Ecommerce Support
Abandoned Cart
An abandoned cart occurs when an online shopper adds one or more items to their shopping cart but exits the checkout process without completing the purchase.
Average Order Value
Average order value (AOV) is the mean revenue generated per completed order, calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of orders over a given period.
Backorder
A backorder is a customer order placed for a product that is currently out of stock, with fulfillment deferred until the merchant receives new inventory — the order is accepted and payment may be captured, but the item ships at a later date.
Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS)
Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) is an omnichannel fulfillment option that allows shoppers to browse and purchase through a brand's digital channels and retrieve their order at a designated physical retail location, typically the same day or next day, without incurring shipping costs or waiting for home delivery.
Chargeback
A chargeback is a forced reversal of a payment transaction, initiated by a customer's bank or credit card issuer, that returns funds to the customer — bypassing the merchant entirely.
Conversational Commerce
Conversational commerce is the use of chat, messaging, and AI-powered conversations to facilitate the shopping and buying process — from product discovery and recommendations through purchase and post-purchase support.
Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue a merchant expects to generate from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship.
Order Fulfillment
Order fulfillment is the end-to-end process of receiving an order, picking and packing the items from inventory, and shipping the package to the customer.
Order Management System
An order management system (OMS) is a software platform that centralizes the tracking, processing, and fulfillment of customer orders — from the moment of purchase through delivery and any subsequent returns.
Order Tracking
Order tracking is the capability that allows customers and merchants to monitor the real-time location and status of a shipment from the moment it leaves the warehouse until it is delivered.
Post-Purchase Experience
The post-purchase experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a merchant after placing an order — including shipping communications, delivery, unboxing, and any support interactions — up to and including return or repurchase.
Proactive Support
Proactive support is the practice of reaching out to customers with relevant information or assistance before they experience a problem or feel the need to contact support.
Product Catalog
A product catalog is the structured database of all products a merchant sells, including titles, descriptions, images, pricing, variants, SKUs, and inventory levels — serving as the authoritative source of product information for storefronts, fulfillment systems, and AI support agents.
Product Reviews
Product reviews are ratings and written assessments submitted by verified purchasers of a product, displayed on the product page to inform potential buyers and build social proof. They represent authentic post-purchase shopper sentiment and are among the most influential factors in new shopper purchase decisions.
Promo Code
A promo code is a short alphanumeric string associated with a specific marketing campaign or promotional offer that customers enter at checkout to unlock a predefined discount, free product, free shipping, or other incentive.
Reorder
A reorder feature is a one-click or low-friction mechanism in a shopper's account or via a support interaction that pre-populates the cart with items from a previous order, enabling repeat purchase without requiring the shopper to search and re-select each product.
Returns Management
Returns management is the end-to-end process of handling product returns — including customer initiation, return authorization, inbound shipping, receiving, inspection, inventory disposition, and financial resolution (refund or exchange).
Store Credit
Store credit is a merchant-issued balance applied to a customer's account that can be used as payment toward future purchases at that store, typically provided as an alternative to a cash refund or as a goodwill gesture following a service issue.
Subscription Management
Subscription management is the set of processes and tools that handle the lifecycle of a recurring product subscription — from signup through billing, skip, pause, modification, and cancellation.
Upsell
An upsell is a sales technique in which a merchant encourages a customer to purchase a more expensive or feature-rich version of the product they are considering or have already chosen.
WISMO (Where Is My Order)
WISMO (Where Is My Order) is the single most frequent customer support inquiry in ecommerce, referring to any question a shopper asks about the current status or whereabouts of a placed order.
Quality, Trust & Experience
Agent Assist
Agent assist is an AI layer that runs alongside a human support agent, surfacing relevant order data, suggested responses, and knowledge base answers in real time so the agent can respond faster and more accurately.
Conversation Analytics
Conversation analytics is the structured analysis of support conversation data to identify patterns in customer issues, resolution quality, sentiment trends, and agent performance that inform operational and product decisions.
Human Handoff
Human handoff is the process by which an AI agent recognizes it cannot adequately resolve a customer's issue and passes the conversation — along with full context — to a human support agent.
Human-in-the-Loop
Human-in-the-loop (HITL) is an AI operating model where a human agent can review, approve, correct, or override the AI's actions at defined checkpoints in the support workflow.
Personalization
Personalization in AI support is the practice of tailoring responses, offers, and communication style to the individual customer using their purchase history, account data, and behavioral context.
PII Redaction
PII redaction is the automatic detection and removal or masking of personally identifiable information — such as credit card numbers, passwords, or government IDs — from customer messages before they are stored, logged, or used for AI training.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is the automated detection of a customer's emotional tone — positive, negative, neutral, or urgent — within a support message, used to route conversations, adjust response tone, and trigger escalations.
Support Quality Assurance
Support quality assurance (QA) is the systematic review and scoring of support interactions — by humans or automated systems — to verify that responses are accurate, on-brand, empathetic, and resolving customer issues correctly.
Tone of Voice
Tone of voice in AI support refers to the consistent linguistic style, warmth, and personality an AI agent applies to every response, reflecting the brand's identity across all customer interactions.
Voice AI
Voice AI in customer support is a system that handles inbound support phone calls using spoken natural language processing, resolving customer inquiries through conversation rather than keypad-based IVR menus.
AI & Automation
Agentic AI
Agentic AI describes artificial intelligence systems that exhibit goal-directed, autonomous behavior — planning sequences of actions, invoking external tools, and adapting based on results to accomplish complex tasks with minimal human oversight per step.
AI Agent
An AI agent is an autonomous software system that perceives inputs, reasons about a goal, and executes a sequence of actions to accomplish that goal without requiring step-by-step human instruction. Unlike a simple chatbot, an agent can use tools, query databases, and make decisions across multiple steps.
AI Chatbot
An AI chatbot is a software application that uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand customer messages and respond in natural language. Unlike rule-based bots that follow scripts, AI chatbots generate responses based on learned patterns and contextual understanding.
AI Guardrails
AI guardrails are technical and policy-level constraints applied to an AI system to prevent it from generating responses that are harmful, inaccurate, off-brand, out of scope, or unauthorized — ensuring the AI behaves reliably within defined boundaries.
AI Orchestration
AI orchestration is the coordination and sequencing of multiple AI models, tools, APIs, and data sources within a structured runtime to enable an AI agent to complete complex, multi-step tasks — deciding what to do at each step, which tool to use, and when to hand off to a human.
Chatbot vs. AI Agent
A chatbot is a conversational interface that responds to a single input at a time; an AI agent is an autonomous system that sets a goal, plans a sequence of actions, uses external tools, and iterates until the task is fully completed. Agents do, chatbots explain.
Conversation Design
Conversation design is the discipline of planning, structuring, and writing the interactions a conversational AI has with customers — including defining conversation flows, crafting prompts and responses, establishing error handling and fallback behaviors, and ensuring the AI's voice matches the brand.
Conversational AI
Conversational AI is the field of technology that enables machines to engage in natural human-like dialogue — understanding what a person says or types, determining intent, and generating a contextually appropriate response across text and voice channels.
Generative AI
Generative AI is a category of artificial intelligence that produces new, original content — text, images, code, audio, or other media — by learning the statistical patterns in training data and sampling from the learned distribution to generate outputs that are new but coherent with the training examples.
Intent Detection
Intent detection is the AI process of classifying an incoming customer message into one of a set of possible goals or purposes — such as "track order," "request refund," or "ask product question" — so the system can route the conversation to the appropriate response or action.
Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is a curated repository of structured and unstructured information — including FAQs, policy documents, product descriptions, and troubleshooting guides — that an AI support system retrieves from to generate accurate, verified responses to customer questions.
Large Language Model (LLM)
A large language model (LLM) is a neural network trained on massive corpora of text that learns statistical patterns in language well enough to understand questions, summarize information, generate coherent prose, and reason through multi-step problems.
LLM Hallucination
LLM hallucination is the phenomenon where a large language model generates confident, fluent text that is factually incorrect, unsupported, or entirely invented — typically because the model is filling gaps in its knowledge by producing statistically plausible but false completions.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence in which systems improve their performance on tasks by learning from data — identifying statistical patterns, relationships, and representations without being explicitly programmed with rules for every scenario.
Multi-Turn Conversation
A multi-turn conversation is a dialogue between a customer and an AI system that spans more than one exchange, where the AI retains and uses context from earlier turns to interpret subsequent messages, enabling natural, progressive conversations that build toward a resolution.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to work with human language — including parsing, understanding, translating, summarizing, classifying, and generating text — forming the technological foundation of all AI-powered customer support systems.
Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering is the discipline of designing, iterating, and optimizing the text instructions provided to a language model — including system prompts, examples, and constraints — to reliably elicit accurate, on-brand, and appropriately formatted responses for a specific use case.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is an AI architecture that enhances a language model's responses by first retrieving relevant documents from a curated knowledge base, then using those documents as context when generating an answer — ensuring outputs are grounded in accurate, up-to-date information rather than the model's static training data.
Semantic Search
Semantic search is a search methodology that retrieves results based on the conceptual meaning and intent behind a query rather than literal keyword overlap, using techniques like embedding similarity to match queries to documents that express the same idea even in different words.
Automation & Tools
AI Agent Builder
An AI agent builder is a software platform or toolset that provides the infrastructure and configuration interfaces needed to create, customize, and deploy AI agents — including knowledge base setup, tool integration, behavioral constraints, and escalation logic — without requiring teams to build AI infrastructure from scratch.
Answer Engine
An answer engine is a system that processes a natural language question, retrieves the most relevant information from a connected knowledge base, and delivers a direct, synthesized answer to the user — eliminating the need for the user to manually search through documentation to find what they need.
API Integration
API integration is the technical connection between two software systems via their application programming interfaces, enabling real-time data exchange and cross-system action execution so that a support tool can read from and write to external platforms like Shopify, shipping carriers, or payment processors.
Conversational AI Platform
A conversational AI platform is a software system that provides the infrastructure, tooling, and runtime to build, deploy, and operate AI-powered conversational interactions — combining natural language understanding, dialogue management, knowledge retrieval, tool integration, and channel delivery in a single managed environment.
CRM Integration
CRM integration is the technical connection between a customer relationship management system and other tools in the support or ecommerce stack, enabling bidirectional data flow so customer records, interaction history, and account details are accessible and updateable from any integrated platform.
Custom Actions
Custom actions are operator-defined functions or API calls that extend an AI support agent's default action set, enabling the agent to perform operations specific to a particular store's systems — such as applying a loyalty discount, pausing a subscription, or triggering a custom fulfillment workflow — that aren't available in the platform's standard action library.
Customer Data Platform (CDP)
A customer data platform (CDP) is software that collects customer data from multiple sources — purchase history, browsing behavior, support interactions, email engagement — and consolidates it into unified, persistent customer profiles that can be accessed by other tools in the stack.
Support Metrics & Ops
Average Handle Time
Average handle time (AHT) is the average total time a support agent spends actively working on a ticket — including reading, composing replies, and any follow-up — from when they first touch it to when it is closed.
Canned Response
A canned response is a pre-written, reusable reply template that support agents insert into tickets to answer frequent questions quickly — ensuring consistent language and reducing typing time.
Cost Per Ticket
Cost per ticket is the total support operating cost — including agent salaries, tooling, and overhead — divided by the number of tickets handled in a given period. It is the unit economics metric for support operations.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a support quality metric that measures how much effort a customer had to exert to resolve their issue, typically collected via a post-interaction survey asking customers to rate the ease of their experience.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a measure of how satisfied a customer was with a specific support interaction, collected through a short post-conversation survey — usually a thumbs up/down or 1–5 star rating.
First Contact Resolution
First contact resolution (FCR) is the percentage of support tickets that are fully resolved in a single interaction — no follow-up message, no reopened ticket, no second contact from the customer about the same issue.
First Response Time
First response time (FRT) is the elapsed time between when a customer submits a support ticket and when they receive the first reply — whether from an AI agent or a human.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a loyalty metric that asks customers how likely they are to recommend your brand to others, scored 0–10. Promoters (9–10) minus Detractors (0–6) equals the NPS, which ranges from -100 to +100.
Omnichannel Support
Omnichannel support is a customer service approach in which all contact channels — live chat, email, social media, WhatsApp, and others — are managed from a single unified platform, with shared customer history and context across every touchpoint.
Resolution Rate
Resolution rate is the percentage of support tickets that reach a resolved or closed status out of all tickets received in a given time window.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A service level agreement (SLA) in customer support is a defined commitment for how quickly tickets will receive a first response and/or be resolved, typically varying by ticket priority, channel, or customer tier.
Support Automation
Support automation is the application of AI agents, rule-based workflows, and integrations to handle support tasks automatically — including answering customer questions, routing tickets, applying tags, sending follow-ups, and processing actions like refunds or returns.
Ticket Deflection
Ticket deflection measures how many customer inquiries are resolved before they ever reach a human support agent, typically through AI chat, self-service help centers, or automated flows.
Ticket Routing
Ticket routing is the process of directing incoming support tickets to the appropriate handler — a specific agent, team, queue, or AI — based on rules derived from ticket content, channel, customer attributes, or priority level.
Ticket Volume
Ticket volume is the total count of support requests received across all channels in a given time period — day, week, or month. It is the foundational input for support capacity planning and cost forecasting.
Channels & Deployment
Chat Widget
An embeddable UI component, typically a floating button and popup conversation window, that adds live chat or AI support to any webpage without custom development.
Co-browsing
A collaborative browsing capability that lets a support agent view and interact with a customer's browser window in real time to guide them through complex issues or processes.
Email Ticketing
A system that converts incoming customer support emails into structured tickets with unique IDs, assignment tracking, status fields, and full conversation history.
Facebook Messenger Support
Customer support delivered through Facebook Messenger, using AI automation or human agents to answer questions, resolve issues, and follow up with customers inside the Messenger app.
Help Desk Software
A platform that centralizes incoming customer support requests from multiple channels into a shared queue with tools for assignment, tracking, and resolution.
Instagram DM Automation
The use of AI agents or rule-based bots to automatically respond to customer messages sent to a brand's Instagram Direct inbox, reducing manual handling at scale.
Live Chat
A real-time text messaging channel embedded on a website or storefront that connects shoppers with support agents or AI instantly.
Multilingual Support
The ability to receive customer support requests in any language and respond accurately in the same language — through AI translation, language-specific agents, or both.
SMS Customer Support
A support channel that uses two-way SMS text messaging to handle inbound customer questions and send proactive notifications such as shipping updates and delivery alerts.
Social Media Customer Service
The practice of handling customer support requests — questions, complaints, and follow-ups — that arrive through social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Voice of Customer
The practice of systematically capturing, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback — from surveys, support conversations, reviews, and direct input — to understand what customers need and where the experience falls short.
WhatsApp Business API
A programmatic interface that lets businesses send and receive WhatsApp messages at scale, enabling automated support, order notifications, and two-way customer conversations.
Support Strategy & Growth
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers who do not return to purchase within a defined window after their initial or most recent order. It is the inverse of retention rate and quantifies how quickly a brand is losing its installed customer base.
Contact Center
A contact center is a centralized business function — or outsourced operation — that manages customer communications across multiple channels including phone, live chat, email, SMS, and social media, using technology platforms and trained agents to handle inbound and outbound customer interactions at scale.
Customer Experience
Customer experience (CX) is the holistic impression a customer forms across all interactions with a brand — spanning discovery, purchase, fulfillment, product use, and support — that shapes their overall perception, loyalty, and likelihood to recommend the brand to others.
Customer Health Score
A customer health score is a composite metric that aggregates behavioral signals — purchase frequency, recency, average order value, support history, email engagement, and product return rate — into a single indicator of how likely a customer is to continue purchasing or to churn.
Customer Journey
The customer journey is the end-to-end sequence of interactions a customer has with a brand, spanning awareness, consideration, purchase, delivery, post-purchase experience, and repurchase decisions. Mapping this journey reveals where experience gaps create churn risk.
Customer Onboarding
Customer onboarding is the structured process of guiding new customers through the steps needed to successfully receive, set up, and derive value from a product — typically through automated email sequences, in-package inserts, and proactive support touchpoints in the days following a first purchase.
Customer Retention
Customer retention is the ongoing capacity of a business to keep customers returning for repeat purchases rather than defecting to competitors. It is measured as the percentage of customers from a given period who continue purchasing within a defined timeframe.
Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is the process of dividing a customer base into distinct groups based on shared characteristics — such as purchase frequency, lifetime value, product affinity, or support history — in order to deliver differentiated experiences, communications, or service levels to each group.
Customer Service
Customer service is the totality of support, assistance, and communication a business provides to shoppers at every stage of the buying journey — from pre-purchase questions through post-delivery follow-up — with the goal of meeting customer needs and building long-term loyalty.
Customer Success
Customer success is the proactive, outcome-focused discipline of ensuring customers achieve the results they expected when they purchased a product — going beyond reactive support to anticipate needs, guide product use, and intervene before problems cause churn.
Customer Support Outsourcing
Customer support outsourcing is the practice of contracting a third-party organization — a business process outsourcer (BPO), specialist support agency, or freelance team — to handle some or all of a brand's customer service operations on its behalf, typically to manage volume, extend coverage hours, or reduce cost.
Self-Service Portal
A self-service portal is a customer-facing web interface that enables shoppers to independently resolve common post-purchase issues — including order tracking, return initiation, exchange requests, and account management — without initiating a support conversation.
Support Agent
A support agent is an individual — or AI system — responsible for receiving customer inquiries, diagnosing issues, and delivering resolutions on behalf of a brand, across one or more communication channels such as chat, email, or phone.
Support Coverage
Support coverage is the measure of how completely a customer service operation is available to receive and respond to customer contacts — defined by the hours of availability, channels monitored, response time commitments, and languages supported — relative to when and how customers actually reach out.
Support Ticket
A support ticket is a discrete, trackable record of a single customer issue or request — containing the customer's message, their contact and order information, the interaction history, and the current resolution status — that progresses through a defined workflow from creation to closure.
Support Tiers
Support tiers are a structured hierarchy of service levels — typically Tier 0 (self-service), Tier 1 (frontline agents or AI), Tier 2 (specialist agents), and Tier 3 (technical or escalation specialists) — designed to match each issue's complexity with the appropriate resolution resource.
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