AI chatbot for ecommerce: what it should do for an Australian online store

You run an online store. Customers message you at 9pm asking if the size 10 runs small, whether you ship to Broome, or which of two tents is better for wind. You see it at 7am, reply, and half of them have already bought somewhere else.

Someone's told you to get an AI chatbot for ecommerce. Fair call, because AI can now answer those questions properly. The catch is that most chatbot advice is written by American companies selling American software in American dollars, and a lot of it doesn't fit a small Aussie store.

So here's the plain version, from someone who builds AI agents every day and builds chatbots for Aussie online stores by hand. If you're a service business rather than a store, start with the best AI chatbot for small business instead. Yes, I sell one of these. I'll tell you when the others are the better call.

What is an AI chatbot for ecommerce?

An AI chatbot for ecommerce is a chat window on your online store that answers customers by itself, at any hour, from your own products and policies.

The old kind ran on scripts: press a button, get a canned answer, hit a dead end. The new kind reads what the customer actually typed and writes a real answer. That's what people mean by a "conversational chatbot for ecommerce". You can ask it "I've got wide feet and I'm on concrete all day, which boots?" and get a sensible reply instead of a menu.

The difference that matters for a store is what it's answering from. A chatbot that only knows your FAQ page is a support bot. A chatbot that knows your whole catalogue, with prices, sizes, specs and stock, is a salesperson.

What should an AI chatbot do for an online store?

A good AI chatbot for an ecommerce website should:

1. Help people choose. Compare two products, suggest what fits a budget, build a kit. This is where sales are won.
2. Know your whole catalogue. Every product, price, size, spec and stock level, not just the ten on your homepage.
3. Answer your policies word for word. Shipping to WA and Tassie, returns, warranty, Afterpay, click and collect, straight from your own pages.
4. Know your deals. Today's sale, the discount code in your announcement bar, your price match rules.
5. Never make things up. If it isn't in your catalogue or your policies, it says so.
6. Hand over properly. When a customer needs you, you get their details and a written summary.
7. Work at 9pm on a Sunday, because that's when a lot of people shop.

How does a chatbot for ecommerce earn its keep?

An ecommerce chatbot earns its keep by answering the questions that stop people buying, at the moment they ask. In a small online store, that looks like this:

• It answers after hours. The customer asking about sizes at 9pm gets an answer at 9pm, not tomorrow.
• It turns browsers into buyers. "Which of these two?" is the question right before a sale. Answer it and they buy. Leave it and they open another tab.
• It sells the whole kit. Someone buying a tent probably needs a stove and a lantern too. A good bot suggests them, priced, without being pushy.
• It empties your inbox. "Where's my order?", "Do you ship to Perth?", "Can I return this?" get answered on the spot instead of landing in your email.
• It tells you what customers want. Every question gets saved, including the ones your site had no answer for. That's free product research.

None of that needs a big business. It works best in a small one, where the person answering the emails is also the person packing the boxes.

What kinds of ecommerce chatbot platforms are there?

There are four kinds of ecommerce chatbot, and they suit very different stores.

1. Free store chat

Shopify Inbox, the chat in your store builder, Facebook Messenger. Shopify's app listing has Inbox as free, with AI suggested replies to help you answer faster. It's a good tool for you to answer chats. When you've knocked off, it mostly takes a message.

Good for: stores where someone is on hand to reply all day.

2. DIY AI chatbot builders

Tidio's Lyro and plenty of others. You point them at your site or paste in your FAQs and they answer from that. They're good at FAQs. Product questions, comparing options and stock are where they're patchier, and they're billed by the conversation. Tidio's own pricing page starts Lyro at US$32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations, so a busy month costs more.

Good for: stores with a short FAQ and an owner who likes tinkering.

3. Ecommerce helpdesks with AI

Gorgias is the big one built for online stores. It's a full support inbox that can look up orders, with an AI agent on top. Gorgias' pricing page charges about US$1 for every conversation the AI handles, on top of the helpdesk plan. Intercom's Fin works the same way at US$0.99 per resolution.

Good for: stores with a support team and a lot of "where's my order?" tickets.

4. Built for you

Someone builds the chatbot around your store: your whole catalogue, your policies, your deals, your tone. They install it, keep it accurate as your range changes, and fix it when it's wrong. That's what I do. I call them mateys.

Good for: stores with a real catalogue and an owner with no time to train a bot.

How much does an AI chatbot for ecommerce cost in Australia?

An AI chatbot for ecommerce costs anywhere from nothing to a few hundred dollars a month, and the real difference is who does the work.

• Free store chat costs nothing, but you answer every chat yourself.
• DIY builders charge by the conversation: Lyro starts at US$32.50 a month for 50, and climbs from there. Your time setting it up is the hidden cost.
• Helpdesks with AI charge for the helpdesk, then about a dollar every time the AI handles a chat. Great value when it saves a support person's time, pricey for a two-person store.
• A matey is built and installed free, the first month is free, then it's a flat $149 AUD a month. No per-message billing, cancel with an email.

Two things catch Aussie stores out. Most of these tools bill in US dollars, so the price moves with the exchange rate. And per-conversation pricing means your bill is biggest in your busiest month: Black Friday, Christmas, EOFY. Work out the cost for your best month, not your average one.

Why do ecommerce chatbots get products and policies wrong?

Ecommerce chatbots get things wrong when they've skimmed your website instead of reading your catalogue properly. When a bot doesn't know, a lot of them guess, and they guess confidently.

I learnt this the hard way. Early on, I built a bot that read a store's website in a few seconds and started chatting. On its first real test, it told a homewares shop's customers about an in-store appointment service, a store location and fittings that didn't exist. A chatbot that invents a product, a price or a returns rule costs you more than it saves, because now you're cleaning up a promise you never made.

The fix is boring but it works:

• Load the real catalogue, every product with its price, sizes, specs and stock, and keep it fresh.
• Make the bot search it for every product question, and only talk about what the search returns.
• Give it your policies word for word, so it quotes your returns rule instead of a typical one.
• Let it say "I don't know" and hand over, instead of guessing.

What does a good conversational chatbot for ecommerce look like?

A good conversational chatbot for ecommerce answers like your best salesperson would. Here's a matey on a made-up outdoor store, putting a first camping kit together for a family on a budget:

Notice what it does. It searches the range, picks products that fit the budget, adds them up, offers a cheaper way, mentions free shipping and click and collect, and adds to the cart when asked. That's the job.

How do you add an AI chatbot to an ecommerce website?

You add an AI chatbot to an ecommerce website with an app from your platform's app store, or by pasting one line of code into your site.

• Shopify: install from the app store, or paste the line into your theme.
• WooCommerce and WordPress: a plugin, or the line in your theme's footer.
• BigCommerce, Neto, Wix, Squarespace, Magento: a script box in the settings, or the theme.

The install is the easy bit. The real work is getting the chatbot to know your catalogue and your policies properly, and keeping it right when your range, prices and sales change. That's the part to ask about before you buy: who keeps it accurate, and how?

How do you test an AI chatbot for ecommerce before you buy it?

Run these tests on your own store before you pay for any AI chatbot for ecommerce. It takes ten minutes.

1. Ask a real customer question, word for word, from your inbox.
2. Ask it to compare two of your products. Most bots fall over here.
3. Give it a budget. "Family of four, $700, what do I need?" A good one builds the kit and adds it up.
4. Ask about a product you don't sell. It should say you don't stock it, not invent one.
5. Ask your trickiest policy question, like returns on sale items or shipping to WA. Check the answer against your own page.
6. Ask about today's sale or code. If it doesn't know, it can't sell it.
7. See what happens when it can't help. Does it hand over with a summary, or just ask for an email?
8. Work out the bill for your busiest month.

Or skip the setup. Send me your store and I'll build a demo running on your own homepage, from your real catalogue and policies, before you pay a cent. Then run all eight tests on it yourself. Want to see one first? Try a matey on the homepage.