Every Message the Sales Assistant Sends (and How to Change It)

7 min read·Updated October 2026

The Assistant talks to your customers for you — in the comments and in the DMs. Almost every one of those messages is a template you can rewrite in your own words. Here’s the full list of what gets sent, when, and where to edit it.

TL;DR

Everything lives in Sales Assistant settings, under Comment Behavior & Automation and Checkout and Form Settings.
Public messages go in the comments. Private ones go in DMs.
Most can be turned off entirely if you’d rather handle that moment yourself.
Tracking goes out by email, not DM.

The two kinds of message

Comments are public. Everyone looking at the post sees them, which is the point — they tell the room an item is claimed, a bid is in, or bidding has closed.

DMs are private, and go to one buyer. Checkout links, payment reminders and bag confirmations all travel this way.

Your voice carries through all of it. When a customer asks a real question, the Assistant flags it for you rather than answering — we don’t speak for you on anything that isn’t mechanical.

Public comments

When someone places a bid

Valid bid response — what gets posted when a bid is legitimate.
Invalid bid response — when a bid is too low, or lands after the item is gone.

If you don’t want the Assistant replying to bids at all, you can switch these off and move on without filling anything in.

When someone wins or claims

Confirm winner in comments — a public comment telling the customer who won or claimed an item that it’s theirs.
Notify top bidder when someone else claims Buy It Now — if an item had bids and someone else buys it outright, the person who was winning hears that bidding is closed.

Two separate winner comments if you delay invoicesWhen Delay BIN invoices until drop ends is on, bid winners and Buy It Now claimers get different public comments, because they won in different ways. A bid winner hears they won the auction and that checkout comes at close. A Buy It Now claimer hears the item is theirs and checkout comes at the end. Both have their own editable template.

When someone comments on an item that’s already gone

Next-in-line response — what the Assistant says to someone who comments Buy It Now on an item that’s already claimed. This now has its own on/off toggle, and it only replies to the person who’s actually next, rather than telling five people they’re all next in line.
Reply to comments on previously sold items — for comments that land on something marked sold before they commented.

When bidding gets extended

If you use Smart Extend, there’s an extension comment that goes up when a late bid pushes the clock back. Leave it empty to post nothing. See How Smart Extend Works.

Private DMs

The checkout message

This is the important one, and the wording was rewritten to stop buyers thinking they were already done.

When they choose to check out and ship, they get: “Tap below to open checkout. Fill out and submit the form to complete your order” with a button reading Open checkout.

When they choose to start an open bag, they get: “Tap below to open checkout. Fill out and submit the form to complete your order and start your bag.” with a button reading Open checkout and start bag.

Tapping the button isn’t the same as orderingThe button opens the form. The order only exists once the buyer submits it. Both messages now say so explicitly, which cuts down on “I already paid” confusion.

If a buyer taps Checkout and then changes their mind and taps Start Open Bag, they no longer get silence. The Assistant points them back to the link they already have and tells them to choose Open Bag on the form. No second order is created.

Winner and claim DMs

Winner DM — the message with the checkout link.
Winner DM (Open Bag customer) — the version for a buyer who already has a bag open.
Include the item photo — an optional setting, off by default. Turn it on and the item’s picture is attached above the message, so a buyer who’s bidding on six things knows instantly which one this is. It applies to winner, claim and next-in-line DMs — not to reminders or bag messages.

Chasing payment

Payment deadline — how long a customer has to check out before the order expires and their link stops working. Maximum 48 hours.
Payment reminder DMs — sent a set number of hours after they win or claim.

You can also give a buyer a link that never expires, which is useful for someone you know and trust who just needs more time.

Open bags

Payment confirmation DM (Open Bag) — sent after payment when the customer has a bag open. It carries the Close Bag button.
Bag close confirmation — sent when a buyer closes their bag. This one is now editable too, so it can sound like you.

External payments

External Venmo checkout confirmation goes out when a customer tells Thryft Ship they paid via Venmo outside of Thryft Ship. It does not verify that the money arrived — you confirm that yourself. See Accept Venmo at Checkout.

Two things that aren’t messages you control

Tracking goes by email. When you ship, the tracking number goes to the email address on the order — not as a DM. If a customer says they never got tracking, check the email on the order first.
Real questions come to you. If a customer asks about sizing, condition or anything that needs a human, it’s flagged in Needs Attention for you to answer in your own words.

How to edit any of them

Open your settings
Go to Sales Assistant settings.
Find the right section
Comment templates are under Comment Behavior & Automation. DMs and deadlines are under Checkout and Form Settings.
Rewrite it
Each one is pre-filled with a sensible default. Edit the words, keep any {curly} variables where you want the real name or amount to appear.

These are drop defaultsWhat you set here applies to all new drops. You can still change things per drop when you set one up.

Common questions

Is an AI writing these messages?

No. These are templates you write, sent by automation at the right moment. The only part of the Sales Assistant that uses AI is captioning, and that’s an optional setting you can switch off and write your own.

Can I turn all of the comment replies off?

Yes. Each one has its own toggle, so you can go fully silent in the comments and still use the DMs and checkout automation.

What happens if I leave a template blank?

Nothing gets posted for that moment. That’s the intended way to switch one off.

Will the Assistant answer a customer’s question?

No, and that’s deliberate. Questions get flagged for you. We handle the mechanical replies; the conversation stays yours.

Does changing a template affect drops already running?

Changes apply to new drops. A drop already in progress keeps the settings it was set up with.