Shopping Assistant explainedUpdated 3 days ago
Who can use this feature?
Most shoppers who visit your store have questions before they buy — about products, sizing, availability, or whether something is right for them. Without a way to answer those questions in the moment, many will leave without purchasing.
Shopping Assistant is AI Agent's sales capability. It engages shoppers in real-time conversations to help them find products, understand their options, and complete a purchase. Unlike a support agent, which handles post-purchase inquiries and resolves issues, Shopping Assistant is focused on the pre-purchase experience, guiding shoppers from discovery to checkout.
In this article, you'll learn:
- What Shopping Assistant does
- How Shopping Assistant works
- How buying intent shapes conversations
- Selling style
- Get started with Shopping Assistant
What Shopping Assistant does
Shopping Assistant can engage with shoppers across chat, email, and SMS. In a conversation, it can:
- Answer product questions — respond to shoppers' questions about sizing, availability, compatibility, and more, so they can make confident decisions without leaving your store to search elsewhere
- Recommend products — suggest products that match what a shopper is looking for, based on their browsing activity, cart, and what they've told Shopping Assistant
- Use discounts — generate unique discount codes or surface active automatic discounts from your Shopify store to help close a sale
For a detailed explanation of how each capability works, see:
How Shopping Assistant works
Shopping Assistant doesn't follow a fixed script. It uses AI to read the context of each conversation and make real-time decisions about what to say, recommend, or offer.
It does this by combining 2 things: what it knows about each shopper, and what it knows about your products.
What Shopping Assistant knows about each shopper
Shopping Assistant observes each shopper's activity during their visit to build a picture of who they are and what they're looking for. It tracks:
- Products viewed — which product pages they've visited
- Page views — what pages they've explored, such as FAQs, reviews, or category pages
- Current page — which page they're currently browsing
- Cart contents — what items are currently in their cart
- Purchase history — what they've bought from your store before (requires the shopper to be signed in to your Shopify store)
What Shopping Assistant knows about your products
Shopping Assistant draws on your Shopify product catalog, your store website, and any custom product information you've added in Gorgias to understand what you sell. It can also use guidance to apply additional context, for example suitability notes or instructions about how to approach certain types of shoppers.
See Manage your product information for AI Agent to review or update what Shopping Assistant knows about your products.
How buying intent shapes conversations
Shopping Assistant uses the signals from a shopper's activity to assess their buying intent: how likely they are to make a purchase. This assessment isn't static: it updates in real time as the conversation progresses and the shopper's behavior changes.
There are 3 stages of buying intent: discovery, interested, and ready to buy.
Shopping Assistant uses buying intent to adapt how it responds. At the Discovery stage, it might ask questions to understand what the shopper needs. At the Ready to buy stage, it might mention an available discount or encourage the shopper to complete their purchase.
| Stage | What it means | Key signals |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | The shopper is browsing with no clear purchase signal | Vague questions, broad exploration, logistics questions with an empty cart |
| Interested | The shopper has clear interest in a product but hasn't committed | Mentions a specific product or category, asks about variants, sizing, or restocks |
| Ready to buy | The shopper has strong purchase intent | Cart contains products, asks about checkout or shipping, expresses intent to buy |
Selling style
Your selling style setting controls how proactively Shopping Assistant engages shoppers: how quickly it makes recommendations, when it introduces discounts, and how assertively it tries to close a sale.
There are 3 selling styles:
- Educational — Shopping Assistant asks questions, shares product information, and lets shoppers lead. It avoids discounts and recommendations unless the shopper is clearly ready.
- Moderate — Shopping Assistant takes a balanced approach, making suggestions when appropriate and lightly nudging shoppers who show interest.
- Promotional — Shopping Assistant is more assertive: it surfaces products and discounts earlier, and uses stronger calls to action to drive conversions.
Selling style works together with buying intent. The same selling style setting produces different behavior depending on where the shopper is in their journey.
To configure your selling style and discount strategy, see Customize your selling and discount strategy.
Get started with Shopping Assistant
Shopping Assistant is included with AI Agent — there's no separate setting to turn it on.
If you subscribed to AI Agent before May 28, 2025, your plan may not include Shopping Assistant. Go to AI Agent > Shopping Assistant to check. If you see an upgrade prompt, you'll need to upgrade your subscription before you can use it.
Once you have access, we recommend setting up chat on your website if you haven't already — Shopping Assistant works on email and SMS, but delivers the best experience for shoppers on chat. Chat is also required for features like AI FAQs and search assist.
Then configure your settings:
- Customize your selling style and discount strategy — choose how proactively Shopping Assistant engages shoppers and set your discount options
- Control which products Shopping Assistant recommends — promote products you want prioritized, or exclude products you don't want recommended
- Set up AI FAQs — surface AI-generated product questions on your product pages to prompt shoppers before they ask
- Set up search assist and ask anything input — proactively invite shoppers to start a conversation as they browse your store
