London, 16th March 2021: Global online sales grew 27.6% in 2020 to reach $4.28tn [1] and the number of transactions needing customer support increased from one-in-eight to one-in-six [2]. In response, eCommerce customer service specialist eDesk is supercharging support for its 23,000 agents with AI advancements, expediting the company product roadmap.
Following the continued rise in eCommerce and associated increase in customer queries, eDesk is strategically positioning itself to meet the shifting needs of online sellers experiencing rapid growth by introducing a new batch of data-driven tools:
Smart Inbox
This automation tool interprets order data around customer issue types, streamlining them into filtered blocks of tickets for faster, batched responses. This is regardless of the channel – eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Shopify etc – they came through. Tickets are then automatically categorised, prioritised and assigned to the relevant support agents, speeding up communications and making management of increased enquiry volumes smoother.
For years, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! have tried to make it easier to manage email, but have yet to make any breakthroughs on productivity. By focusing only on eCommerce, eDesk is pioneering a new inbox, using structured data to organise retailers’ customer support and enable a step-change in productivity.
Insights
Provides one-click multichannel overviews of customer support volumes, orders and sales at speed, uncovering actionable insights for better business decisions. Product insights can identify relationships between events, such as understanding why refunds are being processed at a customer, agent or product level, enabling appropriate action to be taken. These insights come from the sharp end of online selling, enabling retailers to make real improvements to their service and overall profitability.
New UI
The platform has been reimagined to produce a UI as familiar as email, driving productivity and collaboration with clear workflows, so agents can find what they need quickly. The result is better oversight, productivity and efficiency across sales channels.
Unlike other helpdesk services, eDesk is purpose built with eCommerce sellers in mind – particularly those looking to grow at speed. A templates function provides a series of adaptable replies to common customer queries, while a translation feature enables businesses to scale overseas and communicate with non-English speakers.
Sennheiser, Superdry and CarParts.com are among the companies that have been using the tools to communicate with customers, embracing eDesk’s focus on Transaction Intelligence for better outcomes.
“At CarParts.com, providing our customers with a best-in-class experience and helping them get from point A to point B as quickly as possible are top priorities,” said Andrew Dingcong, Country Manager of CarParts.com. “During peak seasons, CarParts.com naturally sees an increase in customer ticket volumes. Integrating eDesk into our workflow has equipped us with a manageable, highly efficient platform to expedite how we service all of our customers’ needs.
“Now with this latest release, we can further streamline the way we deal with tickets by grouping similar queries together, meaning we can respond even faster. Coupled with eDesk’s new Insights tool, we’ll also be able to better understand how agents can guide purchase decisions, making customer support more effective and ultimately enhancing our ability to help customers get back on the road.”
Following this increased focus on customer support, eDesk parent company, connected eCommerce platform xSellco, is changing its trading company name to eDesk. The name change is in recognition of the importance of eCommerce over the past year.
Commenting on the update, Alex Payne, CEO of eDesk, said: “Online shopping has changed forever. Retailers that want to win in this new world need to offer excellent customer support and this latest release from eDesk offers the most powerful multi-channel helpdesk for growing eCommerce sellers.
“It combines accurate transaction and order data with AI-powered automations to transform how quickly remote teams can deliver five-star customer service, through automated categorisation and prioritisation, from one simple-to-use consolidated inbox. For anyone selling online in multiple places, eDesk already helped them save time. Now it’s gotten smarter too.
“Our goal is to empower businesses so they can operate using Transaction Intelligence, managing sales and resultant correspondence smartly with automated insights and metrics derived from the AI. This is achieved regardless of whether they’re selling on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Shopify or any of the 35 channels that eDesk has native integrations with.”
Building on his vision of where eCommerce is heading, Payne added: “As we launch the improved eDesk and further cement our commitment to online sellers, it’s the right time for us to start moving on from the legacy name of xSellco to eDesk. This is a brand that better reflects the advancing marketplace we’re deeply connected into, and demonstrates our commitment to our pure eCommerce focus.
“The eCommerce market experienced the equivalent of a decade of growth in just 90 days, according to McKinsey, demonstrating a significant shift in consumer habits. Even as shops prepare to reopen, we’ve seen that the retail space continues to change and recognise the power of eCommerce – the likes of Topshop and Debenhams moving to online-only is evidence of that.”
