🤖 Sales Assistant
Sales Assistant Setup: Complete Onboarding
In this guide, you’ll connect payments, connect Instagram, and customize your Sales Assistant settings so you’re ready to create your first drop.
Time estimate: Setup takes about 2–5 minutes. If you already accept payments through Thryft Ship,
the Stripe step will be skipped automatically.
Step 1: Complete Stripe onboarding (Payments)
Stripe onboarding enables you to accept payments through your Thryft Ship link and through Sales Assistant checkout links.
This step only takes a couple minutes — and if you already accept payments through Thryft Ship, you’ll skip it automatically.
Stripe onboarding guide:
https://thryftship.com/support/payments-guide/#onboarding
Once Stripe is connected, customers can pay securely via Apple Pay or card directly through checkout links.
Step 2: Connect your Instagram account
If you already connected Instagram through Smart Inventory, you’re halfway there. The Sales Assistant just requests a couple additional permissions so it can post, comment, and DM customers on your behalf. This takes less than a minute — click Connect and grant permission.
Smart Inventory support:
https://thryftship.com/support/inventory-management/
Caption “voice” setup
We look at your recent Instagram sales captions to understand your tone and format. This helps the Sales Assistant generate captions that match how you normally run drops.
If your feed doesn’t have many recent sales posts, we may ask you to paste a few example captions so we can learn your style.
Step 3: Customize your settings
Your settings help the Sales Assistant learn how your business runs and how it should handle sales. These settings apply to all new drops by default (and you can always override them per drop).
Quick tip: If you’re not sure which options to choose, start simple — you can update settings any time.
1) Default Sales Settings
Configure whether you run bidding, how long auctions last, and whether you offer “Buy It Now.”
-
Enable bidding by default
Turn this ON if you run auctions. Turn it OFF for fixed-price / claim-only drops. -
How long auctions run before ending
Common options are 12 hours or 24 hours. -
Enable “Buy It Now” by default
Turn this ON if you want a BIN option. Turn it OFF if you only offer bidding (no BIN price).
Examples
Fixed price / claim-only
“CLAIM $8”
Bidding
“BID starting $5”
Bidding + BIN
“BID starting $5 • BIN $30”
2) Comment Behavior & Automation
Control how your assistant responds in comments — confirming bids, rejecting invalid bids, and notifying customers.
-
Auto-reply to bids
When enabled, your assistant confirms valid bids and rejects invalid ones using your message templates. -
Notify outbid customers via comment
When enabled, we comment to let a customer know they’ve been outbid so they can bid again. -
Notify winning customers via comment
Optional. If enabled, we comment to let the winner know you’ve successfully claimed the item and DM’d them checkout details.
Template variables: You’ll see available variables like
{item_name} and {Current Bid Price}
that you can use in your comment templates.
3) Checkout & Form Settings
Set payment deadlines, reminders, open bags, local pickup, and the winner notification message.
-
Payment deadline
How long customers have to complete checkout after winning (max 24 hours). -
Send payment reminder DMs
Automatically remind customers if they haven't paid after a certain time (ex: 2 hours before expiration). -
Enable open bags
Allow customers to buy multiple items over a span of time before you ship their order (you choose how long). -
Allow local pickup
Let customers pick up items in person to save shipping costs — set pickup location + instructions. -
Winner notification message
Customize the DM sent to auction winners (supports variables like{item_name},{winning_amount},{deadline_hours}, and{seller_name}).
Open bags note: When enabled, winners will see both CHECKOUT and OPEN BAG buttons.
If they select Open Bag, you’ll see an open bag status for that order.
You’re ready 🎉 Once these settings are saved, you can create your first drop.
