The median store answers in 6.3 hours, but by vertical it runs from 1.6 to 9.1. Which clock is yours?

Say your support inbox answers new tickets in five hours. Is that good?

Against the all-industry median in Gorgias's 2026 benchmark, 6.3 hours, you are ahead. Against a hardware store, you are not. The same data shows hardware brands at about 1.6 hours. The answer depends on which clock you hold your store against.

The average is nobody's number

Gorgias looked at stores around $10 million in sales across 14 verticals, using ticket data from its own merchants. Median first response runs from 1.6 hours in the fastest vertical to 9.1 hours in the slowest. That is a 5.5x spread. The page names hardware at 1.6 hours and apparel at 8.8.

A single median hides that. An apparel store that copies the 6.3-hour figure is aiming below a typical hardware store, and a hardware store that copies it is aiming slower than its own category already is.

Speed moves a lot. Satisfaction barely does.

Here is the part worth slowing down for. Across the same 14 verticals, first response time varies 5.5 times. Resolution time varies 1.5 times. Customer satisfaction varies by 0.2 points on a 5-point scale.

Do not read that as proof that speed does not matter. The page does not say why, and each vertical may have customers who expect different things. One plain reading is that shoppers judge a reply against what is normal for the category. A slow answer in apparel may sit closer to what people expect than the same answer would from a hardware store.

Volume differs too. Electronics brands see about 46 tickets per 100 orders and food and beverage brands about 20. A team that gets more than twice the questions per sale will not reply at the same pace on the same staff.

Where the gap is a person, not a queue

An inbox ticket and a question asked on a product page are different jobs. The ticket can wait hours because the shopper has gone elsewhere. The question on the page is asked while the product is still open.

That is where a live call fits. It does not replace the inbox. It answers the single question that decides one cart, in minutes, and leaves the slow tickets for the people who are not deciding anything today. The benchmark does not measure it, so do not expect it to show up in the median.

Find your own number this week

You need three figures and about an hour with last month's tickets.

First, your median first response, not the average. Medians ignore the one ticket that waited three days.

Second, your tickets per 100 orders. Compare it with the 20 to 46 range above and note whether you sit near the electronics end or the food end.

Third, your most common ticket. If one question makes up a large share, fix it on the page. Our post on what shoppers need from online customer service lists the basics worth checking.

Then pick a target from your own vertical, not from the 6.3-hour median, and write it where your team can see it. Review it each month, and ask customers whether the answer arrived in time rather than assuming it did.