Shopify Integration
Connect Denser.ai to your Shopify store. Shoppers search live products, add to the cart, check out, and track orders from a chat on every page of your storefront.
Connect your chatbot to your Shopify store and it appears as a chat button on every page of your storefront. Shoppers can ask about your products, see live results with prices and stock, add items to the cart, go to checkout, and check an order's status, all without leaving the page.
What to prepare
- Admin access to your Shopify store (you'll approve the Denser app).
- Admin access to your Denser workspace. Only a workspace admin can connect a store.
- The chatbot set to Public (see Security → Visibility). A private chatbot can't chat on your store.
Connect your store
You can start from Denser or from the Shopify App Store. Both install the same Denser AI app and end with the store connected to one chatbot.
Option A: start from Denser
Open the Shopify tab
In your chatbot dashboard, open Chat and select the Shopify tab. Click Connect Shopify store in the top right. Once a store is connected, the same button reads Manage Shopify.
You can also start from Deploy: the Shopify card opens the same panel.
Install Denser from Shopify
Click Install from Shopify App Store and install Denser AI on your store. Shopify lists the access the app needs and asks you to approve it:
- Products, so the chat can search your catalog.
- Orders, including order history for the last 60 days, so the chat can look up an order's status and, if you turn those actions on, cancel an unshipped order or request a return.
- Customer data on those orders, such as name, email, and address, which Shopify shows as View customer data. The chat uses it to check that a shopper's email matches the order before showing it.
Click Install to approve. (If Denser AI is already installed and asks for new access, the screen is titled Update data access and the button reads Update.) Shopify brings you back to Denser to choose the chatbot, as in Option B.
Follow the setup steps
Back in Denser, the panel shows your store as connected and lists what's left: turn on the chat in your theme, then try it on your store.
Connecting also switches Enable Shopify chat on, on the Shopify tab. Leave it on: while it is off, the chat stays hidden on your store even with the theme embed enabled.
Turn on the chat in your theme
Click Enable in Shopify theme. Shopify's theme editor opens on App embeds with Denser Chat selected. Switch it on if it isn't already, then click Save in the top right.
The chat button and your chatbot's greeting appear in the preview right away.
Try it on your store
Open your storefront and click the chat button. Search for a product you know, add it to the cart, and open checkout to make sure everything works.
Option B: start from the Shopify App Store
Install Denser AI
Open Denser AI on the Shopify App Store, click Install, choose your store, and approve the access listed in Install Denser from Shopify.
Sign in to Denser
Shopify opens Denser. Sign in, or create an account if you don't have one yet. If you belong to more than one workspace, switch to the workspace the chatbot is in using the workspace menu at the top left. Later you can open the same page from Apps in your Shopify admin.
Choose the chatbot
On the page titled Connect your-store.myshopify.com to a chatbot, select the chatbot that should answer shoppers, then click Connect store. A chatbot marked Private can't chat on your store until you make it Public.
No chatbot yet? Click Create a new chatbot, build it from your store's pages, then connect the store from its Shopify tab.
Finish the setup
Denser opens the chatbot's Shopify tab with the same setup steps as Option A: turn on the chat in your theme, then try it on your store.
Choose what the assistant can do
On the chatbot's Actions page, the Shopify card lists what the assistant can do in your store. Switch each one on or off:
| Action | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Search products | Finds products, prices and stock in your store. | On |
| Add to cart, View cart, Checkout | Adds a product from the results to the shopper's cart, shows the cart, and shows the checkout button. | On |
| Order status, Order lookup form, My orders | Looks up an order from its number and checkout email, or lists a signed-in shopper's recent orders. | On |
| Cancel order | Checks an unshipped order can be cancelled, asks the shopper to confirm, then cancels it and refunds how they paid. | Off |
| Request a return | Lists what can be returned, asks the shopper to confirm, then sends the return request for you to approve. | Off |
Cancelling and returns change orders, so they stay off until you switch them on, and they always wait for the shopper's confirmation. Test them in the action's test chat first: the test chat runs actions for real. See Actions for how actions work.
Connected before cancelling and returns were added?
Stores connected earlier approved products and orders only. To use Cancel order or Request a return, click Reconnect Shopify on the Shopify tab and approve the new access in Shopify.
Customize the storefront chat
The Shopify tab has the same Appearance, Messages, and AI Settings as Website chat, and they are shared: your store's chat looks and answers like the chat on your website, and a change made on either tab applies to both. Only Enable Shopify chat is separate, so you can show the chat on your website and hide it on your store, or the other way round.
Click Preview on the Shopify tab to try the storefront chat before you open your store.
One theme at a time
App embeds are switched on per theme. If you publish a different theme later, turn Denser Chat on in that theme too, or the chat won't show.
What shoppers can do
- Find products. Questions like "what coffee makers do you sell?" return product cards from your live catalog with images, prices, and sold-out labels. Use the arrows to browse them.
- Add to the cart. Click + on a card, or ask "add the black one to my cart". Products with options open a picker for size, color, and so on. Items go into your store's real cart.
- Check the cart and check out. The cart stays at the bottom of the chat and opens with a tap. Checkout takes shoppers to your normal Shopify checkout, where payment and shipping work as they always do.
- Track an order. Shoppers tap Track my order and enter their order number and the email they used at checkout. Shoppers signed in to your store see their recent orders without typing anything.
- Ask anything else. Questions about shipping, returns, sizing, and policies are answered from your chatbot's sources, as on any other channel.
The chat button uses your chatbot's icon, and its greeting bubbles come from your chatbot's customization settings.
Manage or disconnect
Click Manage Shopify on the Shopify tab, or on the Deploy page's Shopify card, to see the connected store and its setup steps again.
- To hide the chat for a while, switch Enable Shopify chat off on the Shopify tab. Your store stays connected, and switching it back on brings the chat back. (Switching off Denser Chat under App embeds in Shopify's theme editor does the same from the Shopify side.)
- To remove the store, click Disconnect store in the panel and confirm with Disconnect Shopify. You can also uninstall the Denser app from your Shopify admin (Settings → Apps); the panel then offers Reconnect Shopify.
Deleting the chatbot also disconnects its store, so the store can then be connected to another chatbot.
A store can be connected to one chatbot at a time. To move it to another chatbot, disconnect it from the first one.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| No chat button on the storefront | Check that Enable Shopify chat is on, on the Shopify tab, and that the chatbot is Public. Then, in the theme editor, check that Denser Chat is on under App embeds for your published theme, and that you clicked Save. |
| The panel shows Reconnect Shopify | The app was uninstalled or needs your approval again. Click Reconnect Shopify and approve in Shopify. |
| "Already connected to another chatbot" | Disconnect the store from the chatbot it's connected to, then connect it here. |
| An order can't be found | Shoppers need the order number and the exact email used at checkout. Orders placed without an email can't be looked up. |