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An ecommerce chatbot is an AI chatbot specially made for online retailers' stores to serve as a shopping assistant, marketer, and customer support agent. The best ecommerce chatbot uses natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM) to facilitate human-like conversations, engage and support customers to increase revenue and can be customized to your brand voice.
In our evaluation, the best ecommerce AI chatbots are:
- Best overall: VanChat
- Best for no-coding installation: QuickCEP
- Best for integrating social media channels: ManyChat
- Best for embedding on websites: MobileMonkey
- Best for natural language processing: Drift
- Best for multilingual support: Aivo
- Best for personalized quizzes: Octane AI
- Best for omnichannel communication: Snatchbot
- Best for Meta messenger platforms: Chatfuel
- Best for messaging channels: Crisp
- Best for upselling and cross selling: Rep AI
- Best for enterprise businesses: SmartBots
In this guide, we did all the hard work and rounded up the best ecommerce AI chatbots by comparing them by price, value for money, and key functionality for your online store.
Comparison of Best AI Chatbots for Ecommerce
We looked at each ecommerce chatbot’s unique or standout feature, pricing, and whether it offers a forever-free plan. The table below compares the ecommerce chatbots by their features and pricing.
| Chatbot | User Reviews* (out of 5) | Monthly Price (starts at): | Free Plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VanChat | 5.0 | $9 | ✅ | Best overall; Shopify stores and small to mid-sized businesses |
| QuickCEP | 4.9 | $49 | ✅ | No code installation |
| ManyChat | 4.6 | $15 | ✅ | Social media integration |
| MobileMonkey | 4.5 | $199 | No | Embedding on websites |
| Drift | 4.4 | $2500 | No | Natural language processing (NLP) |
| Aivo | 4.5 | Custom | No | Multilingual support |
| Octane AI | 4.9 | $50 | No | Personalized quizzes |
| SnatchBot | 4.7 | $99 | No | Omnichannel communication |
| Chatfuel | 4.4 | $14.99 | No | Meta messenger platforms |
| Crisp | 4.6 | $25 | ✅ | Messaging channels |
| Rep AI | 4.9 | $23 | No | Upselling and cross selling |
| SmartBots | 4.5 | Custom | No | Enterprise businesses |
*Based on reviews from Shopify App Store, G2, and Capterra
VanChat: Best Overall
VanChat is an AI shopping assistant specially designed for Shopify stores. This ecommerce chatbot answers customer questions without human intervention with 97% accuracy because it leverages AI by learning from your store's products, policies, and shipping information.
Pricing
- Startup: $39/Month
- Pro: $99/Month
- Growth: $249/Month
- Scale: $599/Month
Key Features
- Shopping assistant (understands buyer intent and offer personalized interactions)
- Self-service features (automates tasks such as checking orders, updating orders)
- Customer engagement and upsell tool (sends proactive discount reminders and suggests products through pop-ups to boost revenue)
- Customizable chat widgets
- Multilingual support
- Analytics dashboard
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Easy-to-use | ❌Limited products can only be supported per tier |
| ✅Automatic product recommendations | ❌Leads management can only be unlocked on a higher plan |
| ✅Cart upsells | ❌Limited sales analytics on first-tier plan |
QuickCEP: Best for No-Coding Installation
QuickCEP trains AI chatbots for sales and customer service and doesn't require coding knowledge for training and installation. This e-commerce chatbot can respond to customer queries, provide personalized recommendations, and provide customer insights.
Pricing
- Free: $0/mo
- Starter: $49/mo
- Growth: $99/mo
- Enterprise: custom pricing
Key Features
- No code installation
- Over 20 customizable chatbot templates
- Supports 20+ languages
- Real-time logistics tracking
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Insightful reports | ❌ Clunky user interface |
| ✅Highly customizable | ❌ Lacks updated video tutorials |
| ✅Seamless integration of live chat and AI chatbot | ❌ Features can be overwhelming to navigate |
ManyChat: Best for Integrating Social Media
ManyChat provides interactive chatbots that can be personalized for ecommerce businesses. Aside from customer support, it is a powerful marketing tool as it can boost customer engagement, encourage customer interactions with broadcast messages, and nurture dynamic conversation sequences.
Pricing
- Free: $0/mo
- Pro: $15/mo
- Premium: custom pricing
Key Features
- Drag and drop builder for customizing chatbots
- Automated messaging
- Broadcast messaging and automated sequences
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅ Intuitive user interface | ❌Limited capacity to handle simultaneous multiple customer inquiries |
| ✅ Dynamic content blocks | ❌Limited integrations |
| ✅ Automated Drip email campaigns |
MobileMonkey: Best for Embedding on Websites
MobileMonkey is a chatbot platform that can be embedded or used on websites and messaging channels like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and SMS.
Pricing
- 7-day free trial
- Starter: $199/mo
- Pro: $399/mo
- Advanced: $799/mo
Key Features
- Unlimited attributes and segments for users
- Traffic generator using Chat Starters
- Custom chatbot dialogs, Q&A, and automations
- Blast campaigns
- Drip campaigns
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Helpful and active user community | ❌Limited integrations |
| ✅Good sequencing features for campaigns | ❌Slow development of new features |
| ✅Easy to use | ❌Only Basic reports are available |
Drift: Best for Natural Language Processing
Drift uses NLP, which allows it to engage with customers in a conversational and human-like manner. It functions more like an intelligent assistant than a chatbot. It can answer inquiries, qualify leads, provide order tracking status, and schedule appointments.
Pricing
- Premium: $2500/mo
- Advanced/Enterprise: custom pricing
Key Features
- Conversational marketing features to encourage conversational commerce
- AI-based lead scoring to qualify and prioritize leads
- Real-time sales alerts
- Chat-to-email for continuous communication
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Conversational language features | ❌Expensive |
| ✅Real-time sales alerts for lead follow-ups | ❌Requires monitoring to maintain quality responses marked as conversational |
| ✅Chat-to-email feature | ❌Lag in notifications |
Aivo: Best for Multilingual Support
Aivo is a multilingual AI chatbot. It visualizes data to help analyze customer queries and responses and improve their responses, too. It can be installed on web chats, mobile apps, messaging and social media channels, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and more.
Pricing
- 30-day free trial
- Pricing available upon inquiry
Key Features
- Predictive analytics
- Multilingual support
- Custom chatbots
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Easy implementation | ❌Limited emojis for use |
| ✅Chat elements (videos, buttons, etc.) | ❌Limited integrations |
| ✅Multiple languages can be supported | ❌Improvement in conversational language features |
Octane AI: Best for Personalized Quizzes
Octane AI provides branded and customizable quizzes through chatbots that collect customer data so they can give product recommendations or related brand content. This helps businesses provide personalized services, improve customer satisfaction, keep customer loyalty, enhance marketing, and increase sales.
Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- Octane: $50/mo
- Octane Plus: $200/mo
- Enterprise: custom pricing
Key Features
- Quizzes, surveys, and polls
- Product recommendations
- Scheduled messaging
- Add to cart buttons
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Product quizzes are insightful | ❌Limited customization options |
| ✅Friendly user interface | ❌Very few integrations are available |
| ✅Klaviyo integration | ❌Might require technical know-how for chat setup |
SnatchBot: Best for Omnichannel Communication
Snatchbot is a chatbot platform that uses NLP, machine learning, and voice recognition. It's a great chatbot for answering queries and imparting information as it has chatbot templates on how-to guides from calculators and step-by-step guides.
Pricing
- Starter: $99/mo
- Team: $199/mo
- Business: $499/mo
- Enterprise: custom pricing
Key Features
- Visual workflow automation system
- Voice assistants
- Chatbot templates
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅ Text-to-speech technology | ❌ Confusing interface |
| ✅ Visual workflows | ❌ Lacks onboarding tutorial |
| ✅Omnichannel - chat, messenger, SMS | ❌ Missing chat elements like vertical lists for product display in chat |
Chatfuel: Best for Meta Messenger Platforms
Chatfuel is designed specifically for Facebook Messenger and Instagram support. It has an intuitive interface with a drag-and-drop builder.
Pricing
- Business: $14.99/mo (FB/IG) or $29.49/mo (WhatsApp)
- Enterprise: $300/mo
Key Features
- Third-party integrations
- Customizable chat flows
- Drag-and-drop intuitive user interface
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Easy customer onboarding | ❌Advanced reports only available in highest tier |
| ✅Built-in stats for content block performance | ❌Built just for Meta platforms |
| ✅Auto-reply comments on Facebook posts | ❌Limited support for multilingual customers |
Crisp: Best for Messaging Channels
Crisp has a visual flow builder that you can use to customize your own chatbot too. It can collect user data, translate it to multiple languages, and publish to six channels, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger, Line, and SMS
Pricing
- Pro: $25 Month / Per Workspace
- Unlimited: $95 Month / Per Workspace
Key Features
- Chatbot elements like updating user information, if/then conditions, running scenarios to start another workflow and more
- Live chat + Make and Zapier integration
- Data analytics—rating, campaigns, and helpdesk
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Helpful customer support | ❌Lag in chat notifications |
| ✅Easy to use | ❌API integrations can be clunky |
| ✅Unified dashboard for all messaging centers | ❌Limited customization on chat displays |
Rep AI: Best for upselling and cross-selling
Rep AI is a customizable chatbot that can take customer feedback, give personalized recommendations, upsell, and guide customers to specific products or collections.
Pricing
- Launch: $23/month
- Starter: $79/month
- Basic: $159/month
Key Features
- Fully customizable chatbot
- Product recommendations
- Upsell and cross-sell
- Shopping cart abandonment rescue algorithm
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Excellent support team | ❌Pricing is based on site visitors and can get expensive |
| ✅Easy setup | ❌Low product quantity support on a basic plan (500 products) |
| ✅Plug and play | ❌Chatbot needs to be trained extensively to be able to provide quality answers |
SmartBots: Best for Enterprise Businesses
SmartBots provides chatbots for customer experience, support, and sales. It provides a 360-degree platform for building, deploying, and maintaining conversational AI bots. If you are looking to build chatbots, SmartBots is the platform for you.
Pricing
- Premium Plans ( Quotation Based )
Key Features
- Build-from-scratch, fully customizable chatbot for business
- Pre-built conversation flows
- Multi-language dialect
- Trained with utterances
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅Easy implementation | ❌Cannot handle ambiguous queries effectively |
| ✅Helpful customer support team | ❌Expensive |
| ✅Conversational interface |
Considerations when choosing chatbots for ecommerce
When choosing your best ecommerce chatbot now, consider your budget, the chatbot’s integration capabilities, customization options, and scalability. Ensure that its user interface and analytics features are manageable or easy to operate.
Value for Money
The most important consideration in choosing ecommerce chatbots for your own online store is how much you are willing to pay for them. Survey the typical range of most chatbots that can integrate with your store and come up with a shortlist.
Additionally, don’t just go with whoever is the cheapest or most affordable. Go with the chatbot that gives the most value for money—a low-entry first-tier plan with robust features and other subscription tiers you can upgrade to depending on your future business needs.
Check the features. We recommend choosing one that offers unlimited users, a user-friendly dashboard, a customizable chatbot, and plenty of integrations.
Check integrations
In your shortlist, check if any of them have available integrations with your ecommerce platform. Determine if you want a single chatbot operating all your messaging platforms, like social media platforms and SMS. If so, only go with chatbots that provide multi-channel capabilities and support.
Check customization options
Go with chatbot solutions that can be customized to your brand since they will be the frontline of your business. A good ecommerce chatbot seamlessly integrates into your website, can change your brand colors, has a customizable avatar (to your logo or custom shopping assistant avatar), and has numerous display options.
Go with scalability
While you may be on a budget right now, check if the chatbot platform offers other subscriptions with more advanced features. You wouldn’t want to switch providers as your business scales because they can no longer meet your needs.
Read user reviews
Research the platform by checking reviews from real-world users from third-party websites. Look for reviews that can provide insights on how the interface works and if it’s intuitive for operating without the need for tech know-how.
Evaluation Checklist for Selecting the Best AI Chatbot
When choosing an AI chatbot for your eCommerce platform, it's important to consider several factors. This checklist will guide you through the key aspects to evaluate.
Assess Technical Capabilities
1. Interoperability: Ensure the chatbot can integrate with your current systems. Check if it works smoothly with your eCommerce platform, CRM, and other tools you use. This will allow data to flow seamlessly between applications.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP): Assess the chatbot’s ability to understand and respond to human language. The more advanced the NLP, the better it can handle complex queries and provide human-like interactions. Look for features such as language detection and sentiment analysis.
Evaluate User Experience
1. Intuitive Design: The chatbot should be easy to use for both customers and your team. Check if the interface is user-friendly and if the setup process is straightforward. A good design enhances the overall user experience, making interactions more pleasant.
2. Performance: Consider how quickly the chatbot responds to queries. Test it under various conditions to ensure it can handle high traffic without lag. A fast, reliable chatbot keeps customers satisfied and engaged.
Ensure Business and Compliance Requirements are Met
1. Compliance: Verify that the chatbot complies with regulations like GDPR or CCPA. It should have features to protect user data, such as encryption and secure storage. This is crucial to maintain customer trust and avoid legal issues.
2. Business Needs: Match the chatbot’s capabilities with your specific business needs. Ensure it can handle tasks like order processing, customer inquiries, and return management. It should support your business goals and improve operational efficiency.
Discuss Additional Features
1. Analytics: Look for chatbots that offer detailed analytics. This includes tracking customer interactions, measuring engagement rates, and identifying common issues. Analytics help you understand customer behavior and improve the chatbot’s performance.
2. Vendor Support: Evaluate the level of support provided by the vendor. This includes training, technical assistance, and updates. Reliable support ensures the chatbot remains effective and adapts to changing business needs.
How to Implement
Step 1: Define Objectives: Clearly outline what you want the chatbot to achieve. This could be reducing support costs, improving response times, or increasing sales.
Step 2: Research Options: Use the checklist to evaluate different chatbot solutions. Compare their features, pricing, and reviews.
Step 3: Test the Chatbot: Before full deployment, conduct a pilot test. Gather feedback from users to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.
Step 4: Train Your Team: Ensure your team knows how to use the chatbot effectively. Provide training sessions and access to resources.
Step 5: Monitor Performance: After implementation, regularly review the chatbot’s performance. Use analytics to track metrics like customer satisfaction and resolution rates. Adjust the chatbot’s settings as needed to optimize results.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ecommerce AI chatbot?
An ecommerce chatbot uses artificial intelligence (AI) to match human-like conversation with customers on an online store or ecommerce platform mainly to answer questions, provide customer support queries and service, and facilitate actions like adding items to a cart or making purchases.
Can chatbots be used for ecommerce?
Yes, chatbots can be used for ecommerce. Use AI chatbots in ecommerce businesses since they stimulate human-like conversations with customers.
Wrapping It Up
It is crucial to meet customers where they are. Use a tool that seamlessly integrates and provides consistent interaction, whether in your online store, social channels, or in person.
Online shopping provides an avenue for 24/7 sales, but it also requires 24/7 customer service. Ecommerce chatbots that not only provide support but enhance conversation and conversion rates are the key to meeting this demand.
About Emily Levingston
Principal Editor of VanChat
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