A step-by-step guide to connecting Shopify and Zendesk APIs to your chatbot

It's 2 AM. A customer is on your site, wondering where their order is. Your support team is asleep, and that customer is getting more annoyed by the second as they dig through old emails for a tracking number. Sound familiar?

Now, what if they could just ask your website, "Where's my order?" and get an instant, correct answer? That's what happens when you have an AI chatbot that can pull data straight from your backend systems.

This isn't about slapping a fancy widget on your site. It's about building a support experience that runs 24/7, saves your team from answering the same questions on repeat, and keeps customers happy. This guide will walk you through the process of connecting Shopify and Zendesk APIs to your chatbot, letting it handle real e-commerce tasks without you having to write a single line of code.

What you'll need to get started

Before we jump into the steps, let's cover the three things you'll need to have in place.

You'll need a Shopify account, which is where all your product, inventory, and order information lives. It's the source of truth for anything a customer buys. You'll also need a Zendesk account, which is your home base for all customer conversations. It contains all your past support tickets, macros, and help articles, a goldmine of info for training an AI.

Finally, you need an AI automation platform to act as the brain connecting the two. For this guide, we'll be using eesel AI. It's built for a straightforward, do-it-yourself setup that you can get done in minutes, not months.

Connecting Shopify and Zendesk APIs to your chatbot: A 5-step guide

Alright, let's get this done. Here’s how you can connect your systems and get an intelligent chatbot up and running.

Step 1: Set up your AI agent in minutes

First up, you need to create the AI agent that will act as the brains of your chatbot.

With a platform like eesel AI, this part is refreshingly quick. You can sign up and make your first AI agent without having to schedule a demo or talk to a salesperson, which is a common roadblock with other tools. The whole thing is self-serve, so you can get started for free and move at your own pace.

Once you're in, you’ll be prompted to create an agent. Just give it a name and a basic personality in the prompt editor. For instance, you could tell it to be "friendly, helpful, and a little informal" to make sure it matches your brand's voice. You don't have to get it perfect right away; you can always tweak its tone later on.

Step 2: Connect Zendesk to unify your support knowledge

A chatbot is only useful if it has good information. To be genuinely helpful, it needs to learn from your team's collective wisdom, which is probably sitting in your past support tickets. This is where connecting the Zendesk API comes in handy.

Inside the eesel AI dashboard, connecting your Zendesk account is about as simple as it gets. You just go to the "Sources" section, pick the Zendesk integration, and authorize the connection with a click.

That's literally it. No messing around with complex API keys or waiting for a developer. That one click securely gives eesel AI permission to read from your Zendesk account.

This immediately kicks off a training process where the AI starts learning from your historical tickets. It figures out your brand's tone, common customer problems, and what a good resolution looks like. It also pulls in your existing Help Center articles and macros, making sure its answers are consistent with your support docs from the very beginning.

A screenshot of the eesel AI platform showing how a lead generation agent connects to multiple business applications to build its knowledge base.

Step 3: Connect Shopify to access real-time e-commerce data

Now that your chatbot has learned from your support history, it's time to give it access to live e-commerce data. This is what lets it answer questions about specific orders or check if a product is in stock.

Just like with Zendesk, connecting Shopify is a one-click process in the eesel AI "Sources" section. By authorizing the connection, you let the AI securely tap into your product catalog and order database in real-time.

The benefit here is immediate. Your chatbot goes from being a simple FAQ-finder to a dynamic assistant that can handle specific, personal questions. A customer can ask about the status of an order they placed last week, and the bot can pull up the shipping info right away.

Step 4: Configure custom AI actions for powerful automation

This is where things get really interesting. Answering questions is one thing, but taking action is what turns your chatbot from a knowledgeable helper into a productive part of the team. This is the core of connecting Shopify and Zendesk APIs to your chatbot.

In eesel AI, these are called "AI Actions," and you can set them up with a no-code workflow builder. You don't need to be a developer to create some pretty powerful automations. The platform gives you pre-built actions for the most common e-commerce tasks, which you can set up with just a few clicks.

Here are a few examples of actions you can set up that use both your Shopify and Zendesk data.

Look up an order status

When a customer asks something like, "Where is order #SH1234?", the chatbot can use the Shopify connection to find the real-time status and respond, "Your order #SH1234 has shipped and is expected to arrive on Tuesday. Here is the tracking link: [link]."

Process a refund request

If someone says, "I need to return an item," the chatbot can start the process. It might respond, "I can help with that. I've created a support ticket in Zendesk (Ticket #ZD5678) for our team to process your return label."

Check product stock

For a query like, "Do you have the blue hoodie in size L?", the bot can check Shopify's inventory and say, "Yes, the blue hoodie is in stock in size L. Would you like me to add it to your cart?"

Update a support ticket

If a customer conversation ends with, "Thanks, that solves my problem," the AI can automatically close the corresponding Zendesk ticket and add an internal note.

By setting these up, you create a smooth workflow where the chatbot handles tasks across different platforms all within one conversation.

Step 5: Test and deploy your chatbot with confidence

Before you let your new AI agent talk to customers, you want to be sure it's ready. A bot giving wrong answers or getting stuck is the last thing you want.

This is where eesel AI’s simulation mode is a huge help. You can run your AI agent over thousands of your past Zendesk tickets in a safe environment. The simulation shows you exactly how the bot would have responded to real customer questions, giving you a clear forecast of its performance and resolution rate. This risk-free testing lets you fine-tune its knowledge and actions before a single customer ever interacts with it.

Once you're happy with its performance, you can roll it out gradually. You don't have to flip a switch and automate everything at once. You could start by letting the chatbot handle just "order status" questions. The AI will take care of those and automatically pass anything else to a human agent, ensuring a smooth, controlled launch.

An image of the eesel AI simulation feature, which provides a safe testing environment.

Pro tips for your chatbot integration

You've connected your tools and built a smart chatbot. Great. Here are a few extra tips to make it even better.

From overwhelmed to automated

Connecting Shopify and Zendesk APIs to a chatbot used to be a big project that required developers and a lot of time. Not anymore. With a modern, self-serve platform like eesel AI, you can build an effective, automated support system for your e-commerce store in an afternoon.

By following these steps, you can free up your support team from repetitive tasks, give your customers instant 24/7 help, and create a better experience that builds loyalty. You’re not just adding another tool; you’re adopting a smarter way to handle customer support.

Take the next step with eesel AI

Ready to stop switching between tabs and start automating your e-commerce support? Start your free eesel AI trial today and see how easy it is to connect your favorite tools.