AI chatbot for ecommerce customer support
Which store questions an AI chatbot should answer from your policies (shipping, returns, products) and which must go to a person, such as payments.
By the Paperlink AI teamPublished 5 min read
Short answer
An ecommerce chatbot should answer the questions whose answer is the same for every customer and is written in your shipping page, returns policy and product pages. Anything that needs a specific order, a payment or an account change must go to a person. Load your policies, test with real customer emails, and make sure the bot refuses and offers your contact details when your policies do not cover a question.
An online store gets the same few questions all day: where is my order, can I return this, how much is shipping, does this fit. Most of the answers already exist in your shipping page, your returns policy and your product pages. A chatbot can answer those from your own text. The skill is in drawing a clear line between what it should answer and what must go to a person.
The four kinds of ecommerce support questions
Store support messages usually fall into four groups. Each group needs a different source and a different rule.
1. Order status
"Where is my order?" is a common question in any store. There are two different questions inside it:
- The general question: how long does shipping take, when do orders ship, where do I find my tracking link. Your shipping page answers this, and a chatbot can too.
- The specific question: where is order 10482. This needs a live lookup in your store system. A chatbot that answers only from documents cannot see orders, so it should explain how to track an order and offer a way to reach your team, not guess a date.
2. Returns and exchanges
Return windows, the condition items must be in, who pays for return shipping, how long a refund takes, and which items are final sale. These are policy questions with exact answers. A wrong answer here is expensive, because the customer acts on it and then holds you to it.
3. Shipping
Where you ship, the cost of each option, free shipping thresholds, delivery times by region, and customs or duties for international orders. Put these in one table on one page if you can. A table is easy for people to scan and easy for a chatbot to quote.
4. Product questions
Sizes, materials, compatibility, care instructions and what is in the box. The answers live in product pages, size charts and manuals. These questions often come before a purchase, so a good answer can save a sale as well as a ticket.
What the bot should answer, and what must go to a person
Write this rule down before you set up any chatbot. The bot answers questions whose answer is the same for every customer and is written in your policies. A person handles anything that needs access to an account, money or a judgment call.
| Question | Who answers | Why |
|---|---|---|
| How long does shipping take to Canada? | Bot | Same for every customer, written on the shipping page |
| Can I return sale items? | Bot | Written in the returns policy |
| Is this jacket machine washable? | Bot | Written in the product page or care guide |
| Where is my order 10482? | Person or order tracking page | Needs a live order lookup |
| I was charged twice | Person | Payments need account access and a refund decision |
| Change my delivery address | Person | Account and order changes need identity checks |
| My item arrived broken | Person | Needs photos, a judgment and often a replacement |
| Can you make an exception? | Person | Exceptions are a decision, not a policy |
Never let a chatbot take card numbers, passwords or full addresses in the chat. If a question needs them, the bot should send the customer to your secure account page or to your team.
What to give the chatbot
- Your shipping page and returns policy. Make sure the published version is the current one. If you keep an old policy for orders placed before a date, say so clearly in the text, with the date.
- Your FAQ page. If you don't have one, our free FAQ generator drafts questions and answers from a page you already have.
- Product pages, size charts and care guides. Public pages can be imported from your website. Manuals and spec sheets in PDF can be uploaded as documents.
- Your contact details. The bot needs somewhere to send people when it cannot help.
Leave out anything you would not say to a customer: internal notes, supplier prices and draft policies.
Test it like a customer
- Take 20 real questions from last month's emails, across all four groups.
- Add 10 questions your policies do not answer, such as a country you don't ship to or a product you don't sell.
- Add five questions that must go to a person: a double charge, an address change, a damaged item.
- Score each answer. The bot passes only if it answers the first group from your policies, refuses the second group, and sends the third group to your team.
The replies your team still writes
A chatbot takes the repeat policy questions. Your team keeps the order problems, payments and exceptions, and those replies benefit from good templates. The free canned responses library has 100 templates, including orders, refunds and billing. For a reply to one specific message, the AI reply generator uses only the policy text you paste, so it does not invent order numbers, discounts or dates.
How Paperlink AI handles store questions
Paperlink AI answers only from the documents you upload and the public website pages you import. It does not connect to your store system, so it cannot look up a specific order or change an account. When your content does not hold the answer, it says so and shows a "Need a human?" card with your support email or support page. You can also let visitors send the conversation to your support email in one click.
Imported pages update weekly on Starter, daily on Growth and up, so a change to your shipping page reaches the bot on the next update. Uploads can be PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, CSV, TXT and Markdown. At your limit the widget shows your contact card instead of going silent. To add the widget to a store, see the install guide for website builders, and the support contact guide for the fallback card.