Live Chat for Shopify

Natalie Miller
Natalie Miller
October 14 · 14 min read
pink background with two white speech bubbles to indicate a chat

You’ve probably heard about live chat by now, so we don’t need a large introduction here. In this article, we want to tell you about the benefits of adding a live chat to your Shopify store and show you some of the best live chat apps out there. So let’s get started.

What is a live chat for Shopify, and how can I get one?

A live chat is a way for customers to communicate with your business in real-time. It allows customers to ask questions and get assistance with their purchase. Live chats are a valuable tool for eCommerce online stores, as they allow customers to get the help they need quickly and easily.

Why are live chats important?

Website visitors are increasingly more impatient with the service time they deem acceptable offered by online businesses. We all know it, as we share this thought: 'I want an answer to my question as quickly as possible. Otherwise, I will visit a different online store that can answer my questions faster'.

Online customers want to receive a feeling of support and importance during their purchasing experience on your online store. The live chat function is one of the smarter customer service solutions to easily assistance your potential buyers. It gives them real-time answers!

The live chat allows online stores to manage customer conversations easily and over one application. The live chat is one of the more popular and modern ways to show reliable customer service to online consumers.

What is the value of live chat for my business?

Live chat is a valuable tool for eCommerce websites as it allows customers to quickly and easily get in touch with support.

By offering live chat on your website, you can provide immediate assistance to potential buyers and address any concerns they may have before completing a purchase.

This gives you more tools at hand to deliver great customer service and customer satisfaction.

How do I add a live chat to my online store?

Adding live chat software to your Shopify online store has never been this easy!

1) The easiest way to get a live chat on Shopify is through the Shopify app store. You can find a variety of live chat options to choose from. Most apps come with added features such as automatic responses and integration with FAQ pages. This allows for efficient customer support through a Shopify app.

https://apps.shopify.com/

2) The more complicated way would be through a live chat widget from native chat apps outside of the Shopify ecosystem. This is essentially a line of code that you need to install on your website to have the live chat function. You can set this code up as you wish (you need coding knowledge, though) to create a fully customizable chat widget. This code will instruct your website to have a chat icon visible on your website. This icon simply needs to be clicked on by the online visitor, and then you can chat away.

The benefits of a having a live chat app

Having accessible and responsive customer support is crucial for building trust and loyalty among your customers. Consider adding a Live Chat to your website and improve your customer support experience. Your customers will thank you for it.

10 Benefits of the Shopify live chat app:

Let us take a look at some of the Shopify live chat app benefits

1. Provide immediate assistance to potential buyers and respond quickly to customer inquiries

2. Address customer concerns before they complete a purchase

3. Build trust and loyalty among your customers

4. Improve the overall customer support experience by managing customer conversations

5. Offer a convenient way for customers to get in touch

6. Chat customization inquiry management by creating automatic responses

7. Resolve customer issues in real-time

8. Increase sales and conversion rates

9. Reduce shopping cart abandonment rates

10. Customize the chat appearance on your Shopify store frontend

A Shopify live chat app is essential for your business. If you want to communicate in a fast, helpful and satisfying manner, you will want to consider activating Shopify Inbox or a different Shopify live chat app for that matter.

This quick and helpful communication you offer in your store will encourage customers to get in touch and purchase easily and quickly.

Considerations with live chat apps

One potential drawback to adding Live Chat to your Shopify store is that it can be expensive, depending on the app or service you choose.

Additionally, it can be time-consuming to manage customer interactions, particularly if you are dealing with a large volume of chats.

It is also important to ensure that your support team is adequately trained in order to provide quality assistance to customers.

Some things to think about before implementing live chat to your website include:

  • The cost of the live chat software or service
  • The time it will take to manage customer interactions
  • Whether your support team is adequately trained to provide quality assistance
  • How the live chat will impact your website's performance
  • How a live chat app provider will handle your customer data and customer privacy

Here are some of the best apps to add live chat for Shopify

Now that you know what live chat is, and which benefits it brings to your business, you can surely benefit from some live chat Shopify app recommendations, right?

A short selection of Shopify live chat apps and their live chat app features

So, now let’s take a look at some of the best live chat apps available.

Shopify Inbox!

https://www.shopify.com/inbox

Shopify Inbox is an app that allows you to manage and respond to customer conversations from a single location. This Shopify live chat app is built into your Shopify store, making for an especially easy activation. All you need is a Shopify store!

With Shopify Inbox, you can quickly and easily reply to customers directly from your email inbox, without having to switch back and forth between different apps or websites.

This can be a valuable tool for eCommerce stores as it allows you to better manage customer interactions and reply to inquiries more efficiently. This is a great live chat solution.

In our humble opinion, this is one of the best live chat app out there. The great thing is that you receive the stellar assistance from the sales and support team on the Shopify staff. Shopify customer support is one of the best out there when it comes to an eCommerce platform.

https://apps.shopify.com/inbox

Why go with Shopify's own live chat app – Shopify Inbox?

Shopify Inbox is filled with live chat capabilities that are going to better your service to your online users:

1. You can manage and respond to inquiries from website visitors and from e-mail – all from a single location

2. Quickly and easily reply to customers directly from your email inbox

3. No need to switch back and forth between different apps or websites

4. Manage customer interactions more efficiently

5. Get a better view of all customer inquiries

6. Easily identify and respond to repeat questions

7. Automatically receive notifications for new conversations

8. Respond to customers faster than ever before

9. Keep all customer communication in one place

10. Streamline your customer support process

One major plus for Shopify Inbox?

Shopify Inbox is a free business chat app built right into your admin. A free live chat for your Shopify store through which you can have unlimited chats with your website visitors.

Naturally, there are other live chat apps with essential live chat features available to download on the Shopify app store. To name a few, Shopify live chat apps include the Tidio live chat. Jivochat live chat, Chatra live chat, Formila live chat, Gorgias live chat and the list continues. Please note that the language that your theme is set up in will be the language of your live chat too.

We will give you an extensive review of our top Shopify live chat apps further below in this blog.

Tidio live chat

https://apps.shopify.com/tidio-chat

Tidio is a live chat tool that allows you to communicate with your customers in real-time.

With Tidio live chat, you can easily answer customer inquiries and provide them with the assistance they need. Tidio also comes with a variety of features such as automatic responses, chatbot integration, and more. Especially, the chatbot feature can help eCommerce store owners to add live chat capabilities to your store and ensure fast answer times without you needing to have a large customer support team.

Tidio's live chat app is easy to add, use and manage.

Tidio's pricing is competitive, which starts with a completely free plan, let's take a look:

https://www.tidio.com/pricing/

Free plan

$0 and allows live chat conversations with 50 users per month

Communicator plan

$19 and allows unlimited chats, 24/5 live chat support and 5 operators who manage multiple chats

Chatbots plan

$39 and allows 40 000 chatbot conversations and 35 chatbot templates and Zapier integration.

Tidio+ plan

A considerable jump to $289 per month. If you could like to know all the services this plan offers, it's extensive, so take a look here.

Apart from Shopify Inbox, Tidio live chat is known to be one of the best live chat apps out there. Let us take a glance at the features of this live chat app:

1. Use Tidio to communicate with your customers in real-time

2. Easily answer customer inquiries

3. Comes with a variety of features such as automatic responses, chatbot integration, and more

4. Improve your customer support experience

5. Get a better view of all customer inquiries

6. Easily identify and respond to repeat questions

7. Automatically receive notifications for new conversations

8. Respond to customers faster than ever before

9. Keep all customer communication in one place

10. Streamline your customer support process

Gorgias live chat

https://apps.shopify.com/helpdesk

Gorgias is a fully fledged helpdesk and ticketing software that also allows you to embed live chat into your Shopify store. Their chatbot that helps businesses automate their customer support. With Gorgias, you can easily reply to customer inquiries and provide them with the assistance they need. Gorgias also comes with a variety of features such as automatic responses, chatbot integration, and more.

This is like the motherload of live chats. It not only helps you respond to customers, it serves as a complete help desk. This is no basic chat app. Gorgias works on support tickets, and the pricing plan of Gorgias live chat also depends on how many support tickets you sign up for.

This is certainly not the most basic chat app out there, it comes with extensive functionality and features.

Gorgias live chat pricing:

https://www.gorgias.com/pricing

Gorgias has five pricing plans available, and each price matches an inquiry volume for the ticketing system:

Starter

$10 for 50 tickets per month

Basic

$60 for 300 tickets per month

Pro

$360 for 2000 tickets per month

Advanced

$900 for 5000 tickets per month

Enterprise
Custom volume – you need to contact their customer support team

Gorgias is also one of the best Shopify live chat apps:

1. Use Gorgias to automate your customer support

2. Reply to customer inquiries without a hitch

3. It offers built-in features that benefit your online store, such as automatic responses

4. Give your customers a better experience as you're there for them at any moment

5. Create an internally better overview what customers are often inquiring about

6. Easily identify and respond to repeat questions, use this information to create a helpful FAQ section on your website

7. Aids in ensuring all online questions are answered promptly with an immediate notification when you receive a chatbot inquiry

9. This keeps customer communication and customer data in one place, easy to see and to manage

10. The apps’ features and tech capabilities allow your business to streamline customer support operations

11. Reporting and analytics conversations making it easier to understand information regarding customer data

Formilla live chat

https://apps.shopify.com/formilla-live-chat

Formilla is a live chat tool that allows you to communicate with your customers in real-time. With Formilla, you can easily answer customer inquiries and provide them with the assistance they need.

Formilla also comes with a variety of features such as automatic responses, chatbot integration, and more.

Here are some unique Formilla live chat features:

1. Chat via an Apple or Android Device

2. Real-time Visitor Monitoring

3. Custom Chatbots

4. A.I. Chatbots

5. Marketing Automation (Email Messaging)

6. and the list continues. To see all the features, take a look here.

Formilla live chat has some competitive pricing too:

https://www.formilla.com/pricing.aspx

Free

$0 (monthly) with one chat agent and unlimited live chats

Premium

$24.99 (monthly) with two chat agents, unlimited live chats and custom bots

Professional

$49.99 (monthly) with two chat agents, unlimited live chats, custom bots and A.I. chatbots

Growth

$69.99 (monthly) with two chat agents, unlimited live chats, custom Bots, A.I. chatbots and desktop & mobile apps

PingMe Facebook messenger chat

https://apps.shopify.com/facebook-chat-1

PingMe is part of the Facebook Messenger Shopify app and can be added as an app on the Shopify app store.

PingMe is a Facebook Messenger bot that allows businesses to automate their customer support. With PingMe, you can easily reply to customer inquiries and provide them with the assistance they need. PingMe also comes with a variety of features such as automatic responses, chatbot integration, and more.

This facebook chat box is slightly different to other Shopify live chats apps in the fact that you get a widget that supports conversations via Facebook Messenger chat.

Of course, you can add the chat icon to your Shopify store, however, in order for some instant messaging conversation to happen, online visitors need to have the Messenger app.

In order to have the Facebook Messenger app, you need to have a Facebook account. You can connect your Facebook page to your Shopify store and PingMe.

It's great that you can link your chat to your Facebook account and therefore your Facebook page, however, if your online visitor does not have Facebook Messenger, then they will not be able to contact you through your live chat.

Hence, it is a great tool to offer support through Facebook Messenger – both on your website and on your Facebook page – but it is also a tool for companies who's marketing is largely reliant on social media.

This option has only two plans. One completely free plan and one premium, which comes to $4.99 per month.

Take a look at this potential live chat app you can add to your Shopify store:

1. Use PingMe to automate your customer support and Easily reply to customer inquiries

2. This live chat app comes with a variety of features such as customizable chat widget, automatic responses, chatbot integration etc.

3. Easily identify and respond to repeat questions and create helpful FAQ's along these lines

4. Automatically receive notifications for new conversations and respond to customers faster than ever before

5. Keep all customer communication in one place and streamline your customer support process through the PingMe Facebook Messenger app.

Some closing thoughts on live chat for Shopify

Now that you have read about how live chat apps work and what they can do for your business in terms of customer satisfaction, we have some closing thoughts for you.

eCommerce store owners need to take the high importance of live chats seriously. Enabling live chat apps to your store enables better customer support to your online visitors. They go hand in hand. You see, customer service solutions bring about more trust for your brand and improve your brand image.

Choose a live chat for Shopify that suits your needs

It is important to choose the live chat app that suits your business best. We mentioned some of the top live chat apps above, Shopify Inbox, Tidio, Gorgias etc. But there are many more options to integrate Shopify chat features. So look at the different solutions to make an educated choice that works for your business. Here are some additional things to think about when choosing your Shopify chat tool:

  • Can you set up a multi-language Shopify live chat, if you are selling in multiple countries?
  • Does the live chat app offer or integrate with a ticketing system?
  • How does the provider handle the customer data coming from your Shopify chat app?
  • Is this a pure chat app, or does it come with additional features on top of the Shopify chat?
  • Do your support agents need to have access to a computer to answer the questions, or does the tool also provide android and iOS apps to answer inquiries on the go?

Think of your budget

It is equally important that, if you sign up for a paid plan, that your live chat purchase price falls well within your budget. Each live chat solution comes with their own pricing structure – some better suited for small business, some more focussed on enterprise customers.

The importance of the live chat for Shopify

Recognize that the live chat is a valuable tool for eCommerce websites, as it allows customers to quickly and easily get in touch with support. Choose a robust Shopify chat app that will see you through many conversations without experiencing issues or glitches. Read the reviews of any of the Shopify live chat apps and see what other users think. They will look like this:

By offering live chat on your website, you can provide immediate assistance to potential buyers and address any concerns they may have before completing a purchase.

Adding live chat to your website can greatly improve your customer support experience. So consider implementing this valuable tool and see the positive impact it can have on your business.

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Natalie Miller
Written by

Natalie Miller

Marketing Manager

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