What an ecommerce chatbot has to do
Most store questions fall into five groups: where is my order, is this in stock, what is your return policy, which size should I buy, and can I talk to someone. A useful chatbot answers the first four from accurate data and passes the fifth to a person without losing context.
Start by sorting your last 30 days of questions into those five groups. The share of each group decides which features matter most. A store with heavy order traffic needs reliable lookups. A store with complex sizing needs answers grounded in product pages. A store with few support staff needs a clean handoff.
Check order lookups first
Order questions are where a chatbot can help most, and where a mistake costs the most. Before you buy, ask each vendor four things:
- Which store platforms have a supported order connection, and which need a custom build?
- Does the lookup require an order number and the customer's email before it shows details?
- Is the connection read-only, so the bot can never change an order or refund one?
- What does the chat show, such as status, tracking and items, and what does it refuse to show?
SuperBot offers order connections for Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Squarespace and Square. Its lookups are read-only and verified against the customer's email. Embedding the widget alone does not connect a store's orders, so the connection is a separate step.
Check product and policy answers
Stock questions need live data, and policy questions need the right page. Ask each tool whether it reads your product catalogue and stock levels, and whether it can learn from your return, shipping and sizing pages. Then test it with the exact questions your customers ask.
Ask for the source of each answer. A good bot shows which page or document supports a reply when matched knowledge backs it. A bot that answers confidently with no source is harder to trust, and harder to fix when a policy changes.
Check handoff and what happens after
A store chatbot should pass a hard question to a person, with the full conversation attached, so the customer does not repeat themselves. Test the handoff at a busy time and at a quiet time. Check who receives the chat, how fast they see it, and whether the customer is told what happens next.
Reporting shows whether the bot pays off. Look for resolution rate, customer satisfaction, and the questions it could not answer. The unanswered questions show you which policy page or product detail is missing.
Check languages and channels
If your store sells across borders, check the language list on each vendor's current page. SuperBot answers in 35 languages. Test the two or three languages your customers use most, with your own policy wording, before you rely on it.
Also check where the chat appears. Confirm that it works on your mobile theme, your checkout pages and any landing pages you run in ads.
Compare the cost on your real volume
Pricing models differ. Ticket-based helpdesks often charge by ticket volume, with AI usage billed separately. Credit-based builders charge for message credits, and the cost per chat depends on the model. Flat conversation plans charge a fixed amount for a set number of conversations.
SuperBot's free plan covers 200 conversations a month with no card. Starter is $25 a month for 2,000 conversations, and Pro is $60 a month with unlimited conversations. Gorgias's AI Agent charges $1.00 per interaction on monthly billing and $0.90 on yearly billing, on every plan. Interactions above each plan's included interactions cost $1.50 each. Use your own monthly counts to compare each total, not the headline price on a pricing page.
A buyer checklist
- Order lookups: supported platform, email check, read-only access.
- Product and stock answers: live catalogue data, not a copy from last month.
- Policies: answers grounded in your return, shipping and sizing pages, with the source shown.
- Handoff: a person receives the chat with the transcript attached.
- Reporting: resolution rate, satisfaction, and a list of unanswered questions.
- Languages: tested with your own wording in the languages your customers use.
- Cost: priced on your real monthly volume, with the unit clearly stated.
What to do this week
- Sort your last 30 days of customer questions into the five groups.
- Ask each vendor the four order-lookup questions above, and save the answers in writing.
- Run 20 real questions through two trials, including one order question and one policy question.
- Check the handoff on a busy day, and time how long a person takes to reply.
- Choose the option whose bill you can forecast, and whose answers you have checked yourself.