Skip to content
IFG eCommerce IFG AI Chatby IFG eCommerce®

This app is not yet published on the Shopify App Store. This guide describes the version in development and may change before launch.

Turn on and customise the AI chatbot

At a glance

What you get
An AI assistant that answers visitors with the name, tone and rules you choose.
Time
10 minutes
Plan
Grow and Unlimited

Before you start

Note: the first time you move from Free to a paid plan, the app switches the chatbot on by itself and starts reading your catalogue. You still need to choose the chatbot as the widget’s click action (step 4 below).

Switch the chatbot on and make the widget open it

  1. Open AI Chatbot from the left menu.

    What you’ll see: at the top there’s a box with the chatbot status, for example “The AI chatbot is active: visitors open it from the widget.” or “The AI chatbot is off: in the widget, visitors only see your contact channels.”.

  2. In the Turn on the AI chatbot box, switch the toggle on.
  3. Press Save at the top right.
  4. If the box at the top says “The AI chatbot is on, but clicking the widget opens WhatsApp” (or Telegram, or the channel menu), press the Widget button in that box.

  5. On the Widget page, under Action on click, choose AI Chatbot and press Save.

    What you’ll see: back on AI Chatbot, the box at the top says “The AI chatbot is active: visitors open it from the widget.”.

Warning: from now on, visitors to your live store who tap the widget talk to the AI assistant. Every new chat counts towards your plan’s monthly limit.

What the visitor sees

Tapping the widget opens a chat window. At the top is the assistant’s name: unless you change it, it’s your store name. Below it come the welcome message and a few ready-made questions to tap. The visitor writes in their own language and the assistant replies in the same language.

The chat always shows the note “AI-generated answers: please verify anything important.” and, if you connected WhatsApp or Telegram, the line “Prefer to talk to us?” with your channels. When it talks about a product, the assistant can show a card with photo, price, availability and a “View product” button.

Give the assistant a name and a personality

All these fields are in the Behavior section of the AI Chatbot page. After your changes press Save.

  1. Assistant name: the name shown in the widget and used by the assistant when it introduces itself. Up to 40 characters.
  2. Avatar: a letter or short emoji shown in the widget. Up to 4 characters.
  3. Tone: choose Neutral, Professional or Friendly.
  4. Response length: choose Short, Standard or Detailed.
  5. Always do: guidance to follow when relevant, for example “Mention that shipping is free over $50”. Up to 500 characters.
  6. Never do: topics, phrases or behaviour to avoid. Up to 500 characters.
  7. Suggested questions: up to 5 questions the visitor sees when opening the chat (fields Suggested question 1 to Suggested question 5, up to 80 characters each).
  8. Instructions for the assistant: free text, up to 1,000 characters, explaining how to answer: tone, formality, length, what to highlight or avoid.

  9. Press Save.

    What you’ll see: “Settings saved.” appears at the bottom.

Note: the safety rules on prices, availability and orders always apply, whatever you write in the instructions. The assistant doesn’t promise discounts and doesn’t change orders.

The Welcome message field (the first message in the chat, up to 200 characters) is only included in the Unlimited (500 conversations/month) plan. On Grow you see it locked, with a button to change plan, and the chat uses the standard welcome.

Receive the questions without an answer

  1. In the Merchant email field check the address where you receive questions the chatbot can’t answer.
  2. Turn on Collect email when the bot doesn’t know the answer if you want the assistant to ask the visitor for their email in those cases. It’s optional for them and never blocks the chat.
  3. Press Save.

How this request looks to the customer and what happens to their data is explained in Your customers’ privacy. Collected emails appear under Leads: see Conversations and leads.

Catalog indexing

The Catalog indexing box shows whether the assistant has already read your catalogue: Synced, In progress, Not indexed yet or Error, with the number of products and sections read. After the first read the app keeps the catalogue up to date by itself when you change products.

  1. If the status is Not indexed yet or Error, press Index now.

    What you’ll see: the status changes to In progress. A large catalogue can take a while. If the start fails you’ll see “Indexing failed. Try again in a few minutes.”.

What exactly the assistant reads is explained in Knowledge base and chatbot content.

This month’s usage and performance

The exact limits of each plan are in Plans and billing.

Switch the chatbot off

  1. In AI Chatbot turn off the Turn on the AI chatbot toggle.
  2. Press Save.

The widget goes back to opening WhatsApp or Telegram. Conversations already saved remain viewable until their 30 days are up.

Troubleshooting

The visitor taps the widget and WhatsApp opens instead of the chat. The click action isn’t AI Chatbot, or the chatbot is off, or you’ve reached this month’s limit. Read the box at the top of the AI Chatbot page: it tells you which one.

The box says “You have reached this month’s conversation limit”. Until next month the widget opens WhatsApp or Telegram. You can wait or move to a plan with more conversations from the Plans page.

The assistant gives vague answers about a product. Check that indexing is Synced and that the product is active in your store. For questions that aren’t about a single product, add an entry to the knowledge base.

After Save a red notice appears at the top. Usually the merchant email isn’t valid. Fix it and press Save again.

Next step

Knowledge base and chatbot content