How to create a chatbot purchase flow with Stripe

Let’s be honest, we’ve all abandoned an online shopping cart. You’re ready to buy, but then you’re forced to click through multiple pages, create an account, and fill out what feels like a tax form. It’s clunky, and it’s a huge reason why potential sales fizzle out.

What if your customers could just buy something right in the middle of a chat conversation? No new tabs, no complicated forms. Just a simple, direct way to pay. That’s the core idea of "conversational commerce," and it’s changing how people expect to shop and get support online.

This article is your guide to building a chatbot purchase flow with Stripe. We’ll walk through what you need, why it’s worth it, and how to avoid the common bumps in the road so you can create a buying experience that feels less like a chore and more like a helpful conversation.

The key components for a chatbot purchase flow

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s quickly cover the two main pieces of technology that make this all work: the chatbot flow and the payment processor.

What is a chatbot purchase flow?

A chatbot purchase flow is basically an automated script that guides a customer from "I’m interested" to "Thanks for your order," all within a chat window. Think of it as a super-efficient personal shopper who’s available 24/7.

The whole point is to remove friction. By keeping everything in one place, customers don’t have to bounce over to your website, remember a password, or re-enter their information. Every click you can save is a potential sale you can make.

What is Stripe?

You’ve likely heard of Stripe. It’s a massive payment processing platform known for being secure, reliable, and easy for developers to work with. It’s the engine under the hood that safely handles all the sensitive payment information.

Stripe takes care of security and compliance (like PCI DSS), allowing you to accept payments without shouldering all the risk yourself. Its flexible tools, like Stripe Checkout, are perfect for plugging secure payment options into custom apps, including chatbots.

Why you should build a chatbot purchase flow with Stripe

Adding payments to your chatbot is more than just a cool tech trick. It’s a smart move that can directly affect your sales numbers and make your customers a lot happier.

Here’s why it’s worth the effort:

• You’ll see higher conversion rates. The traditional checkout process is full of holes where customers can drop off. A chatbot purchase flow seals those leaks by making the process short and sweet, which means fewer abandoned carts.

• It creates a better customer experience. Convenience is everything. A chatbot lets people buy something the moment they decide they want it, even if it’s 2 AM on a Sunday. No more waiting for business hours or a sales rep to get back to them.

• Your support team can become a revenue generator. This isn’t just for online stores. Support teams can use a chatbot to handle payments for things like plan upgrades or warranty extensions, all within a help desk like Zendesk or Intercom. A simple question about a feature can easily turn into an upsell without the customer ever leaving the chat.

The two ways to build a chatbot purchase flow

When it’s time to build, you generally have two options. Each has pretty big differences in terms of time, cost, and how much of a headache it will be, so it’s good to know what you’re signing up for.

The traditional path: Custom development

The old-school method involves hiring developers to build a chatbot from the ground up and then painstakingly connect it to Stripe’s APIs to handle payments.

While this gives you complete control over every little detail, it comes with some serious downsides:

• It takes a long time and costs a lot. Building, testing, and launching a secure, payment-ready chatbot isn’t a weekend project. It can take months of developer time and a significant budget.

• The maintenance is all on you. The work isn’t done after you launch. You’re responsible for keeping an eye on security, fixing bugs, and making updates every time something changes.

• It often creates information silos. These custom-built bots usually live on an island, separate from your other business tools like your help desk. This means if a customer needs to talk to a human, their chat history is lost, and they have to start all over again. It’s a recipe for frustration.

The modern path: Using an integrated AI platform

A faster and frankly smarter way is to use an AI platform that does the heavy lifting for you. But you have to be careful, because not all platforms are built the same.

A lot of chatbot builders out there are still standalone tools. They might be easier than coding from scratch, but you’re still stuck managing another piece of software. Getting them to play nice with your help desk or knowledge bases can be a real pain, often involving a lot of manual API tinkering.

This is where a tool like eesel AI takes a different approach. It’s not just another platform to manage; it’s a layer of intelligence that plugs right into the software you already use every day.

With eesel AI, you get:

• Simple, one-click integrations. You can connect it to your help desk and knowledge sources like Shopify or your internal Google Docs in an instant. The AI immediately gets access to product info and customer history without any complicated setup.

• A workflow engine anyone can use. eesel AI’s AI Actions let you build out a complete purchase flow without touching a line of code. Your support team can set up the AI to look up a product in Shopify, confirm the price, and generate a Stripe payment link right in the chat.

• Quick results. You can get a fully working chatbot up and running in minutes, not months.

A look at the AI Actions workflow engine in eesel, demonstrating a no-code chatbot purchase flow with Stripe.

Here’s a quick look at how a modern chatbot purchase flow works with an integrated platform like eesel AI:

1. A customer messages your chatbot asking about a product.

2. The AI figures out what they want and uses an AI Action to find that product in your Shopify store.

3. If it’s in stock, the AI shows the customer the product details and price.

4. The customer says they want to buy it.

5. The AI uses another action to create a secure Stripe payment link and sends it in the chat.

6. The customer clicks the link, pays on Stripe’s checkout page, and the payment is confirmed.

7. The AI confirms the order is complete and can even create a ticket for your team to handle fulfillment.

Understanding the pricing

While your chatbot platform might have a subscription fee, the payment processing costs are handled by Stripe directly. The good news is that Stripe is known for its straightforward, pay-as-you-go pricing.

Here’s a quick look at their standard pricing for online payments:

Feature	Stripe Standard Pricing (Pay-as-you-go)
Online Transactions	2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge.
International Cards	Add 1.5% for international cards.
Currency Conversion	Add 1% if currency conversion is needed.
Monthly Fees	$0
Setup Fees	$0
Hidden Fees	None. Includes fraud protection, reporting, and 24/7 support.

Just a heads-up: This pricing is for US-based businesses and can change. It’s always a good idea to check the official Stripe Pricing page for the latest info for your region.

Go live without guesswork: Testing your chatbot purchase flow

One of the biggest worries when launching a new AI tool is that it might go off the rails, giving customers wrong information or just creating a weird, clunky experience. Most platforms offer very little in the way of real-world testing, so you’re basically flying blind.

This is another spot where eesel AI really shines. Its Powerful Simulation Mode is a huge help for launching AI with confidence.

The eesel AI simulation dashboard tests the chatbot purchase flow with Stripe against historical data.

Instead of just crossing your fingers, you can test your entire setup, including the chatbot purchase flow, against thousands of your real past customer conversations. The simulation shows you exactly how the AI would have replied, gives you solid predictions on your automation rate, and lets you tweak its behavior before it ever talks to a live customer. It’s a risk-free way to make sure everything is running smoothly from day one.

This video demonstrates how an AI agent can create and use a Stripe payment link to facilitate online purchases in a conversational flow.

Making buying as easy as chatting with a chatbot purchase flow with Stripe

Conversational commerce isn’t a fad; it’s here to stay. Building a chatbot purchase flow with Stripe is a solid way to make things easier for your customers, which in turn drives more revenue for you. For a long time, the main barriers were the cost, complexity, and the risk of creating a disconnected experience.

Luckily, modern AI platforms that plug right into your existing tools have made this strategy accessible for just about any business. You no longer have to choose between a powerful chatbot and one that’s easy to manage. With the right platform, you can get the best of both worlds.

Ready to build a powerful chatbot purchase flow without the technical headaches? eesel AI connects directly to your helpdesk and e-commerce tools, letting you automate sales and support confidently. Start your free trial or book a demo to see how it works.