Answer shopper questions with Store Chat
Put an AI shopping assistant on your storefront that answers questions in any language and shows shoppers the right products.
Most shoppers who can't find what they're looking for don't ask — they leave. Store Chat puts an assistant on your storefront that answers their question there and then, in whatever language they typed it in, and shows them the products that actually match.
It's built for selling, not for support tickets: every answer can come with product cards a shopper can open or add straight to their cart.
What the assistant can and can't do
It can search your live catalog, describe products, compare them, answer from the store facts you've written, and put matching products in front of the shopper as clickable cards.
It can't see orders, change anything in your store, take payments, or link anywhere outside your own store. It's read-only by design — a shopper cannot talk it into a discount or into revealing another customer's details.
Turn it on
Store Chat is a paid module.
- Open Settings → Modules and find Store Chat.
- Subscribe — it's $99/month (or $82/month billed yearly), or included at no extra cost on the Pro plan.
- Enable the module.
On top of the subscription, the conversations themselves use AI credits from your balance. See Manage your plan & billing.
Note: The chat widget ships with the storefront template. Stores created before Store Chat launched don't have the widget yet, and republishing won't add it — talk to support if you need it fitted to an older store.
Set it up
Everything below lives on the Store Chat module page.
Welcome
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Assistant name | What it calls itself, e.g. Nova. Leave it blank for a neutral assistant. |
| Greeting | The first thing a shopper sees when they open the chat. |
| Starter questions | Up to four tappable suggestions shown before anyone types. |
Tip: Make the starter questions do real work. "What's best for beginners?" or "Which size should I order?" tell a hesitant shopper that this thing can actually help, far better than "How can I help you?"
Store knowledge
A free-text box (Markdown is fine) for everything the assistant should know beyond your product catalog: sizing advice, materials, warranty terms, shipping times, your returns policy, the questions you answer by email five times a week.
It's treated as information, not instructions — you're supplying facts and tone, and the assistant's rules stay with us. So write it as notes, not as commands:
Tip: Your best source material is your own inbox. Every question a customer has emailed you twice belongs in this box.
Budget
Shopper conversations spend AI credits, so you set the ceiling. When any of these limits is reached, the chat quietly tells shoppers it's temporarily unavailable — it never spends past what you allowed.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly shopper allowance | The most Store Chat may spend in a calendar month | 5,000 credits |
| Merchant reserve | A floor it won't dip below, so credits stay available for your own AI work | 2,000 credits |
| Messages per visitor per day | Stops one visitor consuming the budget | 20 |
The allowance field shows how much of it this month's conversations have used.
See what it did
The Last 30 days card on the same page reports:
| Number | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Conversations | How many shoppers engaged at all |
| Questions answered | Total replies given |
| Products shown | Product cards the assistant put in front of shoppers |
| Cards clicked | How often a shopper opened one |
| Added to cart | The number that pays for the module |
| Credits this month | Spend against your allowance |
Below it, Searches with no matching products lists what shoppers asked for and your catalog couldn't answer. That list is the most valuable thing on the page — it's your customers telling you, in their own words, what to stock next.
FAQ
Does it answer in the shopper's language?
Yes. It replies in the language the shopper writes in, regardless of what your store's default language is.
What does it cost to run?
The subscription, plus AI credits per conversation. The budget settings are the hard cap: set a monthly allowance you're comfortable with and Store Chat can't exceed it.
Can it invent a product or a policy?
It answers from your live catalog and the store knowledge you wrote. It doesn't browse the web and it can't link off your store. Anything you'd rather it not say, don't put in the knowledge box — and anything it's getting wrong is usually a gap there.
Is it the same as the AI Assistant in my dashboard?
No. Store Chat faces your shoppers and only reads your catalog. The AI Assistant faces you and can run your store — see Get things done with the AI Assistant.
Do shoppers have to log in?
No. Chats are anonymous and tied to the shopper's browser, and conversations are deleted after 30 days.
How is it different from a contact form?
A contact form gets you a message to answer later, when the shopper has already gone. Store Chat answers while they're still on the page. You want both — see Handle customer messages.
What's next
- Feed the shoppers it converts into Show product recommendations in the cart.
- Turn the unanswered searches into products — see Add a product.
- Watch what it does to your numbers in Understand your analytics.