# Answer customer chats and messages > Shoppers reach you two ways: live chat, which lands in your Inbox, and the contact form on your shop, which lands in Customers > Messages and your email. Reply to chats from the Inbox and to contact messages by email. Help Centre / Orders and customers - Updated 29 October 2026 Shoppers can get in touch with you in two ways, and each has its own place in your dashboard: - **Live chat** lands in your **Inbox**, under **Sell**. You answer there, and the shopper sees your reply in the chat while they browse. - **Contact form messages** land in **Customers > Messages**, and each one is emailed to you too. You answer them by email. To set up the chat bubble itself, see [Live chat on your shop](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/live-chat-on-your-shop.md). Quote requests are not here: they have their own list, see [Take quote requests and enquiries](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/quotes-and-enquiries.md). The examples use a coffee shop in Portland, OR, answering a shopper who asks whether the house blend comes as whole beans. ## Before you begin - The **Inbox** is part of the **Live chat** app, on every plan. New stores start with it on. If you don't see **Inbox** under **Sell** in the sidebar, go to **Apps** and click **Add** on **Live chat**, then switch chat on in **Settings > Chat**. - To see the Inbox, your staff account needs permission to view orders and customers. - Contact form messages need no app. They arrive once a page in your website builder has a **Contact form** section. ## Answer a chat in the Inbox ### Find the conversation Go to **Inbox**. The badge beside it in the sidebar counts open conversations with unread messages. Conversations are newest first, in four tabs: - **Open**: conversations still in progress. - **Unread**: ones with a shopper message nobody has opened yet. - **Closed**: ones you marked resolved. - **All**: everything. Use the search box to find a conversation by what was written, or by the shopper's name or email. While the Inbox is open, a new shopper message plays a sound, and shows a desktop notification when the tab is in the background. Use the sound button at the top of the list to turn the sound off or on. ### Reply 1. Click the conversation. It opens in the middle and is marked read. 2. Type in the **Reply to** box at the bottom. To send a file, click **Attach a file** or drop the file onto the conversation. 3. Click **Send reply**. Under each of your replies you see **Sent**, **Delivered** or **Read**. If a reply shows **Not sent · Retry**, click it to send it again. You can also edit a reply you already sent; the shopper sees it marked **(edited)**. At the top of the conversation, **Live** means the shopper has the chat open right now and sees your reply straight away. **Offline** means they have left: the reply waits for them to open the chat again. If they were signed in to a customer account, they are also emailed "your store replied to your message" with a link back to the chat. Your replies show under your first name, your full name or your store's name, whichever you chose under **Replies** in **Settings > Chat**. ### See who you are talking to The panel on the right shows what is known about the shopper: their location, device, language and local time, and whether they are online. A shopper who was signed in to their account shows as **Verified**, with their customer record: orders, lifetime value, recent orders and anything in their cart. Click **View customer** to open their customer page. Under **Notes**, type a note for your team and click **Add note**. Notes are internal: the shopper never sees them. On a phone, tap **Shopper details** at the top of the conversation to open the panel. ### When the AI assistant is answering If the AI assistant is switched on (see [Live chat on your shop](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/live-chat-on-your-shop.md)), it may already be answering. Click **Take over** at the top of the conversation to answer yourself; the assistant stops replying in that chat. Click **Return to AI** to hand it back. ### Finish or tidy up a conversation - **Resolve**: moves the conversation to **Closed**. **Reopen** brings it back. - The **More actions** menu on a conversation has **Mark unread**, **Export chat** to download the conversation, and **Ban shopper**. - **Ban shopper** hides the shopper's new messages and stops the AI assistant replying to them. They are not told. **Unban** reverses it. - In the list, the **Conversation actions** menu on a row has **Mark resolved** or **Reopen**, **Mark as read** or **Mark as unread**, and **Copy link** to share the conversation with a teammate. ## Get an email when a shopper writes You don't have to keep the Inbox open. In **Settings > Chat**, under **Response alerts**: - **New chat messages** emails your team when a shopper writes: one email per conversation until someone replies, however many messages they send. The email is headed "New chat message" with an **Open the conversation** button. - **Email the team about unanswered messages** emails once when a shopper has waited 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes with no reply. It is off until you switch it on. Chat emails go to the same people as your new order emails. ## Read contact form messages When a shopper fills in a **Contact form** section on your shop, the message is emailed to your order notification address and kept in **Customers > Messages**. 1. Go to **Customers** and click **Messages** at the top. 2. Each message shows the shopper's name, email, phone if they gave one, when it arrived and what they wrote. Below it you see the order number if they gave one, the page they sent it from, and whether they ticked your consent box. ![Customers > Messages: a contact form message from a shopper with their phone, order number and marketing consent, and its reply and delete buttons](https://v3.shoprocket.io/img/help/message-customers/contact-messages.webp) To answer, click the envelope beside the message. It starts an email to the shopper in your own email app. Or reply to the notification email you were sent: your answer goes straight to the shopper. There is no reply box or read and unread state on this screen. It is the copy that survives a spam filter or a teammate who was not on the email. Click the delete button beside it to delete a message you no longer need. Messages are limited per sender and per shop, and a hidden trap field drops most bots, so little spam gets through. ## Email a customer from their page To write to any customer, open them from **Customers** and click their email address under their name. It starts an email to them in your own email app. ## Related - [Live chat on your shop](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/live-chat-on-your-shop.md) - [Customers](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/customers.md) - [Customer accounts](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/customer-accounts.md) - [Take quote requests and enquiries](https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/quotes-and-enquiries.md) [Open the Inbox in your dashboard](https://app-v3.shoprocket.io/go/inbox) --- - HTML version: https://v3.shoprocket.io/help/message-customers - Language: English (en) - Also in: [العربية](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ar/help/message-customers.md), [Deutsch](https://v3.shoprocket.io/de/hilfe/kundenchats-und-nachrichten-beantworten.md), [Ελληνικά](https://v3.shoprocket.io/el/help/message-customers.md), [Español](https://v3.shoprocket.io/es/ayuda/responde-a-chats-y-mensajes-de-clientes.md), [Français](https://v3.shoprocket.io/fr/aide/repondre-aux-chats-et-messages-des-clients.md), [עברית](https://v3.shoprocket.io/he/help/message-customers.md), [हिन्दी](https://v3.shoprocket.io/hi/help/message-customers.md), [Bahasa Indonesia](https://v3.shoprocket.io/id/bantuan/jawab-obrolan-dan-pesan-pelanggan.md), [Italiano](https://v3.shoprocket.io/it/aiuto/rispondere-alle-chat-e-ai-messaggi-dei-clienti.md), [日本語](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ja/help/message-customers.md), [Lietuvių](https://v3.shoprocket.io/lt/pagalba/atsakykite-i-klientu-pokalbius-ir-zinutes.md), [Norsk](https://v3.shoprocket.io/nb/hjelp/svar-pa-kundechatter-og-meldinger.md), [Nederlands](https://v3.shoprocket.io/nl/hulp/klantchats-en-berichten-beantwoorden.md), [Polski](https://v3.shoprocket.io/pl/pomoc/odpowiadaj-na-czaty-i-wiadomosci-klientow.md), [Português](https://v3.shoprocket.io/pt/ajuda/responder-a-chats-e-mensagens-de-clientes.md), [Română](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ro/ajutor/raspunde-la-chaturile-si-mesajele-clientilor.md), [Русский](https://v3.shoprocket.io/ru/help/message-customers.md), [ไทย](https://v3.shoprocket.io/th/help/message-customers.md), [Türkçe](https://v3.shoprocket.io/tr/yardim/musteri-sohbetlerini-ve-mesajlarini-yanitlayin.md), [中文](https://v3.shoprocket.io/zh/help/message-customers.md)