How can a 24/7 live sales chat increase online store profitability?

Topic summary

An Austrian software company is developing a 24/7 live sales chat app for Shopify that addresses merchant unavailability. The key differentiator: when store owners can’t respond (sleeping, busy, etc.), trained staff answer on their behalf using pre-configured information about products, delivery times, and common questions.

How it works:

  • Merchants complete an online questionnaire (multiple choice/keywords) about their business
  • Trained support staff handle inquiries in multiple languages around the clock
  • Store owners receive notifications and can choose which requests to answer personally
  • Complex questions get escalated to the merchant
  • No personal data required; setup takes ~2 minutes

Claimed benefits:

  • Studies suggest live chat can increase revenue up to 40%
  • 24/7 availability reduces cart abandonment
  • Merchants maintain control over which chats to handle directly

One commenter suggested exploring GPT-based alternatives like Carty, which uses AI to analyze customer behavior, provide personalized recommendations, automate common responses, and offer upselling opportunities throughout the purchase journey.

Summarized with AI on November 4. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Hey,

We are an Austrian software company trying to make online shops more profitable and efficient with Shopify Apps. Please take the time and help us building an app that really helps you. Our current project is a 24/7 live sales chat, which can be easily integrated into Shopify. This will look similar to the chats that already exist with one major difference: If you are not available at the moment (sleeping, working, meeting,…) another person will answer for you. Therefore, it is of course important that the other person who answers for you knows how your product works, the delivery times etc (all the usual questions that are usually asked in the chat). To do this, you have to enter information about your company and your product on our website, which we are currently developing (quite simply: all the important questions are asked and you answer them with short keywords or multiple choice). The people who answer for you are trained by us and we guarantee that someone is available 24/7 to answer the questions in the chat. If you want to reply to chats yourself, it’s very easy: you just have to confirm in the app that you want to accept requests, then you can easily reply from your mobile phone or computer. When you don’t have time to answer, you just have to tell the app that you don’t want to answer yourself and our sales staff will answer the requests. Of course, our chat will answer in all common languages. If there are questions that our staff cannot answer, they will refer the customer to you and you will respond when you have time. Studies show that having a chat on your website can increase revenue by up to 40 percent, so being available 24/7 is important. This is very easy with our app. So that we can adapt the app to you and your needs as well as possible, it is important that you fill out the online questionnaire (we do not want any personal data from you and it only takes 2 minutes). Together we will make your online shop more profitable!

Link: https://www.survio.com/survey/d/M9U0S6H1N3W7C6J9M

With advancements in GPT-based live chat, customer interactions have transformed significantly. A GPT-powered chatbot can analyze customer profiles, preferences, and browsing behavior to offer personalized product suggestions. It provides 24/7 support, handling inquiries, complaints, and order support, which reduces cart abandonment and ensures customers receive timely assistance. Additionally, it can suggest complementary or upgraded products during the purchase journey and automate responses to common queries—covering product information, shipping, return policies, and more.

I recommend exploring Carty; it’s a powerful GPT-based live chat solution.