Messages and counter-offers

Negotiation happens on the quote. The Conversation card on the quote page keeps every message and file with the quote, and a buyer can propose a different price on a proposal that you then accept or answer.

1. The quote page: stage and next step

The quote page is a deal workspace. At the top, a progress tracker (Requested, then the steps of the deal) and a summary line show where the quote is, for example Waiting on you 5h or Waiting on buyer 2d. The next-step card tells you what to do:

Add products and prices, then send the proposal email.
The proposal is with the buyer, who can accept or decline it from their account.
The buyer proposed a different price: review the counter-offer.
The buyer accepted: convert the quote to a draft order to collect payment.
The draft order is waiting for payment, or it is paid and linked to the Shopify order.
The quote expired: change the expiration date to reopen it.
The quote was lost: see Why it was lost.

See Quote statuses and lifecycle for the stages.

2. Conversation

The Conversation card is a message thread between your team and the buyer.

Send a message: type in Message (up to 2,000 characters) and click Send. Click Attach file to add up to 5 files to a message.
Who sees what: your messages are marked Store, the buyer’s are marked Buyer. Internal remarks do not belong here: use Add an internal note in Activity, which only your team sees.
New messages: a badge on the quote and a banner in the card show how many new messages the buyer sent. Unread badges also show on the buyer’s side. Click Load earlier messages to read the older ones.
Email digest: the other side gets new messages in an email digest. The first message opens a 5-minute window, and every message sent in that window goes into one email, so nobody gets an email for every line. Buyers see a Conversation on the quote page too, and they can attach files.
Limits: you can send up to 20 messages a minute, and a quote’s conversation holds up to 500 messages. When it is full, the card says “This conversation has reached its message limit”.

The Note for customer is separate from the conversation: it is shown with the proposal (email, PDF, quote page). See View and edit a quote.

Files sent in the conversation follow your file storage setting.

3. Counter-offers: when a buyer proposes a price

After you send a proposal, a buyer with the New look sees a Propose a price button on the quote page.

To hide the button, untick Allow buyers to propose a price in Quotes > Automations > Auto-convert to draft order (see Approve or Reject Quotes). It is on by default.

What the buyer does

Click Propose a price.
Enter a target price or a different quantity for the items they want to change, remove an item, or enter a total for the whole quote. An empty item keeps the current price.
Add a Comment for the store and click Send counter-offer.

The buyer then sees Counter-offer sent, and the store reviews it. A buyer can have one counter-offer waiting at a time, and only while the proposal is open: the quote is Under review, the proposal was sent and the quote has not expired.

What you see

The quote moves back to In review (it is waiting on you), with a Counter-offer badge in the list. In the Quotes list, the Counter-offer filter has a Waiting on merchant option that shows the quotes with a counter-offer waiting for you.
The quote page shows Counter-offer from the buyer: a table with each item’s price Now, the buyer’s Target and the Diff, plus the Total and the Note from the buyer.
The Activity timeline records Buyer proposed a price.
If you turned on Notify me when a buyer proposes a price (in Quotes > Automations > Auto-convert to draft order, Notifications card), you also get an email.

What you can do

Accept counter-offer: when the buyer changed lines, the table lists each change (a new price, a new quantity, or Removal requested) with an Accept tick. Untick a line to keep it as in your proposal; the ticked changes go into the updated proposal. Click Accept selected changes; a window asks you to confirm and shows the new quote total, and you can add an optional Message for the buyer. The prices update and the new proposal email goes out together, so the quote never stays half done. The buyer gets the email with the agreed prices. If the buyer only proposed a total, every line is scaled by the same factor so the sum matches. If you untick every line, use Counter instead.
Counter instead: edit the prices yourself and send a new proposal. Sending a new proposal closes the buyer’s counter-offer.
Or reply in the Conversation first, and decide afterwards.

If the counter-offer was already answered or replaced, the page refreshes and tells you so. Buyers can send up to 5 counter-offers a minute.