2026 Research Report

The State of

Shopify Customer Service

An analysis of 558,780 stores reveals how poor customer experience is costing merchants millions

559K
Stores
66.7%
No CX Tooling
9.3%
Great CX
12hr
Avg Response
Scroll
$0B
Lost to poor customer experience
Every year across Shopify
Year-over-Year

What changed in 12 months

Data from November 2025

Stores Analyzed
2025
515K
2026
559K
+8%
No CX Tooling
2025
65.2%
2026
66.7%
+2 pts
CX Leaders
2025
11.5%
2026
9.3%
-19%
Avg Response Time
2025
14hr
2026
12hr
-14%

The edge: Only 9.3% of stores deliver great customer experience. Be one of them.

Where CX breaks down

Nearly half of stores still make customers wait in email purgatory

No CX Tooling66.7%
Incomplete Stack24%
CX Leaders9.3%
66.7% of stores have no CX tooling

The CX Maturity Ladder

Where does your store fall? Only 9.3% reached CX Leader status.

2

CX Leaders

Top 9.3%
  • AI-first support (<5 min response)
  • Live chat + email unified
  • Self-building knowledge base
  • Support as profit center
1

Incomplete Stack

24% 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

66.7% of stores
  • No dedicated support infrastructure
  • 12-24+ hour response time
  • $237K/year left on table
  • Paying full Response Time Tax

91% 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
Elite stores
1,664 stores analyzed
25.9%
from 30.7%
Top 1M
High performers
42,403 stores analyzed
20.4%
from 23.9%
Top 10M
Growing stores
350,630 stores analyzed
9.7%
from 12.2%
Top 50M+
Mid-market
164,084 stores analyzed
5.3%
from 7.5%
Top stores invest 2.8x 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
2025
$218K
+9%
2026
$237K

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

Only 9.3% of stores

How the top 9.3% treat customers

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

Response Time

12+ 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 9.3%

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

Metric
Bottom 91%
Top 9.3% (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)

91% of Shopify stores leave money on the table.

Garrio customers are in the 9.3% that don't.”

Market landscape

CX tool adoption across 558,780 stores

Klaviyo140,085
25.07% market share
Shopify Chat93,704
16.77% market share
MailChimp67,442
12.07% market share
Judge.me63,845
11.43% market share
Sentry50,584
9.05% market share
WhatsApp Business Chat50,405
9.02% market share
PushOwl40,381
7.23% market share
Loox26,633
4.77% market share
Klaviyo leads with 140,085 stores
91%
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

73%
Happy Customers
Questions resolved instantly
65% in '25+8 pts
+22%
Bigger Orders
Customers buy more when helped
+18% in '25+4 pts
3x
More Repeat Buyers
Great CX drives loyalty
2.5x in '25+20%

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 (2025-11-01) analyzing 558,780 Shopify stores via Wappalyzer technology detection. Response time benchmarks from HubSpot State of Service 2025. Conversion impact data from Harvard Business Review and Forrester.