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Messaging Between Buyers & Sellers (Contact Seller / Ask the Seller)

Shipturtle provides a built-in messaging system that allows buyers to contact sellers directly.
This improves communication, reduces support load, and helps customers get answers faster.

There are two ways buyers can message sellers:

  1. Contact Seller from the Seller Profile Page
  2. Ask the Seller button on the Product Detail Page (PDP)

This article explains both methods, how to set them up, examples of how they work, and additional features like email replies and profanity filtering.

1. Contact Seller from the Seller Profile Page

This option lets customers contact a seller directly from the seller’s public profile page.

How to Enable It

Navigate to:

Settings → Multivendor Settings → Customise Website → Configure Vendor Profile Page Settings

  1. Choose the information you want to display on the vendor profile page.
  2. Enable Contact Us.

Once enabled, a Contact Seller section appears on every seller's profile page.

How It Works

  • The customer fills a message form.
  • The message is delivered to the seller inside their Messages section (B2C) or Chats section (C2C).
  • The seller can view, reply, and resolve the conversation.

Example

A customer is comparing different vendors and visits Seller A’s profile page.
They click Contact Seller, ask “Do you offer faster shipping?”, and seller replies from the dashboard.

2. Ask the Seller Button on the Product Detail Page (PDP)

(Requires paid add-on)

This option adds an Ask the Seller button on the product page, allowing customers to request information about a specific product.

Add-On Requirement

Before enabling this feature:

Go to
Settings → Subscription & Billing → Add-ons

Find Ask the Seller – $10/month → Add to Plan

How to Add the Ask the Seller Button

Once the add-on is active:

  1. Go to Shopify Admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize
  2. At the top, select:
    Products → Default Product
  3. On the left panel, open Template → Product Information
  4. Click Add Block
  5. Switch to Apps
  6. Select Customer Chat
  7. Drag and place the chat block wherever you want it on the PDP (recommended: below price or above Add to Cart)
  8. Customize appearance & text fields on the left editing panel:
    • Header text
    • Submit button text
    • Label & placeholders
    • Popup background color
    • Popup text color
    • Button colors
    • Text box settings (font size, rows)

Click Save and you're done.

Where Messages Appear

For Sellers:

  • Messages appear under Messages (B2C) or Chats (C2C).
  • Sellers can:
    • View
    • Reply
    • Mark as resolved

For Merchants:

  • Merchants see the same view as sellers, plus:
    • Ability to delete messages
    • Reply on seller's behalf

How Email Replies Work

Whenever a seller or merchant replies, the buyer receives an email at the address they provided.

The email contains:
“Click the following link to reply”
  • If the buyer messaged from the seller profile page, the email links back to the seller’s profile page.
  • If the buyer messaged from the PDP, the link takes them back to that specific product page.

This keeps the conversation in context.

Important: Set Up Your SMTP

To ensure emails reliably reach customer inboxes:

Go to:
Settings → Integrations → Email Configuration

Configure your SMTP (recommended: your domain’s official email provider).

If this is not set, messages may land in spam or fail to deliver.

Optional Add-on: Profanity & Sensitive Data Filter (Mask-It)

Shipturtle provides a Mask-It Add-on ($15/month) that filters:

  • Bad words
  • Phone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • External links
  • Physical addresses

This protects both sellers and customers from inappropriate or unsafe messages.

To learn more, refer to the Mask-It KB article.