Sales Assistant Setup

4 min read · Updated June 2026

The Sales Assistant runs your Instagram drops for you — reading bids, replying to comments, and sending winners their checkout links. Here’s how to get it set up in three steps.

TL;DR

1. Complete Stripe onboarding so you can take payments.
2. Connect your Instagram account (and set your caption voice).
3. Customize your settings — bidding, Buy It Now, comment automation, and checkout.

Step 1: Complete Stripe onboarding

The Sales Assistant collects payment through Thryft Ship Payments (powered by Stripe), so finish Stripe onboarding first. If you haven’t set that up, see the complete Payments guide.

Step 2: Connect your Instagram account

Link the Instagram account you sell from so the assistant can read comments and reply on your behalf. This is also where you set your caption voice — the tone the assistant uses when it writes your post captions. More on that in How Captioning Works.

Step 3: Customize your settings

Open your Sales Assistant settings and set your defaults. These apply to every new drop (you can still change them per drop).

The Sales Assistant settings screen on Thryft Ship

Prefer to watch? Here’s a quick video walkthrough of setting up your settings.

Default sales settings

These control how your items sell. The Buy It Now options change depending on whether bidding is on:

Enable bidding by default — turn this ON to run auctions, or OFF to sell at a set price.
If bidding is ON: set your auction length (6, 12, or 24 hours), and you’ll also see the option to add a Buy It Now price — turn it on if you want buyers to be able to skip the auction and win instantly.
If bidding is OFF: there’s no auction, so you simply set a Buy It Now price and the item sells at that price.
Delayed BIN — also set here. When it’s on, a Buy It Now win is held until the drop ends instead of winning instantly (handy when a buyer might also win some of your bidding items). New to all this? See Bids vs. Buy It Now.

Comment behavior & automation

Auto-reply to bids — the assistant confirms valid bids and rejects invalid ones using your message templates.
Notify outbid customers — comment to let someone know they’ve been outbid so they can bid again.
Notify winning customers — comment to let the winner know they won, then DM them their checkout details.

Checkout & form settings

Payment deadline — how long a winner has to check out after winning (up to 24 hours).
Payment reminder DMs — automatically nudge winners who haven’t paid yet.
Checkout & form options — including whether to offer local pickup at checkout.

✓

You’re ready to drop Once payments, Instagram, and settings are done, you’re set. Next up: Create Your First Drop.

Common questions

Do I have to use bidding?

No. Turn bidding off and run fixed-price or Buy-It-Now-only drops instead.

How long can a winner take to pay?

You set the payment deadline — up to 24 hours after they win.

Can I change these settings per drop?

Yes — these are defaults; you can adjust them when you create a drop.

Stuck on setup? Reach out anytime — we’ll get you running.