2025 Research Report

The State of

Shopify Customer Service

An analysis of 515K stores reveals the support crisis costing merchants billions

515K
Stores
65.2%
No CX Tooling
11.5%
CX Leaders
14hr
Avg Response
Scroll
$0B
Lost to slow customer service
Every year across Shopify
Year-over-Year

What changed in 12 months

Comparing November 2023 to November 2024

Stores Analyzed
2024
457K
2025
515K
+13%
No CX Tooling
2024
63.7%
2025
65.2%
+2 pts
CX Leaders
2024
13.8%
2025
11.5%
-17%
Avg Response Time
2024
16hr
2025
14hr
-13%

The edge: Only 11.5% of stores deliver great customer experience. Be one of them.

Where CX breaks down

Over half of stores still make customers wait in email purgatory

No CX Tooling65.2%
Incomplete Stack23.3%
CX Leaders11.5%
65.2% of stores have no CX tooling

The CX Maturity Ladder

Where does your store fall? Only 11.5% reached CX Leader status in 2025.

2

CX Leaders

Top 11.5% from 13.8%
  • AI-first support (<5 min response)
  • Live chat + email unified
  • Self-building knowledge base
  • Support as profit center
1

Incomplete Stack

23.3% of stores
  • Help desk installed, manual responses
  • 4-12 hour response time
  • Still losing revenue to slow support
  • No revenue attribution
0

No CX Tooling

65.2% of stores from 63.7%
  • No dedicated support infrastructure
  • 12-24+ hour response time
  • $218K/year left on table
  • Paying full Response Time Tax

89% of Shopify stores are stuck at Level 0-1. The opportunity is massive.

Success leaves clues

The best stores invest more in customer experience

Top 100K
Top stores
1K stores
30.7%
from 32%
Top 1M
Growing stores
34K stores
23.9%
from 26.2%
Top 10M
Rising merchants
317K stores
12.2%
from 14.5%
Top 50M+
All stores
163K stores
7.5%
from 9.6%
Top stores invest 5x more in customer experience
They know every customer interaction is a chance to build loyalty

The Response Time Tax

Conversion rate change based on response speed

Under 5 min
+21%
Under 1 hour
+12%
1-4 hours
+4%
4-24 hours
0%
Over 24 hours
-8%
For a $600K/year store
$0K
Left on the table each year
Revenue lost when customers don't feel valued
2024
$198K
+10%
2025
$218K

Every year you wait, you lose more to competitors who move faster

Up from 13.8% in 2024

How the top 11.5% treat customers

They turn every interaction into loyalty, repeat purchases, and referrals

Response Time

14+ hours waiting
Under 5 minutes

Support Channels

Email inbox chaos
Unified dashboard

Coverage

Business hours only
24/7 managed support

Revenue Impact

Support as cost center
Support drives sales

Voice of Customer

Feedback lost in threads
Insights & reviews captured

Pre-sale Questions

Lost opportunities
Converted to orders
Garrio Customers

Join the Top 11.5%

Garrio customers don't just improve—they join the elite tier of Shopify stores.

Metric
Bottom 94%
Top 6% (Garrio)
Response Time
12+ hours
<5 minutes
AI Coverage
0%
80%+
Revenue Attribution
None
Full tracking
Knowledge Base
Manual (out of date)
Automated (always fresh)
CX Maturity
Level 0-1
Level 2 (CX Leaders)

“94% of Shopify stores leave money on the table.

Garrio customers are in the 6% that don't.”

Market landscape

CX tool adoption across 515K stores

Klaviyo127,351
+16% YoY
Judge.me98,040
+139% YoY
Shopify Chat95,240
+10% YoY
MailChimp74,506
-2% YoY
Sentry46,194
+84% YoY
WhatsApp Business Chat38,811
+42% YoY
PushOwl36,742
+135% YoY
Loox26,430
+4% YoY
89%
of stores are frustrating their customers
Great CX is rare. Be the store customers rave about.

What great CX delivers

Stores that prioritize customer experience see dramatically better outcomes

65%
Happy Customers
Questions resolved instantly
58% in '24+7 pts
+18%
Bigger Orders
Customers buy more when helped
+14% in '24+4 pts
2.5x
More Repeat Buyers
Great CX drives loyalty
2.1x in '24+19%

Your customers deserve better

Every customer question is a chance to build loyalty. Every fast response earns a repeat buyer. Every great interaction becomes a referral.

Stop losing customers to poor experience.

Definitions: “Support tools adoption” refers to stores with detectable customer service software (live chat, helpdesk, or ticketing systems). We use this as a proxy for CX investment, as merchants who install dedicated support infrastructure demonstrate commitment to customer experience beyond basic email.

Methodology: Data from HTTP Archive (November 2024) analyzing 482,156 Shopify stores via Wappalyzer technology detection. Response time benchmarks from HubSpot State of Service 2024. Conversion impact data from Harvard Business Review and Forrester.