Actions
Shopify
Let your agent show products from your Shopify store and send customers a checkout link, using just your store address.
Two Shopify actions let your agent sell from your store inside a DM:
- Shopify — Products — your agent searches your catalogue and answers with what's available, what it costs, and which sizes or colours are in stock. Products appear as cards with their photo.
- Shopify — Checkout link — once the customer has decided, your agent puts exactly what they chose (product, option and quantity) into a cart and sends a link to your store's own checkout, with the subtotal.
There's nothing to install or approve. You type your store address into the action and save. OrbitBase reads your store the way a shopper's browser does, so it only ever sees products you've published. You don't need a Shopify app or a Shopify connection in Settings.
Before you start
- You need to be a workspace owner or admin.
- You need your store's .myshopify.com address. You'll find it in your Shopify admin under Settings → Domains. A custom domain won't work here.
- Your online store must not be password-protected.
- Each Shopify action counts toward your plan's action limit. See Plans and limits.
Set up Shopify — Products
Add the action
Go to Actions and click Add action. Choose Shopify — Products and click Continue.
Name it and write the instructions
Give the action a Name and adjust the starter Instructions. By default, your agent uses it to help customers explore your catalogue and find the right product, and hands order questions to a person rather than guessing.
Enter your store address
Under Store, enter your Store address, for example
your-store.myshopify.com.Choose how many results to show
Set Results to return to a number between 1 and 10. The default is 5. A chat can't usefully show more than a handful.
Choose whether to share product links
Leave Share product links on (it's on by default) to add a View product button to each card, so the customer can go straight to the product page.
Create the action
Click Create action. OrbitBase checks it can read your store before saving.
Set up Shopify — Checkout link
Add the action
Go to Actions and click Add action. Choose Shopify — Checkout link and click Continue.
Name it and write the instructions
The starter Instructions tell your agent to use this once a customer has decided what to buy, confirm what's going in the cart first, and mention that shipping and taxes are added at checkout.
Enter your store address
Under Store, enter the same Store address.
Create the action
Click Create action. As with Products, OrbitBase checks it can read your store before saving.
What the customer sees
With Shopify — Products, the customer gets a card for each product with its photo and price (marked Out of stock when it isn't available), plus a View product button if links are on. The agent's reply covers which sizes or colours are in stock.
With Shopify — Checkout link, the customer gets a card showing the subtotal and what's in the cart, with a Checkout button. A cart can hold up to 5 different items, with up to 10 of each.
The link opens your own Shopify checkout with the items already in the cart. Nothing is ordered until the customer pays there, and shipping, taxes and discount codes are added at checkout as usual. Your agent sends the subtotal exactly as Shopify returns it and never works out a total itself.
Add both actions. Products helps customers choose, and Checkout link closes the sale in the same conversation.
What these actions can't do
- Look up orders. "Where's my order?" and refund questions can't be answered, because orders are private to your store. Your agent hands those to your team. You can use Escalate to Human or Create case for them.
- Change anything in your store. Your agent can't place an order, change a price, apply a discount or issue a refund. A checkout link places nothing: the order only exists once the customer pays.
- Read password-protected stores. If your online store is behind a password, its products can't be read.
- See unpublished products. Only products a shopper could see on your store are available.
Troubleshooting
"That doesn't look like a .myshopify.com address"
Use your store's .myshopify.com address from Settings → Domains in your Shopify admin, not your custom domain.
"We couldn't find a Shopify store at that address"
Check the address for typos, and that you copied it from Settings → Domains.
"That store is password-protected"
Remove the password under Online Store → Preferences in your Shopify admin, then save the action again.
"That Shopify store isn't open for business right now"
Your store's Shopify plan may be paused or inactive. Check its plan in your Shopify admin.