Buyer questions: Ask about this item and replying

Buyers can message you from your website with Ask about this item on an item's page, or the Contact page. Each message is emailed to you and kept in People, where you can reply.

People is only for the shop's owner. Helpers can't see messages or reply.

What the buyer does

• On an item's page, they tap Ask about this item. The form is headed Ask about this item and names the item.
• From the Contact link at the top or bottom of any page, they get Contact and your shop's name.

They fill in Your name, Your email and Message, then tap Send message. All three are needed. They see "Thanks, your message is on its way. The shop will reply to the email address you gave."

Ask about this item isn't shown on sold items.

Where it reaches you

By email. Each message is emailed to your Shop email in Settings → Shop and helpers. If that's empty, it goes to the owner's sign-in email. A question about an item has the subject "Inquiry:" and the item's title. Other messages say "Website message from" and the buyer's name.

In People. The buyer is added to People, if they're not there already, as "Wrote in from your website", and the message is kept with them.

When someone has a message you haven't read:

• the top of People shows a card, like "Sam wrote in" or "2 people wrote in", that opens their messages;
• the Wrote in filter shows how many are waiting;
• their name in the list is bold, with a red dot.

On a computer, People is in the sidebar. On a phone, go to the More tab and tap People.

Reply from Lotmaster

1. Open the person in People. Their Latest message is shown, marked New if you haven't read it.
2. Tap Reply to open the conversation.
3. Type in the Reply by email box at the bottom and tap the send arrow. On a computer, Ctrl+Enter or Cmd+Enter sends it too.

Your reply is emailed to them under your shop's name, with their last message quoted below it. When they answer, it goes to your Shop email (or the owner's email), not into Lotmaster. Your replies show in the conversation, marked "Emailed" and the date.

If there's no Shop email and Lotmaster can't find the owner's email, it asks you to add your shop's email address in Settings first.

When they want to buy

A question sent with Ask about this item shows the item's photo in the conversation. If the item isn't sold yet, Record the sale to and the buyer's first name is under the messages. Tap it to record the sale with them already picked as the buyer.

Reply from your own email

You can also answer the email Lotmaster sent you. Replying to it goes straight to the buyer. That reply isn't kept in People.

From a person's conversation, the envelope button at the top opens a new email to them in your own email app.

If the person has no email

Someone added without an email shows "Add their email address to reply from here." with an Edit link. eBay buyers say "eBay doesn’t share buyers’ email addresses, so reply to them through eBay messages."

If buyers say the form didn't work

If your shop is paused, the website shows "taking a break" and can't take messages. If they see "The shop can’t take messages right now. Please try again later.", Lotmaster has no email to send it to: add a Shop email in Settings → Shop and helpers.

Related

• Your website: what buyers see
• Record a sale from a show, in person or elsewhere
• Publish your website
• Invite helpers and what they can do