Customize Shopify Inbox chat settings and appearance
You can customize the appearance of the chat for your online store, and configure whether customers need to sign in before chatting with your staff. To change the questions that your customers can select in the chat, refer to Set up instant answers for Shopify Inbox.
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Customer sign-in setting
Shopify Inbox includes a Require sign-in to chat with staff setting. When this setting is turned on, customers must sign in to their customer account before they can chat with your staff. Signing in confirms that the customer owns the email address that they chat from. This adds a step for your customers, but it helps protect them from someone using an email address that they don't own. It also means that you can rely on the contact details in a conversation.
For stores that use new customer accounts, Require sign-in to chat with staff is turned on by default unless you already saved a preference. For stores that use legacy customer accounts, Inbox displays Customer pre-chat form and the equivalent Require contact information to chat with staff setting.
The setting available to you depends on your customer account type:
- New customer accounts: In the Chat settings section, click Require customer sign-in to manage Require sign-in to chat with staff.
- Legacy customer accounts: In the Chat settings section, click Customer pre-chat form to manage Require contact information to chat with staff. This setting asks customers for their name and email address rather than requiring sign-in.
Two separate requirements affect what customers can do in chat:
- The customer sign-in setting: You control this setting. Customers can chat with the Inbox agent without signing in. If the conversation moves to your staff and you require customer sign-in, then the customer must sign in before messaging your staff. This requirement doesn't apply if you already captured their contact information in that conversation.
- Access to a customer's own account data: This requirement always applies, and you can't change it. Features such as order lookup require the customer to sign in, whether or not you require sign-in for staff chat.
Shop visitor conversations and customer records
On stores that use new customer accounts, a conversation that starts before the customer signs in is displayed as Shop visitor. Until the customer signs in, the conversation isn't linked to a customer record. It doesn't include an email address, phone number, cart, order details, or a link to the customer in your Shopify admin.
Requiring customer sign-in doesn't prevent customers from starting a Shop visitor conversation with the Inbox agent. The requirement is applied when the conversation moves to your staff. After the customer signs in, Inbox links the conversation to their customer record. It can display customer and order context, depending on your staff permissions.
On stores that use legacy customer accounts, submitting the Customer pre-chat form doesn't sign the customer in. Submitting the form finds or creates a customer record, links the conversation to that record, and updates the displayed participant name. The captured contact information satisfies the staff-message requirement for that conversation. It doesn't give the Inbox agent access to the customer's account data or order history.
Change the customer sign-in setting
Before you turn the setting on, review its effect on conversations that are already open. A customer who has an ongoing conversation with your staff and isn't signed in must sign in before they can send another message, unless you already captured their contact information in that conversation. Contact information that was already captured stays associated with the conversation, and it meets the sign-in requirement for that conversation.
You can change this setting at any time. Changing it doesn't delete existing Inbox conversations or captured customer or contact records.
If your store uses new customer accounts, then you can't turn the sign-in requirement on while your store's sign-in links are hidden. Turn on sign-in links in your customer accounts settings first. If the requirement is already on when you hide your sign-in links, then it stays on, and you can still turn it off. Stores that use legacy customer accounts aren't affected, because the Customer pre-chat form asks customers for their contact information rather than a sign-in.
Steps:
New customer accounts
From your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Inbox.
Click Overview.
In the Chat settings section, click Require customer sign-in.
Turn Require sign-in to chat with staff on or off.
Click Done.
Legacy customer accounts
From your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Inbox.
Click Overview.
In the Chat settings section, click Customer pre-chat form.
Turn Require contact information to chat with staff on or off.
Click Done.
Marketing opt-in
Your Require customer sign-in or Customer pre-chat form settings also include a Show marketing opt-in toggle. When it's turned on, customers can choose to receive promotional emails from your store when they start a conversation with your staff.
This setting is separate from the customer sign-in requirement. You can turn it on whether or not you require customers to sign in or provide contact information. It's available to stores that use new customer accounts or legacy customer accounts.
You can also edit the default message that's displayed with the opt-in. Your message can't be empty, and it can be up to 100 characters long.
To change this setting from Chat settings on the Inbox Overview, use the steps for your customer account type.
Steps:
New customer accounts
From your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Inbox.
Click Overview.
In the Chat settings section, click Require customer sign-in.
Turn Show marketing opt-in on.
Optional: in Marketing opt-in message, replace the default message with your own.
Click Done.
Legacy customer accounts
From your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Inbox.
Click Overview.
In the Chat settings section, click Customer pre-chat form.
Turn Show marketing opt-in on.
Optional: in Marketing opt-in message, replace the default message with your own.
Click Done.
Turn on online store chat
From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store.
Click Edit theme next to the theme that you want to edit.
Select App embeds, and then select Online store chat.
Turn on Online store chat.
Click Save.
Add a profile picture
You can personalize your online store chat appearance by adding a profile picture to Shopify Inbox. Your Shopify Inbox avatar uses the picture from your account settings. You can change your profile picture by updating your account details in your Shopify profile.
Steps:
- From Shopify Inbox, go to Settings > Message preferences.
- In the Avatar section, select Use admin profile picture.
Customize your brand, chat button, and greeting message
You can customize the chat's design, including its color, typography, activator button, and activator button position, in addition to the greeting message that is displayed when your staff handle conversations. If your Inbox agent is turned on and assigned to conversations, then the greeting message is still managed in the theme editor. If you leave it blank, then an automatic greeting is displayed based on your store name and whether the customer is signed in.
The updated chat defaults to a white background with black text. Your existing position carries over, so the chat stays in the same corner of the screen. You can personalize the chat from your theme editor.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store.
Click Edit theme next to the theme that you want to edit.
Select App embeds, and then select Online store chat.
Do any of the following:
- In the Colors section, set the Background and Font color by selecting a color or entering a hexadecimal code.
- In the Activator section, select an Icon and Label for the chat button, and set its Horizontal position and Vertical position on your online store.
- In the Typography section, choose whether the chat inherits its font from your theme.
- In the Borders section, adjust the Border radius to change how rounded the chat's corners are.
- Turn on Show featured products to display products on the chat's empty state, then select the products to feature.
- In the Greeting message text box, enter the message that you want to display to customers.
Click Save.
Troubleshooting customer sign-in issues
Review the following common issues for customer sign-in with Shopify Inbox:
Troubleshoot a missing customer sign-in setting
The Require customer sign-in option applies to stores that use new customer accounts.
If your store uses legacy customer accounts, then the Chat settings section includes Customer pre-chat form. Click Customer pre-chat form to manage Require contact information to chat with staff. This setting asks customers for their name and email address before they chat with your staff, and it's the equivalent of the customer sign-in setting.
Troubleshoot missing customer details in a Shop visitor conversation
On stores that use new customer accounts, a conversation from a customer who isn't signed in isn't linked to a customer record. The conversation is displayed as Shop visitor in your conversation list and conversation header. This happens whether or not you require customer sign-in, because customers chat with the Inbox agent without signing in.
In the conversation's profile panel, the customer is identified as a Visitor, with an explanation that no information is available because they're not yet a Shopify customer. The panel doesn't include an email address, phone number, cart, order details, or a Manage link to a customer in your Shopify admin. After the customer signs in, the conversation is linked to their customer record. Refer to the customer sign-in setting for what a conversation includes after sign-in.
On stores that use legacy customer accounts, submitting the Customer pre-chat form doesn't sign the customer in. It finds or creates a customer record, links the conversation to that record, and updates the displayed participant name.
On stores that use new customer accounts, turn on Require sign-in to chat with staff. Customers must then confirm that they own the email address that they chat from. Order lookup and other features that use a customer's own account data require sign-in. This applies whether or not you require sign-in for staff chat.
Troubleshoot not being able to reach a customer after they leave your store
When a customer is on your store, your replies are sent in the chat window. After a customer leaves your store, later staff replies are sent by email only if the conversation has an email address available.
Requiring sign-in usually creates that email connection, but it isn't a guarantee. A customer record can have no email address, a customer can unsubscribe, or delivery can fail. If you don't require sign-in and the customer doesn't sign in, then you can't email them after they leave. On stores that use new customer accounts, a customer can start a chat without signing in. They can still choose to sign in so that they receive later replies by email.
To make an email connection available in most conversations, turn on the applicable customer sign-in or contact-information setting.
Troubleshoot a customer who can't send messages to your staff
On stores that use new customer accounts, a customer must sign in before messaging your staff. This applies when Require sign-in to chat with staff is turned on. On stores that use legacy customer accounts, a customer must submit their name and email address before messaging your staff. This applies when Require contact information to chat with staff is turned on. These requirements apply to conversations that were already open when you turned the setting on, unless you already captured the customer's contact information.
The customer must complete the applicable requirement to continue the conversation. You can also turn the setting off, which lets customers message your staff without signing in or providing contact information. To review how the setting affects open conversations and how to turn it on or off, refer to Change the customer sign-in setting.
Conversations that the Inbox agent handles aren't affected.
If these steps don't resolve the issue, then contact Shopify Support. Provide your store's customer account type and whether the applicable sign-in or contact-information setting is turned on. Also specify whether your staff or your Inbox agent handled the conversation.