Most ecommerce chatbots answer questions. They match an intent, send a help-centre article, and ask you to rate the conversation. The customer still needs their parcel.
This one works inside the order system. It looks up the order, checks the carrier, edits the address before the fulfilment cut-off, starts the return inside your policy, and hands a person anything it should not decide.
From $99 a month, connected to Shopify, WooCommerce or Magento, with an approval threshold you set on refunds.
A deflection bot saves a reply. A resolution agent saves the ticket. The difference is whether it can read and write in the order system, under your policy, with a record of what it changed.
Be honest about the cheap option. If all you need is FAQ deflection on a small store, a $49 a month widget installed from the Shopify app store is the right buy. Do not pay for an agent to do that.
Buy the agent when the queue is about orders, not policies. Where is my order, change my address, this arrived damaged, where is my refund. That is 60 to 80 percent of a growing store's inbox, and it needs the order system, not a knowledge base.
Same channel, different permissions.
| Typical chatbot | AI employee | |
|---|---|---|
| What it can answer | FAQ, policy, sizing, shipping times | Same, plus the live status of this specific order |
| What it can do | Nothing, or hand off | Edit the address, resend the confirmation, start a return, issue a refund under your limit |
| Where it works | A widget on the storefront | Store admin, helpdesk, carrier tracking, inbox, and the widget if you want it |
| Handoff | A ticket with the transcript | A ticket with the order, the policy applied and what was already tried |
| Approvals | Not applicable | Refund and discount thresholds, per channel, per role |
| Record | Conversation log | Every read, change and approval, tied to the order |
| Price | $0 to $299 a month | $99 to $249 a month for a working agent |
| Best for | Deflecting repeat questions | Resolving order and after-sales work |
We are not claiming a chatbot is useless. We are claiming that deflection and resolution are different products with different price points.
If your inbox is mostly policy questions, buy the widget. If it is mostly orders, the widget will not move the number.
Scoped to the intents you switch on, not everything at once.
Order and carrier status pulled live, answered in your tone, with the tracking link and the revised delivery date.
Eligibility checked against your policy, label issued, exchange variant reserved, refund queued for approval above your threshold.
Changed before the fulfilment cut-off, blocked after it, with the reason given to the customer instead of a generic refusal.
Answered from your catalogue and metafields, not invented: materials, dimensions, compatibility, stock.
Delays, failed attempts and lost parcels detected before the customer writes, with the next step already taken.
Handed to a person with the order, the history and the policy applied, so the customer does not repeat themselves.
Deflection flatters vendors. Resolution is the number that shows up in your P and L.
| Metric | What it tells you | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Deflection rate | Conversations closed without a person | Useful, but easy to game with a bad answer |
| Resolution rate | Issues actually solved, confirmed by the next 7 days of no repeat contact | The number that matters. Track it weekly |
| First response time | Time to the first useful answer | Under a minute, including nights |
| Repeat contact rate | Same customer, same issue, within a week | Falling month over month |
| Cost per resolution | Total support cost divided by resolved issues | The only comparison that is fair against a hire |
| Escalation quality | How often a person has to redo the work | Low. If agents re-ask the customer, the handoff is broken |
Ask any vendor for resolution rate with repeat contact, not deflection.
Run the first month in draft mode and compare against your current baseline before switching anything on.
The chatbot is only as good as the systems it can read.
More than 50 pre-built integrations, plus any system with an API, plus browser automation for carrier and marketplace portals that have neither. See the catalogue.
Native connectors for the order data and the conversation, with the scopes you grant.
APIs where they exist, isolated browser sessions where they do not, credentials in a vault.
Enterprise builds and maintains the connector.
Three price points, three different jobs.
| Option | What it costs | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot widget (app store) | $0 to $299 a month | FAQ deflection, a conversation log, and a ticket when it fails. |
| AI employee, entry tier | $99 a month | One agent, order lookups, returns and edits within your policy, day-one setup. |
| AI employee, AI Go | $249 a month | Managed onboarding, 200K credits, all 50+ integrations, multi-channel. |
| In-house support agent | $45,000 to $60,000 a year loaded | 40 hours a week, one shift, judgement included. |
Credits are usage, not seats, so the whole team can watch and correct the same agent.
A busy peak month is a $50 top-up per 100K credits, not a recruitment round.
Keep the widget if it is working for policy questions. Run the agent on order intents.
Including when to buy something cheaper.
No. A chatbot answers from documents. This reads and writes in your order system, applies your policy and logs the change. The difference shows up in resolution rate, not in the conversation.
If your inbox is mostly policy and sizing questions on a small store, yes. Buy the agent when the volume is order status, returns and delivery exceptions.
No. It works inside Gorgias, Zendesk or Intercom, or on your store admin. The helpdesk stays the system of record for conversations.
Only up to the threshold you set. Above it, the case is prepared and queued for a person. Chargebacks always go to a person.
Yes, through the messaging connectors, with the same policy and the same approval rules.
It replies in the customer's language, using your policy documents. Product claims stay in the language you approved.
Store and helpdesk connected in a week, order intents live in the second week, peak-season intents after that.
You do. We do not train on your data, and retention follows your policy.
It stops and hands over with the order context attached. Low-confidence replies are never sent as fact.
Order ops, catalogue, 3PL and ads in one page. AI for ecommerce.
Rules versus agents, and which workflows to hand over. Read the page.
Working the Shopify admin, not just the chat. Read the page.
Every connector and how it is reached. See integrations.
One monthly fee per agent, with hosting, AI usage and support included. Every plan begins with a free month, and the first month is free even on self-onboarding.
One agent, one job, 40K credits, all 50+ integrations, and guided self-setup. You start on day one. There is no migration and no custom workflow build at this tier - if you need either, take AI Go and we deliver it for you.
Unlimited seats for your team
On every plan. Add people, not licences - your Brahma bill does not move when your team grows.
One agent, one job, live in weeks, with migration and onboarding done for you.
A working platform with your first agents live, fast.
Heavier operations: more agents, priority delivery.
Your own instance, on your own domain or subdomain, with your governance - run by us, reviewed by your team.
Every plan includes hosting, AI usage and support. Each step up gives you more credits at a lower cost per credit: 40K on Solo, 200K on AI Go, 500K on AI Foundation, 2M on AI Foundation Plus. Credits are shown live per agent in your portal, and one credit is a standard unit of work: a quick task runs 50-150 credits, a standard workflow across two or three systems 250-750, and a deep task such as a report or a document set 1,500-5,000. Unused credits roll over for as long as your plan is active. Top-ups are $50 per 100K credits when you need a spike, and extra agents add on at $249 per agent per month. No credit card to start.
Every plan includes all 50+ integrations, with no per-connector fee. See every integration we connect.
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