support.

Bar chart showing customers prefer human support for order issues (54%), product advice (35%), and returns or refunds (24%).

Successful hybrid systems require continuous iteration, meaning reviewing handover topics, Guidance, and reviewing AI tickets on a weekly basis. 

Discover how leading brands are balancing human and AI systems in Trend #5. 

Where conversational commerce is heading by 2030

The 2026 trends are about expansion and standardization. The 2030 predictions are about what comes next.

Bar chart showing brand expectations by 2030: 89% expect AI voice purchasing, 29% expect AI multilingual support, and 19% expect proactive AI upsells and cross-sells.

Voice-based purchasing is the biggest bet on the horizon. Only 7% of brands currently use voice assistants for commerce, but 89% expect it to be standard by 2030. The vision is a customer who can reorder a product, check their subscription status, or manage a return entirely over the phone.

Proactive AI is the other major shift. Rather than waiting for a customer to reach out, AI will anticipate needs based on browsing behavior, purchase history, and where someone is in their relationship with your brand. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a sales associate who remembers what you bought last time and knows what you're likely to need next.

Explore where ecommerce brands are allocating their AI budgets in the full report. 

Start building your conversational commerce strategy today

The brands winning in 2026 are creating smart, scalable systems where AIhandles volume and humans handle nuance. They’re treating every conversational channel as an opportunity to serve and sell.

The data is clear: AI adoption is accelerating, customer expectations are rising, and the revenue impact of getting this right is measurable.

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min read.
Introducing Helpdesk 2.0

Introducing Helpdesk 2.0: Built for How Agents Work

We rebuilt the Gorgias workspace around how agents actually work. Here's what changed and why.
By Christelle Agustin
0 min read . By Christelle Agustin

TL;DR:

  • Built directly from agent feedback, Helpdesk 2.0 fixes real workflow pain points. The redesign focuses on reducing friction and helping agents handle more context-heavy tickets.
  • A chat-style interface replaces the old email layout. Conversations are easier to follow and resolve in one view.
  • Customer context is shown beside the conversation in a right-side panel. Agents can view history, orders, and details without leaving the ticket.
  • AI handoffs come with clear summaries. Agents instantly see what happened, what was tried, and what to do next.
  • Navigation is simpler and faster across teams. Clean menus, structured queues, and multi-store access keep agents moving efficiently.

Helpdesk 2.0 starts with the people who use it most: the agents. 

We spent time understanding customer support from the agent's seat. What do they reach for constantly? What slows them down? What does a better workday look like? 

Everything we found is in this brand-new update.

Why we redesigned Helpdesk

Conversational commerce is the new standard. 

In customer support, this means customers expect context to remain intact wherever they reach out, whether a conversation starts on social, moves to email, or ends on a call.

This new approach to support has also changed the agent's role. Recurring tickets, like order status checks, shipping updates, and returns, are now handled by AI. What lands in the agent inbox are edge cases that require human judgment and troubleshooting, or tickets that require the full picture.

However, the original Helpdesk was built for a different era of support.

Context was separated across views rather than built into the conversation itself. It's something one in five Gorgias customers flagged, through support tickets, NPS surveys, and conversations with our team. So, we got to work. 

Helpdesk 2.0 is the result.

What's new in Helpdesk 2.0

Here's a look at everything that changed.

Read conversations the way they're meant to be read

Conversations have a natural rhythm, one that’s already found in every messaging tool we use. We brought that same layout into the helpdesk. 

Say goodbye to the 2000s email interface and hello to chat bubbles. This updated design changes how quickly you can orient yourself and resolve the ticket in one go.

Gorgias's Helpdesk 2.0 uses chat bubbles to format conversations.

Chats with customers now look like real conversations, using the speech bubble style you’re familiar with on popular messaging apps.

Check customer history without losing your place

Checking a customer's history used to mean leaving the conversation, an extra step that interrupted what should have been a smooth workflow.

Now, past conversations open in a sidebar next to the active conversation. You can view a customer’s full history, search through their timeline, and open prior tickets without going to a new page.

The Customer Timeline allows you to scroll through past tickets, orders, and customer information.

Check past conversations, orders, and customer details in the brand-new Customer Timeline.

See order details the moment you open a ticket

Order information is easier to reference than ever. Open a ticket, and you instantly see the customer's recent orders, marked with product images and invoice details at a glance. Need to dig deeper? Click on an order, and the expanded information appears in the same panel.

For teams using custom integrations, apps are fixed in a quick-access integration menu on the right.

Orders include product images, number of items, total, time created, and the order number.

See order details, product images, and totals at a glance on the right panel, without leaving the conversation.

Pick up where AI left off

You shouldn't have to dig through a thread to figure out what AI already tried. Now you don't have to.

When AI Agent escalates a conversation, it includes a concise handover summary that mentions the issue, what actions were taken, and why it was passed to your team.

AI Agent includes a handover summary in the ticket thread.

Escalated tickets include a brief AI-generated handover summary, marked in yellow, for quick reference.

Move faster across every store and team

We restructured and simplified the navigation. The left sidebar organizes everything into clear categories: Inbox, AI Agent, Marketing, and Analytics, so anyone on your team knows exactly where to go.

To quickly update your knowledge base or adjust a workflow, both now live right in the sidebar. For teams managing multiple stores, switching between them is just as straightforward, accessible from the sidebar, so agents can move between inboxes without breaking their flow.

Gorgias Helpdesk 2.0 menu

Agents can switch between stores and their corresponding inboxes directly from the left menu.

A workspace that works the way agents do

Support comes down to the person on the other end of the conversation. We built Helpdesk 2.0 is to make sure they have everything they need to show up for that moment.

The best way to see the difference is to work in it. Start a free trial today.

min read.
Ecom Lab Announcement

Ecommerce Finally Has a Research Hub Built on Real Data

The Ecom Lab is here. Explore first-party ecommerce data on AI adoption, support performance, and industry benchmarks.
By Gorgias Team
0 min read . By Gorgias Team

TL;DR:

  • The Ecom Lab is Gorgias’s public research hub for ecommerce insights. It shares real, first-party data to help teams understand industry performance and trends.
  • It exists to solve the lack of reliable ecommerce benchmarks. Most available data is self-reported or too broad, making it hard for teams to accurately measure performance.
  • The goal is to give ecommerce teams a clear baseline for smarter decisions. With real benchmarks, you can better evaluate performance and opportunities.
  • The Ecom Lab makes metrics like AI adoption, response times, and CSAT visible. These are segmented by brand size, GMV, and vertical so you can benchmark more precisely.
  • The latest reports reveal major gaps in AI adoption and benchmarking practices. They also highlight how inefficient support processes are driving costs.

Industry benchmarks for ecommerce are hard to come by. Most of what's out there is self-reported, survey-based, or too aggregated to be usable. Teams are left wondering whether their AI adoption is on par with industry standards or if their response times are costing them revenue.

That's a gap we're in a unique position to close. 

Gorgias processes millions of customer conversations across thousands of ecommerce brands every day. This has given us a rare, unfiltered view into how the industry operates. But until now, we’ve kept those insights largely internal.

Today, we're making it public with the Ecom Lab

The result is years of first-party data from thousands of ecommerce brands, packaged into findings that give teams a real foundation to build their strategy on.

What is the Ecom Lab?

The Ecom Lab is Gorgias's public research hub for ecommerce. It publishes insights and reports on AI adoption, support performance, financial impact, and industry trends.

The goal is simple: give teams a real baseline to measure against and to uncover the industry's inner workings.

What data can you find in the Ecom Lab?

Metrics that actually move decisions. 

The Ecom Lab publishes metrics that matter to ecommerce professionals, including AI adoption rates, first response times, CSAT scores, conversion rates, and ticket intents, all broken down by brand size, GMV tier, and industry vertical.

For the first time, teams can see exactly where they stand in comparison to the broader market.

Read the first three reports now

AI is Everywhere reveals why roughly 4 in 5 ecommerce brands still haven't deployed AI in customer-facing support.

Stop Benchmarking Against the Average argues that support teams should benchmark response times against their specific industry vertical rather than the overall average.

Most Brands are Overpaying for Support breaks down the actual cost of support ticket volume and what happens when AI handles the load.

Go to the Ecom Lab →

min read.
Create powerful self-service resources
Capture support-generated revenue
Automate repetitive tasks

Further reading

AI Tone of Voice: Tips for On-Brand Customer Communication

By Alexa Hertel
min read.
0 min read . By Alexa Hertel

TL;DR:

  • Tone of voice builds trust. A consistent tone of voice helps create personal connections with customers and builds trust in your brand, even when using AI.
  • Analyze your brand's personality to find your tone. Review customer conversations, website copy, and marketing materials.
  • AI can mimic brand voice by learning your data. This data includes your brand’s help docs, internal guidebooks, macros, and brand guidelines.
  • Keeping AI on-brand requires regular training. Audit your brand voice, set guidance, and monitor responses to keep your AI accurate.

Tone of voice—and a strong brand personality—have become essential components of exceptional customer service. 

As many brands introduce AI to automate customer service interactions, the challenge of ensuring that AI is helpful looms. Part of that helpfulness means speaking to customers in a way that connects with them, not alienates them.

That’s why implementing AI that uses your brand’s signature tone of voice has never been so important.

This post will explore why tone of voice matters in customer service and provide insights on how AI can effectively replicate brand voice, with tips on implementing it successfully. 

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Why tone of voice matters in customer service

Through a customer service lens, tone of voice is the style, word choice, and general vibe of how your brand speaks when it communicates with customers. Tone of voice is one of the key components of brand identity, so the tone of voice a support team uses will always align with its greater brand.

According to Statista, 64% of customers prefer making purchases from companies that create experiences tailored to their needs and wants. A consistent tone of voice does just that, building trust, creating better relationships between customers and brands, and making experiences more personal.

On the flip side, brands that don’t prioritize tone of voice — especially when it comes to AI — will see robotic tones cause a loss of customer trust. 

How AI effectively replicates brand voice

51% of customers share concerns that brands that use AI won’t connect them to a human. But if you choose the right AI tools that leverage your brand’s information and use it effectively, you can train it to mimic your unique voice — sometimes to the point where customers don’t even know that it’s the AI talking.

That’s true for the CX team at toddler carrier brand Wildride

”An influencer emailed us saying, 'I really love you guys,' and our AI Agent replied, 'Love you too,' with heart emojis, which was really funny. It was just like an email from me and my other team members,” says Amber van den Berg, their Head of Customer Experience. 

Wildride trusts Gorgias AI Agent to manage a high volume of tickets while still providing each customer with a great experience.  

📚 Further reading: How Wildride automated 33% of email tickets with AI Agent 

AI Agent uses a few key components to mimic tone of voice, including LLMs (Large Language Models) to form human-like responses, guidance from you, and the internal resources you provide it. 

“We’ve had customers respond to AI Agent thinking they were speaking to a real person. That’s how elevated the response was from AI,” says Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

Brand voice: Friendly

4 tips for successfully infusing AI with your brand’s tone of voice

You can absolutely train AI to match your brand's specific voice and style. Here are a couple of tips that will help you be successful: 

  • Audit your brand’s existing voice and tone
  • Set up guidance
  • Monitor responses and give feedback
  • Keep up with regular training

1. Audit your brand’s existing voice and tone 

If your brand has an established voice and tone, make sure that you either have internal documents that detail it or can describe it accurately in a couple of paragraphs. 

You’ll use that information to help train the AI, so it’s essential that it’s up-to-date and accurate. 

If you don’t have an established tone, now is a great time to generate your brand voice. Review customer conversations and the copy on your website. Chat with your marketing team and even your brand’s founder to get a clear picture of what it is or what you’d like it to be. 

Here’s a quick-start guide for how to find your tone of voice: 

  1. Think about the brands you want to be similar to and pick two. 
  2. Now, take a look at those brands’ websites. Make a list of what you love — it could be the way these brands speak to customers, leverage active verbs, write their product descriptions, or how they talk on social media. 
  3. Now that you have your list, circle the things that feel most relative to your brand. 
  4. Can you put an overarching “vibe” to this list? For example, you might choose a word like friendly, sophisticated, or fun.  
  5. Then, fill in this sentence: “We are (Your Brand) and our tone of voice is (the vibe word you chose). 
  6. Now, see if you can expand on that a little more, with some thoughts about how you might interact with your target audience or write about your products.

2. Set up guidance

Most AI-powered tools will allow you to set up some sort of guidance around how they interact with customers. If you use Gorgias AI Agent, you’ll be able to set specific tone of voice parameters. Choose from three pre-built options—Friendly, Professional, Sophisticated—or Custom to give it your own instructions.

For example, jewelry brand Baby Gold uses an upbeat, friendly, warm, and personable tone. They would likely choose the Friendly option, which is the go-to option for many teams. 

“Sometimes agents forget personal details to call out when communicating with our customers, like birthdays or weddings,” says Sindi Melgar, their Customer Service Manager.  

“But I noticed on a few different occasions where the AI Agent is highlighting these things and is saying, congratulations on your wedding! Just the tone of voice that Michelle is able to adopt is definitely on brand for us.”

If you’re looking to provide your own specific guidelines, create custom guidance like Wildride did below: 

Choose a custom tone of voice for Gorgias's AI Agent

📚 Recommended reading: How to customize AI Agent with 7 brand voice examples

3. Monitor responses and give feedback

In general, you should always keep an eye on how your AI tool is answering questions to ensure that it’s providing accurate responses and that your customers aren’t getting frustrated. Combing through responses manually can be overwhelming, so that’s why Gorgias offers an AI Feedback feature. 

In the ticket sidebar you’ll find a summary of the response AI Agent provided, including why it responded the way it did and the resource it pulled the response from. 

Mark a response as correct or incorrect with AI Agent

Then, give feedback by using the 👍 or 👎 icons to mark AI Agent’s response as correct or incorrect. AI Agent uses this feedback to improve responses over time.

📚 Recommended reading: How to coach AI Agent and give feedback

4. Keep up with regular training

Any time you add new policies or update existing ones, make sure you add them to your helpdocs and Macros, which are the main resources the AI is going to draw from. 

The more consistently you can go in and provide the AI direct feedback on each response, the more easily AI will nail your unique tone. 

Create on-brand responses with AI 

Your brand’s tone of voice makes a huge impact on the relationships you build with customers. Combining your unique brand voice with AI means you’ll provide more personalized responses and resolve customer issues faster. 

“We were hesitant at first, but AI Agent has really picked up on our brand’s voice,” says Lynsay Schrader, Lab and Customer Service Senior Manager at Jonas Paul Eyewear. “We’ve had feedback from customers who didn’t even realize they were talking to an AI.” 

Gorgias AI Agent is the go-to tool for AI-driven customer support that aligns with brand tone.

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Why Your Strategy Needs Customer Service Quality Assurance

By Alexa Hertel
min read.
0 min read . By Alexa Hertel

TL;DR:

  • Manual QA is time-consuming and inconsistent. Reviewing conversations manually makes it difficult to ensure uniform quality across agents and touchpoints.
  • Automating QA saves time and improves accuracy. Automation ensures all tickets are reviewed with the same quality, freeing up agent time to create stronger customer connections.
  • QA helps teams continuously improve. It enables better agent training and brings forth actionable feedback to exceed customer expectations.
  • Implement QA one step at a time. Begin by setting KPIs, introducing small changes, and investing in automation tools to streamline and measure success effectively.

Forrester’s 2024 Customer Experience Index reports that 39% of brands’ customer experience (CX) quality has declined over the past year.

It can be challenging to get a full understanding of how your team—and AI, if you use it—are truly performing.

This is true even with metrics like CSAT

“A 5-point scale only tells you and your agents so much, and relying on consumers providing feedback further limits what you’re able to look at and learn from,” says Kayla Oberlin, Senior Manager of Customer Experience at amika

Quality Assurance (QA) is becoming a more crucial component of a customer experience strategy, especially one that prioritizes customer happiness. 

We’ll cover the importance of customer service QA, best practices, tools, and tips to implement QA effectively.

🗺️ This article at-a-glance

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What is QA (Quality Assurance) in CX? 

In the CX context, QA (Quality Assurance) refers to reviewing customer conversations to improve your support team’s performance and enhance customer satisfaction. QA ensures a consistent and satisfying customer journey across touchpoints, including your website, support channels, and social media.

Common QA pain points for CX teams 

Aside from accuracy issues, a manual quality assurance process is:

  • Time-consuming: Manual conversation reviews are slow and labor-intensive.
  • Limited visibility: It’s difficult to get a clear, scalable view of team and AI performance.
  • Inconsistent: Maintaining uniform quality across customer service teams can be tough.
  • Resource allocation: Difficulty in ensuring the right skills, training, and resources are in place.
  • CSAT limitations: Negative scores often reflect policies, not agent performance.

The solution isn’t for CX teams to skip the QA process altogether but to automate it.

According to research from McKinsey, “A largely automated QA process could achieve more than 90 percent accuracy—compared to 70 to 80 percent accuracy through manual scoring—and savings of more than 50 percent in QA costs.”

With an automated QA process, brands can:

  • Save time: Automated quality checks help support agents to focus on the most critical tickets.
  • Ensure consistency: Both human agents and AI agents are evaluated with a unified, comprehensive QA score.
  • Boost performance: Agents receive targeted coaching to provide more consistent customer experiences.
  • Meet customer expectations: Customers benefit from higher-quality support with quicker resolutions and accurate responses.

Why QA is critical for customer experience

According to Statista, 94% of customers are more likely to purchase again after receiving top-notch support. Quality assurance ensures that every customer gets the same experience, and provides agents with the feedback to learn and stay on-brand with each resolution.

At its core, QA: 

Consumer attitudes and behaviors based on their customer service experience worldwide as of May 2022, Statista
Consumer attitudes and behaviors based on their customer service experience worldwide as of May 2022, Statista

Prevent errors 

Addressing errors early is important, as even small mistakes can harm customer trust and create lasting negative impressions. QA tools can prevent mistakes because of better coaching and training. This can stop misinformation in its tracks –– and from escalating into bigger problems down the line. 

Ensure consistency 

QA makes sure that all customer touchpoints, like calls, emails, live chat, and even AI responses, are handled with the same level of care. This is especially helpful when training new team members, introducing new products or policies, or during high-traffic periods.

Build trust 

Consistent and reliable experiences build customer trust and loyalty. If you were to reach out to a brand and have an amazing experience the first time but a bad experience the next, you’d probably question which experience was the norm. 

Top-notch experiences that happen time and time again tell your customers that you’ll always be there to help. This can boost repeat sales and even referrals:  According to Statista, 82% of customers recommend a brand after a great experience.

Personalize experiences 

Aside from increasing happiness and making customers feel heard and appreciated, personalized support also affects your bottom line. Statista notes that 80% of businesses found that providing personalized customer experiences led to increased spending for consumers.

Aids in better coaching and training 

With QA, teams are able to rate and review all tickets instead of spot-checking. This provides them with a:

  • Quicker turnaround on coaching opportunities
  • Wider volume of tickets they can review, learn from, and use for training
  • Better understanding of when a Macro or a process is leading to incomplete or unhelpful conversations
  • Bigger opportunity for constructive feedback and flow improvements that are based on real responses and not frustrations with brand policies

Continuously improve

Whether it’s lowering resolution times, introducing a knowledge base, or adding AI Agent to your team, making continuous improvements will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Implementing a QA program (especially if you can automate it) is one of those additions that provides you with the refinements you need on a resolution-to-resolution level.

Best practices for implementing QA in CX

QA best practices include: 

Establish a baseline for metrics and KPIs 

As you set out to integrate a Quality Assurance process into your CX program, first establish benchmarks for various metrics and KPIs. These benchmarks help track and evaluate the performance of QA as you implement it. 

If you don’t already track customer support metrics, CSAT, first response time (FRT), resolution time, and net promoter score (NPS) are great ones to start with. 

💡Tip: If you use Gorgias, you’ll find your current support performance statistics in the Statistics menu. Make sure that you can see back at least six months. Then, compare an equal time frame for post-QA implementation.

Monitor and evaluate regularly

While it might sound a bit “meta” to monitor your quality assurance (which is already monitoring your support responses), it’s still worth noting. 

Ensure that your QA process works smoothly, helps your metrics rather than hurts them, and provides actual helpful feedback to your agents. 

Implement automation tools 

The simplest way to maintain your support quality standards is to use an automated QA tool. Automating the QA process lets CX teams get deeper insights into agent strengths and areas for improvement, and captures deeper insights than a CSAT score could.

Collect customer feedback 

Understanding how customers feel will allow you to fine-tune your processes and ensure you’re delivering a consistent and high-quality experience. Here are a few ways to collect feedback:

  • Surveys and reviews - Post-interaction surveys or direct reviews provide real-time feedback on what customers think of their experience.
  • Social listening and real-time feedback - Monitoring online reviews, social media mentions, and customer comments offers insight into how your customers are feeling that might not be captured through formal surveys. 

Challenges of adding QA

Lack of resources, ineffective training, poor communication between team members, not having the right tools, and doing everything manually are some of the challenges you can encounter when adding a QA process.

Here are a couple of solutions we recommend:

  • Start with phased rollouts. Rather than rolling out a QA process across your whole team, let more seasoned agents experiment with it first to give you feedback and make tweaks.
  • Make incremental improvements. Changing an entire CX process at once to include QA can be overwhelming. We recommend making small changes (like starting to send CSAT surveys if you don’t already) one at a time. These changes will allow you to better measure what’s really working. 
  • Invest in better technology. A manual QA process can be more time-consuming than helpful. Look for an automated QA tool that’s already integrated into your helpdesk. It will allow you to measure AI and agent responses equally, while also measuring results from a handy dashboard. 

Ensure customer experience meets quality standards

By prioritizing QA, your team can identify potential problems early, reduce errors, and improve overall performance, leading to a smoother, more reliable experience for customers –– and your CX team. 

In the long run, brands that focus on QA can gain a competitive edge, building stronger relationships with customers and driving sustainable growth. Book a demo now.

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Building Customer Loyalty Through Effective Post-Purchase Support and Automation in Ecommerce

By Rebecca Lazar
min read.
0 min read . By Rebecca Lazar

Let's talk about something that often gets overlooked in ecommerce: what happens after someone hits that "Place Order" button. You might think the hard part's over once you've made the sale, but here's the thing  the post-purchase experience can make or break your relationship with customers. 

In today's competitive online marketplace, those relationships are everything — especially considering that loyal customers spend an average of 67% more per purchase than new customers.

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The importance of post-purchase support and automation in ecommerce

Providing an excellent post-purchase customer experience can turn one-time customers into loyal advocates who are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others.

It's all about the customer experience

When someone buys from your store, they're not just getting a product — they're starting a relationship with your brand. 

A great post-purchase experience shows customers you actually care about their satisfaction beyond just making the sale. 90% of U.S. customers say that an immediate customer service response is "important" or "very important.”

90% of US customers say that getting an immediate response is important

When you nail this part, something magical happens: one-time shoppers transform into passionate advocates who not only come back for more but can't help telling others about their amazing experience with your brand.

Having accessible support and an efficient and easy returns process may make the difference between a happy customer and an unsatisfied one.

Building trust that lasts

Trust is everything in online shopping. When customers feel supported after making a purchase, they're much more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong down the line.

It's like building a friendship: every positive interaction adds another layer of trust. And that trust translates directly into repeat business and glowing recommendations. 

The post-purchase support experience makes a huge difference in building that trust. In fact, 96% of customers say excellent customer service builds trust.

Keeping your return rates down

Great post-purchase support can actually help reduce your return rates. By addressing concerns quickly and providing clear information upfront, you can prevent many returns before they happen.

This can save you money on shipping and restocking and create a smoother experience that keeps customers happy and your business healthy.

Making processes more efficient

Automation eliminates manual tasks, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic initiatives. By automating repetitive tasks, you can improve efficiency and productivity, allowing your team to focus on more value-added activities. 

You can automate everything from customer support to returns and exchanges to your order tracking and more. Besides meeting customers' straightforward needs, automation allows you to focus your team's energy on solving bigger problems and strengthening customer relationships.

Accuracy, guaranteed

Automation helps ensure consistency across all your post-purchase processes. 

When customers know they can count on a reliable experience every time they shop with you, it builds confidence in your brand. 

Plus, fewer mistakes mean happier customers and less time spent fixing problems.

Creating better customer experiences

Speed matters in today's world, and automation helps you deliver faster, more personalized responses to customer needs. 

Whether it's instant order updates or quick responses to questions, automation helps you meet and exceed customer expectations. The result? More satisfied customers who feel valued and understood.

How to automate the post-purchase experience for better loyalty

Here are some ways to automate the post-purchase experience:

Automate your returns and exchanges process

Streamline the returns process with automated return labels, tracking, and updates. Use ReturnGO to automate this process, saving time and reducing manual errors. With automated returns, you can provide a hassle-free experience for customers, encouraging them to return to your store in the future.

Automated returns can help to improve the customer experience by making the returns process easier and more convenient. 65% of customers say the speed and ease of refunds affect where they choose to shop. 

By automating tasks such as generating return labels and tracking packages, you can reduce the time and effort required for customers to return items. 

Think about it from their perspective — if returning an item is hassle-free, they'll feel more confident buying from you in the future. It's like having a safety net that makes customers more comfortable taking chances on new products.

Centralize customer support

In today's fast-paced world, customers expect quick and efficient support. Using a customer experience platform like Gorgias, you can manage all your customer support tickets in one place, making it easier to provide fast, accurate help when people need it.

By centralizing your post-purchase support, you can manage support tickets more efficiently, respond to customer inquiries quickly, and provide the most up-to-date information. This centralized approach can hugely improve response times.

Keep customers in the loop

Nobody likes being left in the dark about their order. Automated post-purchase notifications keep your customers informed every step of the way - from order confirmation to delivery and returns. Using tools like ReturnGO, you can send personalized updates that make customers feel looked after. This is essential for building customer loyalty. 

Keeping customers informed about their orders can help reduce customer anxiety. When customers know what to expect, they’re less likely to worry about their purchase and are more likely to keep buying from you again and again. 

ReturnGO keeps customers updated

Create an integrated workflow

To truly streamline your post-purchase customer service, if you connect your returns management system with your customer support system, you really bring all of the pieces of a puzzle together.

When these two systems are in sync, you can create a smooth workflow that makes things easier for both your team and your customers.

By automating tasks like creating support tickets and processing returns, you can save time and create a more reliable, efficient system that helps you serve customers better. No more jumping back and forth between systems to check on a return when a customer reaches out about it.

The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes this happen seamlessly, with features like:

  • Automatic ticket generation: When a customer requests a return, a support ticket is automatically created on Gorgias, saving you time and preventing errors.
  • Real-time updates: Return request information is automatically updated from ReturnGO to Gorgias, so your team always has the latest details right there.
  • Centralized system: No more digging through multiple systems. This means your support agents always have access to the most up-to-date information and respond quickly and efficiently to customers.
  • Smart widget: The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration includes a widget embedded in your Gorgias dashboard, for managing RMAs directly from within Gorgias. This widget enables your team to:
    • View RMA information: See all the relevant details about a return, including the customer's information, the items being returned, and the reason for the return.
    • Take actions on the RMA: Easily approve or reject a return request directly from Gorgias.
ReturnGO x Gorgias widget

The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes it easy for your team to manage returns and communicate with customers without having to jump between systems to hunt for information.

The path to lasting customer loyalty

So, there you have it! In the world of online shopping, how you handle the after-purchase experience can be just as important as making the sale in the first place.

By automating your post-purchase process, you can create a seamless and satisfying customer experience. 

Tools like ReturnGO and Gorgias can help you create the kind of experience that builds customer loyalty.

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How to Customize AI Agent with 7 Brand Voice Examples

By Christelle Agustin
min read.
0 min read . By Christelle Agustin

TL;DR:

  • AI Agent adapts to your brand's unique tone of voice. Choose from three default voice options (Friendly, Professional, and Sophisticated), or create countless types of tone with the Custom option.
  • Aligning AI with your brand voice builds consistency. A consistent tone in customer interactions helps build trust and brand loyalty.
  • Specify what AI Agent can and can’t say. Like your human agents, tell AI Agent your brand do’s and don’ts. From going all out with fun and emoji-filled replies to avoiding certain words, use custom instructions to make AI Agent sound distinctly on-brand.

People are only able to identify AI-generated content 46.9% of the time. That’s less than half the time!

In the ecommerce customer service industry, this is just one reason teams are getting more comfortable with using AI.

Better language processing abilities mean AI can be a better extension of CX teams, relieving agents of repetitive questions, like where is my order?, while speaking in a way that’s familiar and delightful to customers.

Upholding a strong brand voice should be one of your top priorities in CX. With Gorgias AI Agent, you can choose AI Agent’s exact tone of voice, from sophisticated to fun. Below, check out seven AI Agent brand voice examples from real customer conversations.

“We’ve had customers respond to the AI thinking they were speaking to a real person. That’s how elevated the response was from AI.”

—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

What is Tone of Voice?

Tone of Voice refers to how AI Agent communicates with your customers. In Gorgias, you can select from three pre-built tone options: 

  • Friendly
  • Professional
  • Sophisticated

Or, you can create a custom tone, keeping your brand guidelines, style guide, and target audience in mind.

Note: AI Agent and Tone of Voice are only available to Gorgias Automate subscribers.

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7 Tone of Voice Examples for AI Agent to Match Your Brand's Style

Explore how effectively AI Agent adapts to seven distinct tones in the examples below. First, we’ll show you what a preset AI Agent tone option sounds like, then we’ll move on to six examples using custom instructions.

Feel free to copy and paste our provided instructions to set up your AI Agent with the custom tone of your choice, or, even better, take some inspiration to create your own. 

1. Friendly

A friendly AI Agent is the go-to for most CX teams. A Friendly tone of voice is outgoing and welcomes inquiries with enthusiasm. If you were to imagine the model support agent, they would speak like this.

The Friendly tone of voice is available by default in AI Agent’s settings.

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a Friendly tone of voice responds to a customer asking for samples and coupons:

Default Friendly AI Agent voice
AI Agent lets a loyal customer know about the brand’s 10% discount.

2. Direct and brief

Now, we move away from AI Agent’s default Tone of Voice options and toward the vast possibilities of the Custom option.

If you prefer your AI Agent get to the point in as few words as possible, create a Custom tone of voice that breaks up text into separate lines, limits paragraphs to two to three sentences, and keeps responses short. 

💡 Tip: Access a custom tone of voice by going to Automate > AI Agent > Settings > Tone of Voice > Custom. A text field will appear where you can write your instructions.

AI Agent Custom Tone of Voice

Tone of voice instructions:

Acknowledge the customer's feelings by briefly repeating their initial concern(s). Break text up, don’t send entire paragraphs, and keep responses short and easy to read. Keep interactions brief but filled with empathy. We are not long-winded. Keep an informative tone while remaining professional, clear, and easy for customers to follow. Insert links where needed. Don't use too many adjectives when expressing empathy. Never tell the customer to email support or contact our customer service team.

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a direct and brief tone of voice responds to a customer who wants to cancel their order:

Custom direct and brief AI Agent voice
AI Agent directs a customer to their brand’s return portal without being too wordy.

3. Fun (with lots of emojis! 🤗)

Who says support agents can’t have personality? Bring some fun into your conversations by creating a custom tone of voice that allows your AI Agent to use emojis and exclamation points.

Tone of voice instructions:

Greet with first name only. Acknowledge the customer's feelings by repeating their initial concern(s). Be concise and provide shorter responses, try to keep your responses to a few sentences. Use a warm, positive, and engaging—like chatting with a helpful, considerate friend. Sign off with "Best Regards". Avoid jokes or comments related to sensitive topics. Make the customer feel like a friend. You can include approved emojis for a personal touch and exclamation points. Approved emojis to use: 💞🫶✨🥰💖🎀💓💘🥳💗💕💯 You should recognize and celebrate personal milestones mentioned by customers, making the interaction feel more personal. After the customer's initial message, there's no need to restate their issue in follow-up responses.

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a fun tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:

Custom fun emoji AI Agent voice
AI Agent replies to a customer in a bubbly manner, even using heart emojis.

4. Comforting

Customer support often gets a bad rep. Customers anticipate long response times and unpleasant interactions. Flip customer expectations by giving your AI Agent a calming and comforting voice that can instantly fix negative experiences.

💡 Tip: Brands in the wellness and baby industry would do well to use a comforting tone of voice for their AI Agent.

Tone of voice instructions:

Our brand embodies the role of a nurturing parent, promoting happiness, growth, and well-being while creating moments of joy and inspiration. Stay genuine and reflect childlike wonder without being overly sentimental. We maintain a positive and supportive tone, offering a safe, comforting space. Avoid admitting fault or apologizing. Be shorter in replies. Do not offer replacements. Do not give out phone numbers.

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a comforting tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:

Custom positive and comforting AI Agent voice
AI Agent is empathetic and understanding to a customer who is asking about stock availability.

5. Bro-y

Give your AI Agent a laid-back, “we’ve got your back” vibe that feels like chatting with a buddy. This tone keeps things casual, approachable, and like you’re ready to tackle any issue together.

Tone of voice instructions:

Sound like a gym bro. Speak casually and friendly. Be eager to help. However, do not go overboard with puns or stereotypical phrases. You may use the following emojis: 🤙💪🏋️ End responses with "Stay awesome,"

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a bro-y tone of voice responds to a customer asking about glove sizing:

AI Agent responds to a glove sizing question
AI Agent embodies your average bro and answers a customer’s question about glove size.

6. Punny

If your brand isn’t afraid to lean into humor and puns, this tone will definitely connect with your audience. Let your AI Agent use wit and clever wordplay to keep conversations lighthearted and customers smiling at their screens.

Tone of voice instructions:

Speak in bee and honey puns and use colorful emojis. Use at least one emoji per message. Keep your messages brief. Sign off with a different pun in every conversation. If a customer is upset or needs urgent help, avoid puns. 

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a punny tone of voice responds to a customer asking about suit sizes:

AI Agent uses bee puns to answer a customer
AI Agent uses bee and honey puns to reply to a customer asking about size availability. 

7. Bonus: Robotic

In all of our examples, AI Agent responses can easily be mistaken for one of your human agents. But if, for any reason, you want to change that by making your AI Agent sound robotic — it’s possible.

Tone of voice instructions:

Sound like a robot. Make robot sounds and puns. Use short, direct, and easy-to-read sentences.

How it looks in action

Here’s how an AI Agent with a robotic tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:

Custom robot AI Agent voice
AI Agent speaks like a robot to a customer.

Say it how you want with AI Agent

Like a chameleon, AI Agent adapts to your brand voice. Whether it’s friendly, professional, or a custom tone, you can be sure that every interaction aligns with your brand’s identity. 

With AI Agent on your side, you have the power to make each conversation feel authentic. Take it from Psycho Bunny’s Senior Customer Experience Manager Tosha Moyer who says, “The overall tone is good, and its responses are really excellent.” 

Ready to see AI Agent’s excellence for yourself? Book a demo and discover how AI Agent can be a permanent part of your team.

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Nik Sharma on Marketing's Biggest Secret

Marketing's Biggest Secret, Finally Revealed by Nik Sharma

By Lucas Walker
1 min read.
0 min read . By Lucas Walker

This episode’s featured guest is Nik Sharma, the CEO at Sharma Brands. He works with founders and executives of a wide variety of brands to launch their digital platform, develop an acquisition and retention strategy, expand their channels, and optimize their revenue. He has worked with big brands such as Bill Blass, Roc Nation, and Haus, and he is on the podcast today to discuss the importance of customer service.


Customer service is a brand’s frontline of defense. They are the first to know when something is wrong, broken, or if anything can be done better. By identifying the needs, concerns, and issues of the customer faster than anyone else, they can also fix or address problems before it gets any bigger and becomes damaging to the company. For example, when Nik was working with Judy, an emergency kit brand, there was an issue with their discount code. It simply was not working but no one knew until an online shopper got in contact with customer service. Immediately, the code was fixed and although Judy must have lost several potential customers during the mistake, they could have lost far more if customer service were not there to receive and respond to the matter.


It is important to keep the customer happy. If it is their first time ordering from a brand and they have a less than stellar experience, they are most likely not going to order again. They will not give any of the company’s second products a try, such as the more expensive purchases or subscriptions. That is why customer service is there to pacify the consumer and their issues, acting as a prevention method to any bad experiences. By offering even simple solutions from a technical standpoint, such as dealing with refunds or providing a shipping label, the customer is excited that the brand provided them with a solution.


Through this excitement and acknowledgement, an intimate relationship is created between the brand and customer. The customer feels valued as the brand understands and emphasizes with them. They recognize that they will be taken care of and as more customers begin to feel the same way, a community is built. Every company talks about wanting to build a community and all the strategies that it will take to do so, but the easiest and fastest way to accomplish that is by just having an efficient customer support team. Even a simple third-party logistics team can give a significant boost to a brand by providing front-line workers for customers.


It is not an exaggeration to say that customer service is the most vital piece of a brand. Nik has seen firsthand what good customer service can do and how much feedback, both positive and negative, it can receive. By offering world-class customer experiences, it can boost businesses to new heights and maximize profits. To speak to Nik and to get a further insight into the importance of customer service, he can reached via text at 917-905-2340.

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