What Should an AI Chatbot for My Shopify Store Be Able to Do?
It should answer from your store, act on orders, help shoppers buy, and hand over cleanly. That means answering from your catalog, policies and knowledge base, checking and changing real orders after verifying the customer, recommending products and sending links, letting people chat without an email form, and passing anything outside your rules to a person. AeroChat does each of these on your web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and email.
Why merchants struggle to choose
Merchants on the Shopify Community ask for something simple and find it hard to get. One wants a support chatbot that answers from an FAQ and can see the customer’s orders. One wants a proactive chat that helps shoppers while they browse, not a full helpdesk. Another wants the AI to use an external knowledge file, not just Shopify data. Several are tired of chat apps that make customers type an email before they can ask a question.
There is also a split in what people expect. Most chat apps focus on support tickets, and some merchants ask whether there is more value in product discovery. A supplement store gets ingredient and certification questions all day. The honest answer is that a store needs both, in the same chat.
A checklist to judge any AI chatbot
- Answers from your store, not the internet. Products, variants, prices, pages and policies stay in sync with Shopify, and you can add your own files and FAQs.
- Checks real orders, safely. It verifies the customer’s email or phone before showing an order, then gives the actual status and tracking.
- Does the job, within limits you set. Changes an address before shipping, opens a return, cancels an unfulfilled order, refunds up to your cap.
- Helps people buy. Recommends products that are in stock, quotes shipping, shares the discounts you allow and sends a payment link when the sale happens in chat.
- No gate. Shoppers can ask a question straight away, without filling in a form.
- Clear handover. You decide when a person steps in, and a shopper who asks for one gets one or is told when the team is back.
- Every channel. The same answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and email, not only the website.
- Replies in the customer’s language.
The usual options and their limits
- A live chat app with AI add-ons. Good for staff chat. The AI often answers FAQs only and can’t change orders.
- A helpdesk with an AI agent. Strong on tickets and email. Small stores on the Community say the cost rises with volume.
- A general AI chatbot. Fluent, but without your store data it guesses, which is how wrong answers happen.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
AeroChat connects to your Shopify store and syncs your products, collections, pages, blog posts, discounts and shipping rules. It looks up orders after verifying the customer. You describe what it should do in your own words, such as how to handle returns or when to refund, and AeroChat’s engine runs each action against those limits. Shoppers start chatting straight away. You see every conversation in one inbox and can take over any of them.
Customer: Is your magnesium powder vegan, and has my last order shipped? #7203 (example)
AeroChat: Yes, the Calm magnesium powder is vegan and gluten-free, per the product page (example). For your order, can you confirm the email you used?
Customer: sam@example.com
AeroChat: Thanks, Sam. Order #7203 shipped yesterday with UPS: [tracking link]. Would you like to add the Calm powder to a new order? It’s US$29, and orders over US$50 ship free (example).
In AeroChat: the product answer came from your synced catalog and the order status from Shopify, in one reply.
Copy this into AeroChat
Answer product and policy questions only from our Shopify catalog, our pages and our knowledge base. For order questions, verify the order number and the customer’s email or phone first, then answer from the order. When a shopper is unsure, ask one question and recommend up to three in-stock products with links. Share active discounts only when the shopper asks about price. Never ask for an email before answering. Hand the conversation to our team for refunds over US$40 (example), damaged parcels, or anyone who asks for a person. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the refund limit and the handover cases to match your store before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store. The chat widget activates on your theme without code.
- Airwallex, to take payment in chat. Airwallex is built into AeroChat. No Airwallex account yet? Open one here.
- Your other channels. WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and your Gmail or Office 365 address.
Questions
Can AeroChat use knowledge that isn’t in Shopify?
Yes. Upload PDF, Word, text or spreadsheet files, or add FAQs, and AeroChat answers from them alongside your Shopify data.
Does it make shoppers enter an email first?
No. Shoppers chat straight away. AeroChat only asks for an order number and email or phone when it needs to look up an order.
Can it sell, not just support?
Yes. It recommends products, quotes shipping, shares the discounts you allow, and sends a payment link for orders taken in chat. See product recommendations in chat.
How do I stop it saying something wrong?
Keep it to your own sources, set limits on actions and define handover. See stopping wrong AI answers.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Try it against the checklist
Install AeroChat, let it sync your store, and ask it a product question and an order question in the same chat.
7-day free trial.