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Replying to buyers and email address efficiency

 
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NerdHoarder



Posts: 5

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:15 am    Post subject: Replying to buyers and email address efficiency Reply with quote

Hello, still relatively new here. When we signed up for our ecrater store, we didn’t put much forethought into it, and just used one of our personal emails that we don’t check often. Now when buyers contact us through ecrater to ask questions, we have been replying from that personal email. It causes some confusion. Because of that, we have to introduce ourselves every time to make clear we are responding from our store and are not some random person emailing them.

We have tried to find a solution, and here is where it gets complicated. Ecrater allows 1) account email and 2) order email. We figured out that we can switch the order email to something else, preferably one that shares our shop’s name to solve the confusion issue when answering questions. But then which email will show up in the paypal receipt?

Paypal allows multiple emails attached to an account, and you can set one to primary. Do we have to make the shop email the primary for ecrater customers to see that in their receipt? But that will make all of our other unrelated paypal interactions use the ecrater shop email, which will cause confusion for other things.

So would it show in the receipt if we simply have the shop email attached to paypal without setting it as the primary?
Also is replying by email the only way to respond to customer questions? Isn’t their a message relay like craigslist uses?


Thank you for your help.
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NerdHoarder



Posts: 5

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In case my question was too long or complicated, let’s start with this question:
Does the email address you set in ecrater for orders (not the email you signed up with) show up in Paypal in the receipt? (Regardless of what you have selected as primary in paypal)
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I believe it's whichever address you have set as your primary in PayPal. Try bumping the business one up to primary and see if that gets the desired result. You can still log in with either. It's just that the primary one is what PayPal uses to ID you to others. PayPal doesn't look at what's in your eCrater account...only the contact info provided in your PayPal account. What's in your eCrater account is for eCrater's use.

I simply use Gmail for business emails. They're free and you don't have to worry about losing it when you change internet service providers (ISPs). Plus, you can easily set up email notifications on your smart phone so you don't miss ones announcing orders.
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, I just filled an order via PayPal and looked at my invoice. It shows "Payment Sent to", so, that would mean it shows whatever email you're receiving your funds at. As mentioned above, you can change your payment email address within eCrater and you can change your PayPal info without deleting any of your old info.

I changed the name of my business earlier this year and made all the necessary changes without deleting the email address I used ages ago to sign up for PayPal. I just made my new email addy (Gmail to match business name) the new primary within PayPal and directed eCrater to send my payments to that same addy. So, my PayPal invoices show the email I wish for customers to see.
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

By the way, I meant to ask...do you hoard nerds or are you just a nerd? The latter would be okay, but I'd have to question the need for hoarding nerds. LOL Very Happy Razz
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NerdHoarder



Posts: 5

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you so much for helping out, we really appreciate it! We followed what you suggested, and then experimented a bit on our own, but still can’t seem to iron everything out.
We have achieved that the orders and questions show up in the desired email address, but no matter what we do, we can’t get the payments to go through that email address. We delinked our paypal and then relinked it using the desired email. First it wouldn’t remember it, always resetting once we leave the page. Then we made sure it was set to primary on paypal, then delinked, relinked, then undid it as primary. Ecrater continued to show proper linked address. But orders still show on paypal going through the old address.

Another reason it is a problem is because we have a second store, with an accompanying email address. By making store A’s address primary in paypal, store A’s address will show up in store B buyer’s receipts and invoices, causing potential confusion. It’s like ordering from Macy’s and getting a receipt or invoice from Radio Shack.

Oh, and to answer your question - don’t worry, we don’t have enough room to hoard actual nerds over here. Even if we did, they are far too expensive to upkeep. It is best just observing them in the wild.
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't really help with your question, but I have used my personal email for both business and personal. I've been using it for too long to switch now. My email address doesn't show any relationship to my store. However, when I get an eCRATER question in my email, I answer it back using the reply button. At the bottom of my email, I have my signature and a little ad about my store and URLs to my different stores so it is very obvious where the email is coming from. As an example see below. All my friends and businesses see the same signature. Friends are used to it and it gives a hint as to other places a buyer might like to visit.

Moonwishes/XXXXXXXXX
8000+ New, Uncut Sewing Patterns! All sizes and styles!
Stores USA: http://moonwishesstore.ecrater.com
Christmas Store: http://moonwishesstore.ecrater.com/c/2058415/christmas-store
We also sell on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/shops/moonwishes
Blogs: http://sipandsew.blogspot.com/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/gailetesews/

As to your questions about your email for your store and whatnot, you can write to the eCRATER team. They don't bite and are friendly and helpful and in the years I have been here (many) I have never seen any response from them that looked like a canned response.
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, you don't get answers that don't apply from eCrater and they certainly don't blame you for all their problems. LOL
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A-Better-Way



Posts: 3363

PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wouldn't want the message email on the paypal account.

I got another email only for messages, the order shows up on it and it shows up on my other email as well.

Having the email name as part of the store name in my opinion is not needed at all because all they do is click a link and should not be confusing you at all. That is why you need a new separate email.
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VideoGamersCave



Posts: 7

PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2020 6:37 pm    Post subject: Which email address to use ---JUST A THOUGHT Reply with quote

One quick note before my thought...Please know that when you receive an email from a customer thru eCRATER, they're using the 'contact seller' link which gives the customer an innocuous vague email address like e7x-seller@ecrater.com (very overly simplified) so the customer doesn't necessarily know your personal email address, if that is what you are using, and don't just hit the reply button, because you might be replying to a "No-reply@ecrater.com" email address.
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MoonwishesStore
moderator


Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the receiving address is the 'no-reply' one, then I delete it and put the buyer's email in it instead. As I said, I have no problems with using my own email address to reply to customers.

What you will inevitably get a problem with is getting a question and they wrote down their email address incorrectly so it bounces back and they think we never answered them when not only did we but we might have spent an hour researching to give them a correct answer. Because of what I sell, mostly sewing patterns, I get all sorts of questions about sewing. I will answer them if possible so they remember me when shopping for a pattern as someone that knows sewing and patterns as opposed to the bookseller that describes the envelope to the finest detail but doesn't bother saying anything about the pattern inside, such as if it is in factory folds, uncut, even confirming the size. I think I would buy it from me and not from them. Very Happy
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SheilaDeesPostcards
moderator


Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

@ VideoGamersCave .. When a customer click the link to ask the seller a question, the email goes to the email address you have requested in your admin section which is also the same address where you receive your orders. The From: address for the email is noreply@ecrater.com, the To: address is your preferred address and the Reply To: address is the customer's address that they entered when they asked a question. If you click "Reply" in your email program, you answer will go to the address the customer gave.

The system does not "gives the customer an innocuous vague email address". However, the customer does not receive the seller's address until you reply to the customer. Once you reply, all communication is between the buyer's email address and the seller's email address. Problems sometimes arise when the customer doesn't type their email address correctly. Since customer's don't have accounts on eCRATER, we have to rely on customers entering their address correctly. If they don't, we have no way to contact them.
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