Where's-my-order emails answered before your first coffee
AI is good at answering the same question for the hundredth time. In a small online store, that question is usually where an order is. An AI helper reads each new email, finds the order in Shopify, and drafts a reply with the tracking link in it, for you to check and send. We work with a three-person online skincare store whose founder now clears order emails in about twenty minutes each morning. Returns still go through by hand.
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Jobs an AI helper takes off a small online store
Order status replies
Each where's-my-order email gets a drafted reply with the tracking link from Shopify already in it.
Product questions
Questions about ingredients, sizes, or shipping times answered from your product pages and policies, waiting for you to send.
Review replies
Thank-you replies to reviews drafted in your voice, with anything negative passed to you untouched.
Wholesale enquiries
Stockist enquiries sorted from the rest and answered with your wholesale terms, for you to follow up.
Where an online store’s week goes
Running a small online store means the inbox never empties. Most emails ask where a parcel is. Each answer means opening Shopify, finding the order, copying the tracking link, and writing something friendly. Then there are product questions, reviews to reply to, and the odd wholesale enquiry buried among them. The founder often clears it all at night, after packing orders all day.
What an AI helper does
An AI helper (the industry calls it an agent) is AI set up to do one job the same way every time. For an online store, the first job is usually order emails. We connect it to your inbox and your store. When an email arrives, the AI helper works out what the customer wants, looks up their order in Shopify, and drafts a reply with the tracking link already in it. You read the draft, change anything that needs it, and send.
A skincare store’s inbox
We work with a three-person online skincare store where the founder spent most evenings on order emails. About half of them asked where a parcel was. Our first version sent the simple replies on its own. Then it answered a customer whose jar had arrived broken with a cheerful tracking link, so we switched that off and every reply now waits for a person. The founder now clears the order emails in about twenty minutes each morning, instead of across the evening.
What it won’t do
Returns still go through by hand, because each one needs a call about the product. The AI helper also can’t see what a courier hasn’t updated, so a parcel stuck in a depot still needs you to ring someone. And a customer who’s upset gets a person, every time.
If “where’s my order” is the email you could answer in your sleep, get your AI Starter Plan and you won’t need to be awake for it.
Related
Read about our AI helpers service, and how we help small teams in e-commerce.
Small teams we work with
How a three-person online skincare store clears its order emails in about 20 minutes a morning
How Harbour Lane Property cut listing copy from about 3 hours to about 40 minutes
How a solo brow and lash artist answers Instagram booking questions mid-appointment
Common questions
Can it send replies on its own?
Does it work with WooCommerce or Squarespace?
What about returns and complaints?
What does it cost?
Do we need Zendesk or a help desk?
Get your evenings back from the order inbox
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