I tested 7 platforms to find the best chatbot for e commerce in 2025

So, your e-commerce store is finally taking off. The good news? Sales are up. The not-so-good news? Your support inbox is exploding.

You've probably seen other stores using AI chatbots to give customers instant answers, and you're thinking it might be time to get one yourself. But with so many options out there, how do you pick the right one? The last thing you want is to get locked into a complicated, expensive tool that just doesn't work with the systems you already have in place.

I’ve been there. That’s why I rolled up my sleeves and tested the top platforms to find the best chatbot for e-commerce. This guide is the result of that deep dive, showing you which tools actually save time, keep customers happy, and boost sales, all without making you ditch the helpdesk you and your team already know and love.

What is an e-commerce chatbot?

At its core, an e-commerce chatbot is just an automated assistant for your online store. Instead of forcing customers to dig through FAQ pages or wait hours for a reply, a chatbot gives them instant answers, day or night.

But modern bots are much more than a glorified search bar. A good one can:

• Answer questions before a sale, like "Do you ship to Canada?" or "Is this available in a medium?"

• Handle post-purchase support, like tracking an order or starting a return.

• Act like a personal shopper, recommending products based on what a customer is looking for.

• Help recover abandoned carts by popping up with a discount code or answering a last-minute question.

• Know when to quit, seamlessly passing a tricky conversation to a human agent.

Basically, a solid e-commerce chatbot takes the repetitive stuff off your team's plate. This frees them up to focus on the conversations that actually require a human touch, while your customers get the help they need, right away.

How I picked the best e-commerce chatbot platforms

Finding the right chatbot isn't about picking the one with the flashiest website or the longest feature list. Some are simple, rule-based bots, while others are powered by some seriously smart AI. Some make you move your entire support operation to their platform, while others play nicely with the tools you already use.

To sort through it all, I judged every platform on five things that I think really matter for a growing store.

My criteria for the best tools:

1. Ease of setup: How fast can I actually get this thing working? I looked for platforms that are genuinely self-serve, not ones that require a three-month onboarding project.

2. Integration power: Does it connect to my current helpdesk and knowledge sources (like our internal Google Docs or old support tickets)? The best tools should feel like an upgrade to your current workflow, not a total replacement.

3. Customization and control: Can I make the bot sound like my brand? Can I control which questions it answers and which it leaves for my team? Can it pull real-time data, like order status?

4. AI intelligence: How smart is this thing, really? I focused on platforms that could learn from my business data, like thousands of past support tickets, to give answers that are actually accurate and on-brand.

5. Transparent pricing: Is the pricing easy to understand? I immediately disqualified tools with confusing "per-resolution" models that punish you for having a busy month.

The best e-commerce chatbot platforms in 2025

Here’s a quick rundown of my top picks. I’ve broken them down by what they're best for, their standout feature, and how they charge you.

Tool	Best For	Key Feature	Pricing Model
eesel AI	Adding powerful AI to your existing helpdesk	Trains on past tickets & simulates resolutions	Flat monthly fee
Gorgias	Shopify-native stores needing an all-in-one helpdesk	Deep Shopify integration	Per ticket
Tidio	Small businesses wanting a simple, free starting point	All-in-one live chat and chatbot	Per seat
Intercom	Large enterprises needing a comprehensive support suite	Proactive engagement tools	Custom (High-tier)
Drift	B2B companies focused on sales and lead conversion	Conversational marketing features	Custom (High-tier)
ManyChat	Stores that engage mostly on social media	Instagram & Facebook Messenger automation	Per contact

A closer look at the 6 best e-commerce chatbot tools

Alright, let's get into the details of what makes each of these platforms good, and where they might not be the right fit for a busy e-commerce store.

1. eesel AI

The whole idea behind eesel AI is that you shouldn't have to switch helpdesks just to get good AI. Instead of making you migrate everything, it plugs right into platforms like Gorgias, Zendesk, and Intercom with just a few clicks. Its main advantage is its brain. eesel AI reads your past support tickets, macros, and knowledge bases (whether they're in Google Docs or Confluence) to learn your brand's voice and product details, so it can give surprisingly accurate answers from day one.

eesel AI’s integrations dashboard, showing how it connects to various helpdesks and knowledge sources, making it the best chatbot for e-commerce integration.

What I really liked was the simulation mode. Before you even turn the bot on, you can run it against thousands of your past tickets to see exactly how it would have responded. This gives you a real, tangible prediction of your automation rate. It lets you start small, automating just the simple questions, and then gradually give it more responsibility as you see it working. You have full control, and the flat-rate pricing means your bill won't suddenly double during your busy season.

The eesel AI simulation mode provides a clear prediction of the automation rate, a key feature for the best chatbot for e-commerce.

Pros:

• You can get it live in a few minutes with one-click helpdesk integrations.

• It learns from your actual support history, so answers are on-brand and context-aware.

• The simulation mode lets you test its performance on your own data before launching.

• It connects to all your knowledge, wherever it lives (helpdesk, docs, Shopify, etc.).

• Pricing is straightforward and predictable, with no fees per ticket.

Cons:

• You need to have an existing helpdesk (though that’s kind of the point).

• With so many integrations and settings, it can take a moment to explore everything it can do.

Pricing: Starts at $239/month (billed annually) for up to 1,000 AI interactions.

2. Gorgias

Gorgias is a full-blown customer service helpdesk built from the ground up for e-commerce, and its Shopify integration is second to none. It pulls everything, email, social media DMs, live chat, and texts, into one dashboard. Its chatbot feature, "Automate," is great at handling common tasks like tracking orders or processing returns because it can pull data directly from Shopify.

This all-in-one setup is perfect for stores that are all-in on the Shopify ecosystem and want one place to manage customer conversations. The catch is the pricing model, which is based on the number of tickets. This can get expensive, fast, as your store grows. And while it's fantastic for Shopify-related questions, it's not as flexible if your internal knowledge is scattered across other places like Google Docs or Notion.

Pros:

• Incredibly deep integration with Shopify.

• Brings all your customer communication channels into one place.

• Strong automation for order tracking, returns, and other common e-commerce questions.

Cons:

• Ticket-based pricing can be unpredictable and add up quickly.

• Its automation works best within the Gorgias and Shopify world.

• It's not designed to learn from knowledge living outside of its own system.

Pricing: Starts at $50/month for 350 tickets, with plans scaling up from there.

3. Tidio

If you're just dipping your toes into chatbots, Tidio is a solid place to start. It bundles live chat, chatbots, and email marketing into one package, and it even has a pretty decent free plan. Its visual chatbot builder is really easy to use; you can drag and drop to create simple conversation flows without writing any code. There are also templates for common tasks like greeting visitors or offering discounts to get you started.

Tidio is a great first step, but you might bump up against its limits as your store gets bigger. Its AI, "Lyro," is capable, but it doesn't automatically learn from your historical support data the way a tool like eesel AI does. That means you'll have to manually teach it a lot of what it needs to know. With so many features packed in, the interface can also feel a bit crowded.

Pros:

• A free plan is available with basic live chat and chatbot features.

• The visual flow builder is intuitive and code-free.

• It combines several marketing and support tools in a single platform.

Cons:

• The AI doesn't learn from your past conversations automatically.

• It can get pricey as you add more "operators" or unlock more features.

• The interface feels less focused than more specialized tools.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29/month per seat.

4. Intercom

Intercom is one of the biggest names in customer communication, known for its sleek design and tools for proactively engaging customers. It’s not just a chatbot, it’s a whole suite of products for sales, marketing, and support. Its AI bot, Fin, is great at holding natural-sounding conversations and is built for large teams that need a sophisticated system to manage everything at scale.

Intercom is fantastic for brands that want to send targeted, proactive messages to visitors. But all that power comes with a hefty price tag, putting it out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses. It’s also a complete ecosystem. When you choose Intercom, you’re not just adding a chatbot, you're moving your whole operation over to their platform, which can be a massive project.

Pros:

• Beautiful, easy-to-use interface for both agents and customers.

• Excellent for sending proactive messages and segmenting users.

• Powerful AI that can handle complex workflows.

Cons:

• Very expensive, with pricing aimed at large companies.

• It’s a "rip and replace" solution, meaning you have to migrate off your current tools.

• It's often more complex than what a typical e-commerce store needs for support.

Pricing: Starts at $74/month for very basic features; most businesses will need plans costing several hundred dollars per month or more.

5. Drift

Drift pretty much invented the term "conversational marketing," and its platform is laser-focused on B2B sales teams. Its chatbot is designed to grab the attention of website visitors, figure out if they're a good lead, and book a meeting with a sales rep on the spot. It's really good at finding people who are ready to buy and connecting them to a human right away.

While Drift is the king of its specific hill, it's usually the wrong tool for a B2C e-commerce store. Its goal isn't to solve a high volume of support tickets; it's to generate sales leads. The features just don't line up with common e-commerce needs like order tracking or return requests. On top of that, its premium pricing makes it one of the most expensive options out there.

Pros:

• Top-notch at qualifying leads and scheduling sales meetings.

• Great for identifying and engaging high-value B2B website visitors.

• Integrates deeply with sales CRMs like Salesforce.

Cons:

• Extremely expensive.

• Built for B2B sales, not e-commerce customer support.

• The entire feature set is misaligned with typical e-commerce problems.

Pricing: Not listed publicly, but it’s widely reported to start around $2,500/month.

6. ManyChat

If your brand lives and breathes on Instagram and Facebook, ManyChat is your tool. It's the clear leader for automating conversations on social media. You can use it to automatically reply to post comments, answer DMs, and run promotional campaigns, all inside the social apps. For any e-commerce store that gets a lot of questions and sales through social, ManyChat is a game-changer.

You can build conversation flows to capture emails, send product links, and answer common DMs. But its focus is almost entirely on social media. It isn't designed to be the main chatbot on your website, and it doesn't integrate with helpdesks to give you a single view of all customer conversations. You’d need to pair it with another tool to cover all your bases.

Pros:

• Best-in-class automation for Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

• Perfect for running marketing campaigns on social media.

• Easy-to-use interface with plenty of templates.

Cons:

• Not meant for on-site website chat.

• Doesn't connect with helpdesks to unify your support channels.

• Pricing is based on contacts, which can add up if your social following is large.

Pricing: Free plan available. The Pro plan starts at $15/month for 500 contacts.

This video explains why having the best chatbot for e-commerce is essential for store owners in 2025.

4 tips for choosing the best e-commerce chatbot for your business

Feeling a bit lost in the options? Don't worry. Picking the right tool just comes down to knowing what you really need. Here are a few tips to help you decide.

1. Stick with the tools you already use. The last thing your team wants is to learn a whole new helpdesk. Look for a chatbot that plugs into your current workflow. A tool like eesel AI is built specifically for this, saving you the headache of a big migration project.

2. Test it with your own data. Any company can claim a high automation rate on its website. The only way to know for sure is to see how a bot performs with your customer questions. Look for platforms that have a simulation mode so you can see real results before you commit.

3. Make sure it learns from the right places. All of your team's hard-earned knowledge is sitting in your past support tickets, internal docs, and help articles. The best AI chatbots learn from these sources automatically instead of starting from scratch.

4. Watch out for sneaky pricing. "Pay-per-resolution" sounds good in theory, but it can lead to a nasty surprise on your bill after a busy sales season. A predictable, flat monthly fee lets you scale without stress.

The verdict: What is the best chatbot for e-commerce?

Ultimately, the best chatbot for e-commerce really depends on your store's size and what you're trying to achieve.

• If you're just starting out and want a simple, free tool to get your feet wet, Tidio is a great choice.

• If your entire customer base hangs out on Instagram, ManyChat is essential.

• If your business is deeply woven into the Shopify platform, Gorgias offers a seamless, native feel.

• But for most growing e-commerce businesses that already have a helpdesk they like, the goal is to add a layer of smart automation without disrupting everything. For that, eesel AI is the clear winner.

It respects the tools you already use, learns from your unique business data, and gives you the confidence to automate support safely. It delivers the kind of AI power you'd expect from an expensive, enterprise platform, but with the simplicity of a tool you can set up yourself in an afternoon.

Ready to see what AI can do for your customer support? Start a free trial of eesel AI and get it running in minutes.