As an ecommerce business owner, you’re constantly juggling activities to run your Shopify store successfully. Everything is happening simultaneously, from managing your inventory to planning production and shipments. Every second you spend on a task might feel like time taken from another. But what do you do when everything requires your urgent and undivided attention?. 

You’ve probably considered investing in your clone. But we know that’s going to take time. While you wait for your clone to show up, there might be a more cost-efficient and immediate solution. 

Bots. 

You’ve heard it — bots are game-changing, pathbreaking, and outstanding. It’s entirely true, yet none of those promises mean anything if you’re not sure how they can benefit your store and customer experience, and if don’t use them in a way that is suitable for your business. This guide will help you understand how bots can lend a hand to a Shopify business owner who needs to be in multiple places at once (virtually, of course!).

Let's dive in.

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How can bots help you as an online store owner?

1. Manage your time more efficiently

 

2. Offer customers answers with zero contact

 

3. Automate your everyday workflows 

 

4. Add long-term value as you scale

 

5. Connect with new visitors and promote engagement 

 

6. Reduce cart abandonment with proactive messages

what is conversational ai what is conversational ai

What are the types of Shopify bots?

If you search for bots on the Shopify marketplace, the results are endless. There are bot apps for cyber security, customer service, order management, and conversion, among several other use-cases. 

Broadly, they can be distinguished into two categories: Assist bots and conversational bots. When you scroll through the marketplace, you’ll find that all the bot apps fall into one of these two categories. It’s important to understand the difference between these categories to choose the right one.

Assist Bots

Assist bots are internal facing, simply put - these bots boost your productivity. They automate actions that are repetitive and predictable. Think of them as your virtual assistants that take care of errands that would otherwise chip away time from more important matters. Some common assist bots include:

 

 

 

You’ll find more assist bot apps on the Shopify Marketplace, some may fit these example categories, and some may be specific to a unique use case. Either way, research your way through them to identify the ones best suited to meet your needs. Ensure that the app is eliminating a point of friction in your workday. Adding an idle bot such as an assist bot can be done by simply placing a piece of code on your website.

Conversational Bots

These are the most popular bots on the Shopify Marketplace. Conversational bots or chatbots are used to interact with visitors in your store. Unlike assist bots, chatbots are customer-facing. You can add them to your website, mobile app, messaging apps, or social media. 

 

 

          The opportunities are endless with engagement bots. 

 

 

Did you know that the best chatbot apps combine the four conversational bots mentioned above? Don’t settle for anything less. Click here to know more. 

 

Side Note:

There is one more type of bot that’s often called  a Shopify bot, although this would technically be a misnomer. They are more commonly referred to as sneaker bots. Sneaker bots or Sneaker copping bots are used to make purchases of limited edition items, usually sneakers. These bots take effect when a sale goes live and quickly auto-purchases in place of a human buyer. Even though these bots mean your stock will have a chance at being completely sold out, it often leads to many unfulfilled buyers who’ll have to wait for a restock to purchase your product. 

 

If you notice that your store is faced with these kinds of Shopify bots, and you wish to protect it from them. You can follow Shopify’s guidelines to protect your store when you run a sale.

Which type of bot should you get for your Shopify store?

As most Shopify experts will tell you, it’s better to have a handful of useful apps rather than an arsenal of idle ones. Having more apps slows down your website and affects its performance. It’s vital to choose a bot app that can fulfill most of your needs under one roof. 

That's why it’s important to first decide what challenges you are hoping to solve with a bot.

1. Improve customer experience

Conversational chatbots are the obvious choice. Give your customer the comfort of a conversational experience while helping you achieve your peak productivity. A well-built chatbot can even offer zero contact resolution, meaning there’s no need for human intervention at all. 

Ecommerce businesses have resolved up to 48% of customer queries without a representative. 

2. Improve team productivity

Assist bots are pivotal to help you optimize internal processes. They can keep track of your data and help you assist customers better, protect your store from bot attacks and so on. These bots are great for scaling teams. You can rest easy knowing that assist bots will provide safety and insights into your business without requiring you to lift a finger. 

78% of brands have already or are planning to implement AI solutions to help better serve customers

How do you select a Shopify bot?

When choosing a bot from the Shopify Marketplace, evaluate each app against your needs. There are no ‘one size fits all’ bots, just the right one for your current business needs. Here are a couple of questions to keep  in mind. 

What’s the best chatbot for Shopify stores?

As a small business owner, you are always on duty. You make tough choices to put out fires every day. But, that doesn’t have to be at the expense of your customers. Besides, you need happy customers to take your business to greater heights. So, choose a powerful, intelligent bot that scales with you. A bot that you and your customers can count on for support, always.   

 

Freshchat’s chatbots are fast, intuitive, and quick to set up. You can have a fully functioning chatbot within the next 30 minutes if you sign up now. It’s the complete conversational bot software all wrapped into one. 

 

Customer Support Bots ✓ Cart Abandonment Bots ✓ Customer Engagement Bots ✓ Messaging Channel Bots ✓

 

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