Notes on live shopping, conversion, and running an online sales floor.
Adobe's forecast puts mobile at 63% of online sales on Thanksgiving Day, and 57.4% across the whole holiday season. If most of your shoppers will hold your store in one hand, test the live call the same way: three taps, three counts, one thumb.
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Adobe's forecast puts mobile at 63% of online sales on Thanksgiving Day, and 57.4% across the whole holiday season. If most of your shoppers will hold your store in one hand, test the live call the same way: three taps, three counts, one thumb.
On Thanksgiving, 63% of online sales will be on a phone. Test your live call with one hand.
Adobe's forecast puts mobile at 63% of online sales on Thanksgiving Day, and 57.4% across the whole holiday season. If most of your shoppers will hold your store in one hand, test the live call the same way: three taps, three counts, one thumb.
At 75% of wholesalers, website orders are less than half the size of rep orders. Find out what the rep adds.
WizCommerce's 2026 benchmark finds that at 75% of wholesalers the average website order is worth less than half the average order a sales rep writes. The website wins accounts and volume, but the larger orders still go through a person. Here is what the rep adds, and how to check your own gap.
61% of customers prefer a human agent, but 69% of them would switch to self-service that works. Sort your tickets into three bins.
Verint's 2026 survey of 5,000 US consumers finds 61% prefer a human agent, yet 69% of them would use self-service that fully resolved the issue. The two numbers are a to-do list: three bins of tickets, and where the person belongs.
Canadians plan to spend 14% less this holiday, but only 5% less on gifts. Build the basket for that gap.
Deloitte Canada expects holiday spending per person to fall 14% to C$1,305, the lowest since its survey began. Gifts and gift cards are down only 5%. Entertaining and experiences take the cuts. Here is a short receipt on what that means for a Shopify basket.
B2B buyers split into thirds: in person, remote, self-serve. Which third does your store serve?
McKinsey's B2B Pulse finds buyers splitting evenly: about a third want in-person contact, a third want remote contact with a person, and a third want to serve themselves. Most online stores serve one of those thirds well. A 30-buyer tally shows which.
The median store answers in 6.3 hours, but by vertical it runs from 1.6 to 9.1. Which clock is yours?
Gorgias data on stores at $10M in sales puts the all-industry median first response at 6.3 hours, but the fastest vertical answers in 1.6 hours and the slowest in 9.1. A 5.5x spread means "average" is nobody's number. How to find the clock that belongs to your store.
B2B buyers ranked live chat with a real person ahead of a sales rep. Here is the whole table, from the bottom up.
In a 2023 Digital Commerce 360 and Forrester survey of 150 B2B buyers, live chat with a real person (45%) was used more than a sales rep (35%), while automated chat came in at 23%. The full ranking of eight channels, and how to check your own store against it.
Free-shipping orders are bigger at the typical store and smaller across the market. Which number is yours?
Metorik's data on more than 65 million orders shows free-shipping orders worth $123 at the typical store but $96 across the market, against $80 and $116 for paid shipping. Both are true. Why they split, and how to set a free-shipping threshold from your own orders.
87% of customers say AI support must offer a human. Four objections to doing it, answered.
Gartner's August survey of 3,566 customers found that 87% call a route to a human agent essential when a company uses AI. Four reasons support teams give for not offering one, each answered with the survey's own numbers, and a rule that settles all four.
Cyber Monday will pass $15 billion in one day. Here is who should be on your live call each day of Cyber Week.
Adobe forecasts $47.5 billion across Cyber Week, with Cyber Monday the first single day above $15 billion. Each day brings a different shopper. A day-by-day plan for who should be on your live call, and what they should know before the first question arrives.
Holiday sales will top $1 trillion, but more than half of the growth is price. Is your order value growing for the same reason?
Bain expects US holiday sales to pass $1 trillion, with more than half of the growth coming from higher prices. If your average order value rises this season, it may be price and not better selling. Three subtractions to run on your own numbers before you celebrate.
61% of B2B buyers prefer no rep. Here is one 14-minute session where she still asks.
Gartner says 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. Follow one invented buyer through a 14-minute session on a wholesale page and see the one moment where she still wants a person, and how to offer one without chasing her.
Halloween shoppers will spend $115 each, almost the same as last year. Here is how to win more of it.
The NRF expects $13.5 billion in Halloween spending, but $115.14 per person, almost unchanged from last year. Half of shoppers started before October and 47% use AI to plan. With Halloween on a Saturday, here is what to fix in the next 16 days.
A buyer arrives with an AI answer and a colleague waiting. Who is on your live call?
Forrester says a typical B2B decision involves 13 people inside the buyer's company and nine outside it. Gartner says buyers trust AI and sales reps almost equally to mislead them. Put those together and the moment for live help is narrow: after the research, before the order.
Wholesale orders run 7 to 21 times bigger. Is bigger the number to chase?
A 2026 benchmark puts median wholesale order value at $650 to $1,400 on Shopify, against $65 to $95 for consumer stores. Before you try to push that number up, three questions about the orders you already take.
Your wholesale buyer ranks suppliers before she writes to you. Where do you stand?
In the 6sense 2025 study, 94% of B2B buyers ranked their shortlist before contacting any vendor, and they bought from their top pick 77% of the time. For a wholesale seller, the decision is mostly made before the first message arrives.
Same $8,000 order, two checkouts. One of them loses the sale.
A 2026 survey of 550 European finance and procurement professionals finds that more than half met a payment option failure with a supplier last year. Follow one $8,000 wholesale order through two checkouts to see where it stalls.
Your B2B buyer uses ten channels to buy from you. Do they all give the same answer?
McKinsey's 2026 B2B Pulse finds that buyers use an average of ten touchpoints to buy, and that inconsistent information and a lack of knowledgeable support are leading reasons they switch suppliers. Here is what that means for one wholesale order.
Read your wholesale page the way a buyer's AI does. Note what it cannot find.
Deloitte finds that 38% of surveyed B2B buyers already use agentic AI to buy, while only 13% of suppliers have fully integrated sales systems. Read one product page line by line, as buyer software would, and see what it cannot find.
Buyers will place a $50,000 order online. Here is what they check first.
McKinsey finds that 73% of B2B buyers will now accept a $50,000 order placed online, up from 59% in 2022. Three common objections to selling big orders in a store, and what the survey says about each.
Four steps to a wholesale reorder, and where buyers stall in each
85% of B2B buyers say online frustrations have led them to abandon a purchase. Follow one reorder from search to checkout and see the question a buyer can get stuck on at each step.
B2B buyers want to serve themselves. They still want a person to check the answer.
Gartner found that 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience and that 69% still turn to a rep to validate what AI told them. Three numbers show where a store has to leave room for a person.
She spent 26 hours talking to a chatbot. Your shoppers will not wait that long.
A Toronto woman lost every Meta account overnight and could not reach a person, even after paying for support. Her story shows where a store's chatbot must never be the last stop.
Your wholesale buyers expect the online store to know what your rep knows
84% of B2B buyers expect the online experience to match the context their account team gives them. Here is what a rep knows that your store may not, and what to move online first.
Four in ten holiday shoppers start in October. Here are four you will meet.
Adtaxi found that 39.8% of US shoppers plan to start their holiday shopping by the end of October. Meet four of the shoppers arriving now, and the question each one brings.
Retailers now host thousands of product videos. None of them can hear a question.
41% of retailers now host 1,000 videos or more. A recorded clip answers the questions the person filming thought of. Here is what it leaves for someone to answer live.
Retailers are hiring fewer holiday workers. Who will answer your shoppers?
Retailers are planning one of the thinnest holiday hiring seasons in years. If your store is doing the same, settle these five questions before November.
Black Friday discounts will reach 30%. Here is what they won't fix.
Adobe expects holiday discounts of up to 30% this year. Before you match them, check what a lower price can and cannot do for the products you sell.
The shopper an AI assistant sent you still has a question
Shoppers sent by AI assistants arrive knowing the price and the competition. Follow one visit minute by minute to see where your product page helps and where it lets them go.
New season, new questions: get your fall products ready to sell
When the fall stock arrives, the questions change before the product pages do. Brief your team on the new range and fix the pages while the season is still young.
When your conversion rate moves and your shoppers do not
Shopify changed how sessions are counted this week, so the conversion rate moves on its own. Check what the number is made of before you change anything on the store.
The return you could have prevented
A returned order is a sale you paid for twice. Sort your returns, find the ones a clear answer could have prevented, and fix the page or the conversation.
When should your store be available for live help?
Live help only works when someone is there. Use your own traffic and order data to pick a few hours, publish them, and check what those hours produced.
Why shoppers abandon their carts at the last second
A full cart shows interest. Before offering a discount, find out what stopped the purchase and whether a clear answer could help.
Turn your support team into a service and sales channel
Your support team hears what makes customers hesitate. Give them the time and tools to turn that knowledge into useful buying advice.
Why some Shopify stores convert better than others
A polished store can still leave shoppers unsure. Clear product information and timely help make it easier to turn interest into a purchase.
Live chat vs video: which helps your shoppers buy?
Chat suits quick exchanges. Video can help when showing the product makes an answer clearer. Choose the channel around the customer's question.
5 ways to raise your average order value on Shopify
Help customers put together a more useful order. Test relevant bundles and well-timed recommendations, then check whether the extra revenue improves profit.
When a chatbot should hand the conversation to a person
Automation helps when it can resolve the question. A clear route to a person matters when the answer is uncertain or the customer needs more help.
What makes a shopper ready to buy?
Shoppers need to understand how a product fits their lives and what the purchase involves. Clear answers give them a reason to feel confident.
The cost of a question nobody answers
Analytics can show where a shopper left without explaining why. Make questions easier to ask, then use the answers to improve the page.
5 signs a shopper may need help before buying
Repeat visits and an idle cart can suggest an unresolved question. Use those patterns to make help available while leaving shoppers free to browse.
What is AOV, and how does it help your store grow?
Average order value shows how much an order brings in on average. Read it alongside conversion and costs to see whether larger baskets help your business.
How a personal recommendation can improve an upsell
A useful upsell starts with the customer's situation. An advisor can explain when a higher-priced option is worth it and when the simpler one will do.
The hidden cost of selling without recommendations
A completed order can still leave a customer missing something they need. Thoughtful recommendations help make the purchase useful from the start.
What shoppers need from online customer service
Clear availability and useful answers make service easier to trust. Help shoppers understand when they can reach you and what happens next.
How to coach your support team to sell with confidence
Product knowledge becomes useful sales advice with practice and clear expectations. Coach your team to understand the need before recommending the purchase.
Bringing the personal shopper online
Online shoppers can browse independently and still ask for expert advice. A personal shopping service gives them that option when the decision needs a conversation.
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