Sales Channels

PalySales supports multiple sales channels. Each channel connects to the same AI assistant, so customers get a consistent experience regardless of how they reach you.

Available Channels

WhatsApp link on storefront: Even without a full chat widget, your storefront displays a floating WhatsApp button on mobile devices, linking customers directly to a WhatsApp conversation with your AI. See Web Chat for details.

How to Connect a Channel

1. In the left sidebar, click Settings
2. Click Channels
3. You'll see cards for WhatsApp, Instagram, and API/Webhooks
4. Click the card for the channel you want to connect
5. Follow the guided setup wizard (about 10 minutes for WhatsApp or Instagram)

How Channels Work

Every channel follows the same message processing pipeline:

Customer sends a message
  → PalySales receives it via webhook
    → Signature is verified (to prevent fake messages)
      → Your store is identified
        → Customer is created or matched
          → Message is saved
            → AI processes and responds
              → Response is sent back through the same channel

Key Concepts Explained

Webhook — a URL that WhatsApp or Instagram sends messages to. Think of it like a mailbox: you give Meta (the company behind WhatsApp and Instagram) your mailbox address, and they deliver messages to it.

Signature verification — every incoming message includes a digital signature. PalySales checks this signature to make sure the message actually came from WhatsApp or Instagram, not from someone pretending to be them.

Environment isolation — each channel connection is tied to a specific environment. If you connect WhatsApp on your development server, those messages won't accidentally show up on your production server. This is automatic.

Idempotency — if WhatsApp sends the same message twice (which can happen during network issues), PalySales automatically detects and ignores the duplicate. Every message gets a unique ID like wa_ABC123 for WhatsApp or ig_XYZ789 for Instagram.

Session Management

Conversations are grouped into sessions. A new session starts when:

• The conversation was previously resolved or closed, AND
• More than 24 hours have passed since the last message

This keeps conversation context fresh — if a customer comes back after a day, the AI starts with a clean slate while still having access to their history.

Subscription Enforcement

Messages are only processed if your store has an active subscription (active, trialing, or canceled with time remaining in the billing period). If your subscription expires, new customer messages won't receive AI responses.

Media Processing

All channels handle different types of media:

Handoff to a Human Agent

Sometimes the AI needs to pass a conversation to you or your team. This happens when:

• The customer explicitly asks to speak to a person
• The AI's confidence in its response drops below the threshold
• A handoff keyword is detected (you can configure these in AI Assistant settings)

When handoff occurs:

1. The conversation status changes to Waiting (visible in your Inbox with a banner)
2. AI auto-reply is paused for that conversation
3. You or a team member can reply manually from the Inbox in the left sidebar
4. To re-enable AI, click the Resume AI button in the conversation

Conversations and Messages — What's the Difference?

Your plan has separate limits for conversations and messages:

• A conversation is a session with one customer. One conversation can contain many messages.
• A message is each individual back-and-forth within a conversation.

For example, if a customer sends 5 messages and the AI replies 5 times, that's 1 conversation and 10 messages.