What do you expect from your online store chatbot?

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Hello, I am creating specialized AI agents for e-commerce stores to improve customer experience and increase conversions. Those agents will understand your brand’s identity and will accurately answer questions about your products and catalog.

I am not selling anything and would just like to understand online merchants’ needs to ensure we address real issues.

What are the main reasons why you use chatbots in your online store? What do you expect from them? Are those expectations met? What current solutions do you use? Are you happy with them? How could it be better? If you had a magic wand, how would you improve your customer’s experience?

If you would be open for a quick 30 min chat, please feel free to connect with me on:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francknijimbere/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nijfranck

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Great question, Franck. I work in this space daily, so happy to share what I’ve seen work well across different e-commerce stores.

When it comes to chatbots, most merchants I speak with expect three core things:

  1. Real product understanding, not just repeating site content, but being able to answer specific questions like “What’s the difference between X and Y?” or “What’s available in size M under $50?”

  2. Conversational tone, ideally, the bot should reflect the brand voice and not feel robotic or scripted.

  3. Conversion support, meaning the ability to guide users toward the right product, surface relevant bundles or upsells, and help move them closer to checkout.

More advanced use cases also include remembering past interactions or tailoring offers based on user behavior, but that’s still an area evolving for many tools.

Platforms like Tidio, Zendesk, Manychat, and Qualified each approach this differently. Some focus more on support workflows and AI automation like Tidio, others on conversational marketing like Manychat. The best results usually come from bots that are tightly integrated with your product catalog and require minimal effort to keep up to date.

Let me know if you want to dig into any specific use case — happy to chat!