Updated 27 September 2026. Every vendor fact below comes from that vendor's own documentation or pricing page, checked on that date and linked. We make Flowcall. It's listed first because this list is written for high-volume consumer brands, the buyers it's built for; its entry is held to the same standard, limits included.
An ecommerce help desk is support software that turns every customer message into a ticket with the customer's order attached, so human agents and AI can resolve order, delivery, return and refund questions without leaving the conversation. For a consumer brand doing that work at volume, the best one is the one whose AI works on the channels your customers actually use and can act on orders within your rules; which product that is depends on your store platform, your channel mix and who will build the automation.
Short answer
- WhatsApp, Instagram, email and phone, with the AI set up and improved by the vendor's team: Flowcall.
- Shopify-first brand that wants a self-serve tool: Gorgias.
- AI that completes order and subscription changes, with approval per action: Richpanel.
- Large team with a lot of phone support: Gladly or Kustomer.
- A broad platform your own admins configure: Zendesk or Freshdesk Omni.
- Heavy Amazon, eBay or Walmart volume: eDesk.
- Email-led team that lives in Gmail or Outlook: Hiver.
Who this list is for
This list is for the person who runs customer service at a consumer brand where most contacts are about orders: where is it, can I change the address, it arrived damaged, I want to return it, where's my refund. Customers write on WhatsApp and Instagram as well as email and chat, and some of them call. Volume is high enough that you're hiring for it, already running an AI agent, or planning to.
It isn't for IT service desks, B2B software support, or a small store answering a few dozen emails a week. If you run a smaller store, our guide to Shopify customer service apps is a better starting point. For how to run ecommerce customer service beyond the software (channels, policies, staffing and measures), see our main guide.
How we chose
We started from the tools that appear on the pages ranking for "ecommerce help desk" and added two platforms built for large consumer brands, Gladly and Kustomer, which most of those lists leave out. We then checked each product against six questions, using only the vendor's own documentation and pricing pages, on 27 September 2026:
- Channels, and where the AI works. A helpdesk can accept WhatsApp messages while its AI agent only answers email and chat. We list the two separately.
- Order context and actions on the ticket. Can a human agent see the order and refund, cancel or edit it without leaving the ticket?
- What the AI may do to an order, and under which rules. Answering questions is the easy part. Refunds, cancellations, address changes and returns are the volume, so we note how each vendor controls those actions.
- Phone. Native, an add-on or through a partner, and whether calls land with the customer's context.
- Who builds and maintains the AI. Your team in a builder, or the vendor's team. Over a year this matters as much as any feature.
- Fit for volume. Several stores or brands, ticket routing, and review of AI and human conversations.
We didn't test the products hands-on, and we don't compare prices: for each vendor we say whether pricing is published and link to it. Packaging changes often, so check the linked pages before you decide.
What we left out. Help Scout, Tidio, Zoho Desk and HubSpot Service Hub appear on many of the ranking lists, which recommend them mainly for smaller or email-led teams or for companies already on that vendor's CRM. That puts them outside this list's reader. AI agents that sit on top of an existing helpdesk, such as Fin (formerly Intercom) or eesel AI, are a different purchase: you keep your helpdesk and add the AI.
The nine at a glance
Flowcall, which publishes this list, comes first; the rest are grouped as ecommerce specialists, then consumer-brand platforms, then broad helpdesks. The numbers are for navigation, not a ranking.
| Messaging channels in the helpdesk | Where the AI agent works | Phone | Who builds the AI workflows | Pricing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flowcall | WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, email, live chat | WhatsApp, Instagram, live chat, email; Voice AI agent (beta) | Through Exotel, Ameyo, Ozonetel or Contaque | Flowcall's team, with your approval | Shared on a call |
| Gorgias | Email, chat, social including WhatsApp; SMS add-on | Email, chat, SMS, Instagram DMs, Messenger, WhatsApp (Shopify stores only) | Add-on for agents; AI call answering through a third-party app | Your team | Published |
| Richpanel | Email, live chat, Facebook, Instagram, SMS, WhatsApp | Not listed by channel | Through partners (Aircall, Dialpad, JustCall) | Not stated publicly | Published |
| Gladly | Email, SMS, chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp | Voice and IVR, email, chat, SMS, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp | Native, with IVR | Your team | On request |
| Kustomer | Email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram | Chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice | Native | Your team | On request |
| Zendesk | Email, web messaging, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and other social apps, SMS | Messaging, including WhatsApp and social; calls on supported Zendesk Voice lines | Native (Zendesk Voice) | Your team | Published |
| Freshdesk Omni | Email, web chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram | WhatsApp, web chat, Instagram, Facebook | Freshcaller, a separate product | Your team | Published |
| eDesk | Amazon, eBay, Walmart, email, chat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok Shop | Not listed by channel | eDesk Talk | Your team | Published |
| Hiver | Email, live chat, WhatsApp, Slack | Not listed by channel | Voice add-on | Your team | Published |
"Not listed by channel" means the vendor says its AI works across its channels but doesn't document which ones. Ask for a demo on your busiest channel.
The 9 best ecommerce help desks
1. Flowcall
Best for: Consumer brands with a high volume of order, delivery, return and refund work across WhatsApp, Instagram, email and phone, who want an AI Agent and AI Helpdesk that Flowcall's team sets up and keeps improving with them, including brands that want to start alongside their current helpdesk.
What it does well. Flowcall combines an AI Agent with an AI Helpdesk. WhatsApp, Instagram DM, email and live chat conversations arrive in one inbox alongside phone calls. When the same customer writes on another channel while their issue is open, Flowcall keeps it on the same ticket, with the whole history visible. The ticket shows the customer's orders, delivery, payments and refunds from connected systems: Shopify natively, and WooCommerce, Magento, Unicommerce and courier tools such as ClickPost and Shiprocket through configured connectors.
Flowcall's AI Agent runs the same workflows on WhatsApp, Instagram, live chat and email, and on calls through the Voice AI agent, which is in beta with select customers. Your procedures for returns, refunds, cancellations and warranty claims become workflows, and your rules decide what the AI may do: required checks, eligibility conditions and approvals must pass before a refund, cancellation or replacement. Each workflow is run against simulated customer conversations before launch and after every change. Automated QA reviews AI and human conversations on WhatsApp, Instagram, live chat, email and phone (from call recordings) for wrong answers, missed handovers and customers asked to repeat themselves.
Flowcall's team configures the workflows and builds the integrations they need, then reviews QA findings and policy changes and updates the setup; you approve changes before they go live. Flowcall can also keep Freshdesk, Salesforce or Sprinklr as your system of record while its AI creates and updates tickets there. For a head-to-head comparison, including running Flowcall alongside Freshdesk, see Flowcall vs Freshdesk.
Not the fit if SMS is your main support channel, you want a public help centre in the same product, or you sell mainly through Amazon and other marketplaces.
Pricing: not published; Flowcall shares pricing on a call.
2. Gorgias
Best for: Shopify and Shopify Plus brands that want a self-serve helpdesk and AI agent built around their store.
What it does well. Gorgias is built around Shopify. From a ticket, human agents can refund, cancel, edit or duplicate an order and change the shipping address (Gorgias: Shopify actions). Its AI Agent handles conversations over email, chat, SMS, Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, and can cancel an order, process a return or update a shipping address. Those actions are opt-in: you choose which ones the AI Agent may take and the conditions for each (Gorgias: AI Agent explained). Higher plans add revenue attribution for support conversations.
Limits. The AI Agent needs a connected Shopify store, with one AI Agent per store (Gorgias: set up AI Agent), so it's a weaker fit if your orders live in WooCommerce, Magento or your own order system. Voice and SMS are paid add-ons. Gorgias Voice is for your agents' calls; AI answering of calls comes through a third-party app, Consio (Gorgias: Voice, Consio). Your team sets up and tunes the AI Agent.
Pricing: published on Gorgias's pricing page, by monthly ticket volume, with the AI Agent charged when it resolves a conversation. We also cover Gorgias pricing and Gorgias alternatives separately.
3. Richpanel
Best for: Order-heavy Shopify brands, especially with subscriptions, that want the AI to complete order changes and to start with a human approving each one.
What it does well. Richpanel's AI handles address edits, exchanges, store credit, subscription skips and pauses, cancellations and returns, and connects to Shopify, Recharge, Loop and Skio. In its Copilot mode the AI drafts both the reply and the action and a person applies them with one click. Permissions are set per action, so order lookups can run automatically while refunds wait for approval (Richpanel: AI agents). The helpdesk brings email, live chat, Facebook, Instagram, SMS and WhatsApp into one inbox (Richpanel: helpdesk), and a customer self-service portal comes without an add-on fee (Richpanel pricing).
Limits. Phone runs through partners such as Aircall, Dialpad and JustCall rather than native calling (Richpanel's own comparison). Its actions centre on Shopify and Shopify apps; connections to other order systems are scoped per account. Its public pages don't say which channels the AI works on, so confirm WhatsApp and Instagram before you commit.
Pricing: published on Richpanel's pricing page, as human seats plus AI usage.
4. Gladly
Best for: Large consumer brands where phone is a big channel and you want each customer's history in one continuous conversation rather than separate tickets.
What it does well. Voice is built into Gladly, with a customisable IVR and no third-party telephony needed, alongside SMS, chat, email, Facebook Messenger and Instagram (Gladly: features overview). WhatsApp connects through the WhatsApp Business API (Gladly: connect new channels). Email is handled without a ticket or case number, and each customer's channels sit on one record (Gladly: channels). Gladly AI works on voice and IVR, email, chat, SMS, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, and its Action Guides can take action in apps like Shopify, with templates for Shopify order tracking and cancellation and for Loop Returns (Gladly: new to Gladly AI).
Limits. Pricing isn't published. Gladly is organised around one conversation per customer rather than tickets; if your reporting, SLAs and back-office handoffs are built on tickets, check how they map (this is our reading of its docs, not a documented limit). Your team builds and tunes the Guides.
Pricing: not published; Gladly describes an outcome-based model that charges for resolutions and assists (Gladly, August 2026).
5. Kustomer
Best for: Enterprise consumer brands that want a CRM-style timeline of every order and conversation, and AI agents on voice and WhatsApp.
What it does well. Kustomer includes email, chat, SMS, voice, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram (Kustomer pricing). Its AI agents work across chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp and voice, from the customer's full timeline: purchase history, past conversations and loyalty status (Kustomer: AI agents for customers). Human agents can cancel or refund Shopify order items from Kustomer (Kustomer: Shopify actions), and AI agents look up Shopify orders through a Search Orders tool (Kustomer: Shopify Search Orders tool).
Limits. Pricing isn't published; Kustomer says it doesn't post one-size-fits-all pricing, and voice and WhatsApp are billed pay-as-you-go on top. Your team builds the AI agents and their tools in Kustomer's AI Agent Studio.
Pricing: on request (Kustomer pricing).
6. Zendesk
Best for: Large, multi-brand support organisations with admins to configure a broad platform, especially if support covers more than ecommerce.
What it does well. Zendesk covers email, web and mobile messaging, social messaging, voice and text, and every request becomes a ticket (Zendesk: about channels). Social messaging includes WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger, LINE, WeChat and Apple Messages for Business (Zendesk: social messaging), and AI agents can be published to WhatsApp and other social channels (Zendesk: AI agent on WhatsApp). Procedures let an AI agent ask for information, check a condition and take an action in a connected system, on all Suite and Support plans (Zendesk: procedures). AI agents can also answer inbound calls on supported Zendesk Voice lines (Zendesk: AI agents in Voice), and the Shopify integration lets human agents refund and cancel orders from the ticket (Zendesk: Shopify).
Limits. It's a platform your team configures: you write procedures from your policies and test them, so budget admin time. AI on calls depends on your plan and phone line and carries extra connection charges.
Pricing: published on Zendesk's pricing page. We also cover Zendesk pricing and Flowcall vs Zendesk separately.
7. Freshdesk Omni
Best for: Teams that want a self-serve helpdesk with published prices and WhatsApp and Instagram in one inbox, and have the in-house skills to build their own AI workflows.
What it does well. Freshdesk Omni manages email, web chat, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram from one inbox (Freshdesk: getting started with Omni). Its AI Agent can take new WhatsApp, web chat, Instagram and Facebook conversations first and hand them to human agents (Freshdesk: AI Agent automations). In AI Agent Studio, teams build API actions that chain calls (Freshdesk's example fetches an order, then starts a refund) and can ask the customer to confirm before a sensitive action (Freshdesk: API actions). Calls come in through Freshcaller, with recordings and transcripts on the ticket.
Limits. Check which product you're quoted: Freshdesk without Omni covers email, Facebook and a basic web chat. Your team builds, tests and maintains the AI actions, and Freshdesk recommends testing write actions such as refunds in a sandbox first. Phone is a separate Freshworks product.
Pricing: published on the Freshdesk Omni pricing page. We also cover Freshdesk pricing separately.
8. eDesk
Best for: Brands that sell on Amazon, eBay, Walmart or other marketplaces as well as their own store.
What it does well. eDesk brings marketplace messages from Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Mirakl into the same inbox as email, live chat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok Shop, with phone through eDesk Talk, and connects to Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce and WooCommerce (eDesk: AI). Human agents can refund or cancel Shopify orders from the ticket (eDesk: modify Shopify orders), and Amazon tickets carry refund, cancel, partial-refund and edit-order buttons (eDesk: Amazon refunds and edits). Its AI agent is on every plan and replies or takes an action on your behalf, charged per outcome (eDesk pricing).
Limits. Plans are sized by how many stores and marketplaces you connect, and some channels, such as phone, can cost extra. eDesk doesn't list which actions its AI agent takes or on which channels, so test your top order requests. If you don't sell on marketplaces, much of what sets it apart won't apply to you.
Pricing: published on eDesk's pricing page.
9. Hiver
Best for: Email-led teams that want to keep working in Gmail or Outlook, or move to a simple standalone workspace, and add WhatsApp, chat and voice.
What it does well. Hiver comes in two forms: Hiver in Gmail, which lives inside your Gmail, and Hiver Omni, a standalone platform that works with Gmail, Outlook and other email providers (Hiver pricing). Omni brings email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice and Slack into one queue, with a customer portal and web forms (Hiver: omnichannel inbox). Its Skills turn your procedures into steps the AI follows: search documents, read attachments, call APIs, update connected systems, reply and escalate (Hiver: August 2026 updates).
Limits. Instagram and Facebook Messenger aren't listed on its omnichannel inbox page. Its Shopify integration shows order and customer details beside the conversation; the help article doesn't describe refunding or cancelling from the ticket (Hiver: Shopify integration). Voice is a per-seat add-on, and AI QA is on the top plan only.
Pricing: published on Hiver's pricing page.
How to choose: run one order through your shortlist
Demos follow the vendor's happy path. Instead, take one real, awkward order from last month and run it through every product on your shortlist, in a trial or a demo on your own data. Here's one that tests most of what matters:
A customer's order arrives damaged. She sends a DM on Instagram, sends photos on WhatsApp the next day, and calls two days later to ask about the replacement.
| Test | What to do | It passes if |
|---|---|---|
| 1. One customer, one issue | Send the Instagram DM, then the WhatsApp photos, as the same customer | Both land on one ticket, or merge in one step, with the order attached |
| 2. The AI on your channel | Let the AI agent take the WhatsApp message | It replies on WhatsApp and asks only for what it doesn't already have |
| 3. Rules before action | Ask for a replacement outside your return window, then inside it | It declines or escalates the first, and completes the second in your order system |
| 4. The call | Call as the same customer | The call opens with the photos and the replacement status, and its outcome is logged on the same ticket |
| 5. The handover | Ask the AI for a person | The human agent gets the conversation, a summary, the order and what's left to do, without asking her again |
Test 1 is the heart of omnichannel customer service: the customer, the issue and the order travel when she changes channel. If WhatsApp carries most of your volume, weight tests 2 and 3 on WhatsApp; our guide to WhatsApp for customer service covers what that channel needs.
Then ask every vendor three questions:
- Who builds and maintains this? Name the person, on your team or theirs, who writes the workflows, connects the order system, tests changes and fixes the AI when a policy changes. A self-serve tool puts that work on your team.
- How will we review what the AI did? Ask to see how AI and human conversations are checked for wrong answers, unauthorised promises and missed handovers, and how a finding becomes a fix. This is what AI quality assurance should cover.
- What does it count, and what does it cost in our peak month? Vendors charge by seats, ticket volume, AI resolutions or AI sessions. Ask each for a written quote at your normal volume and at your busiest month's volume.
If Flowcall looks like a fit, book a demo and we'll walk through these five tests in Flowcall. Qualifying brands get a free proof of concept on the service problem they most need solved, built with their team and tested before anything goes live.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ecommerce help desk?
An ecommerce help desk is customer support software for online brands. It collects messages from every channel into tickets, shows the customer's orders, deliveries and refunds on each ticket, and lets human agents or an AI agent resolve order questions without switching to the store admin or courier portal.
How is an ecommerce help desk different from a regular help desk?
A general help desk or an IT help desk is built around incidents and internal requests. An ecommerce help desk is built around orders: it connects to the store and courier systems, lets agents act on an order from the ticket, and covers the channels shoppers use, such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Many general platforms add this through integrations, so test the order connection rather than trusting the label.
Which ecommerce help desk works best with Shopify?
Most tools on this list connect to Shopify. Gorgias is the most Shopify-centred, and its AI Agent requires a connected Shopify store. If Shopify is your whole stack, our guide to the best helpdesk for Shopify goes deeper.
Do I need an AI agent in my help desk?
At high volume, most order questions (order tracking, address changes, cancellations, returns) repeat, so an AI agent that can act on orders takes real work off the team. Check that it works on your busiest channels and follows your eligibility rules before it refunds or cancels anything (see our guide to AI customer service for ecommerce).
Can I add an AI agent without replacing my current help desk?
Yes. Some AI agents, such as Fin, are sold to work on top of helpdesks like Zendesk. Flowcall can also keep Freshdesk, Salesforce or Sprinklr as your system of record while its AI creates and updates tickets there, through an integration built for your account.
Which ecommerce help desks support WhatsApp?
All nine on this list accept WhatsApp messages. Where the AI agent also answers on WhatsApp, the vendor's docs say so for Gorgias, Gladly, Kustomer, Zendesk, Freshdesk Omni and Flowcall; Richpanel, eDesk and Hiver don't list their AI channels, so ask.
