How a Shopify chatbot can create a draft order for exchange requests

If you're running a Shopify store, you know the drill with product exchanges. They can be a total headache. It’s a manual, slow process that usually involves a long email chain, a frantic search in the Shopify admin, and way too much room for human error. For your customers, it’s a frustrating roadblock that can spoil an otherwise great shopping trip. For your support team, it’s a repetitive chore that pulls them away from complex problems that actually build loyalty and drive sales.

But what if you could put that whole process on autopilot? Imagine a customer messaging you that they need a different size. Within minutes, a draft order for the new item is created and an invoice is on its way, all without a support agent having to do a thing. That's what a modern AI chatbot can do for you.

This guide will give you a clear overview of how this automation works. We’ll look at the tech that makes it happen, compare the different tools you could use, and walk through the steps to get a powerful, automated exchange workflow set up in your store.

The automated exchange workflow

To really get why an automated system is so much better, it helps to first look at the clunky, manual process most support teams are stuck with. A normal exchange request involves a lot of back-and-forth. The customer emails your support team, an agent gets to it when they can, and then has to reply to ask for more details. After that, the agent has to log into Shopify, check if the new item is even in stock, create a draft order, and then email the invoice back. Every single step adds delays and creates a chance for something to go wrong.

Now, let's look at the alternative: an automated workflow using a Shopify chatbot to create a draft order for exchange requests. The customer opens a chat on your site, and the AI instantly figures out they want an exchange. It asks for the new size or color, checks your store's data in real-time to confirm the item is in stock, and verifies the shipping address. Then, using an API connection, it automatically creates the draft order in Shopify and sends a confirmation to the customer, along with a link to pay if there's a price difference. The whole thing is over in minutes, works 24/7, and gives the customer a smooth, instant experience while completely freeing up your support team.

Key components of an automated exchange chatbot

Making this automated workflow happen isn't magic; it just takes a few key pieces of tech working together. Here’s a look at what an effective chatbot needs to have going on behind the scenes.

Understanding customer intent with natural language processing

First things first, the chatbot has to actually get what your customer is saying. It needs to be smart enough to tell the difference between "I want to exchange this" and "What's your return policy?" or "Does this shirt come in blue?" This is where simple, keyword-based bots just fall flat. They get tripped up by typos, slang, or questions phrased in a way they weren't programmed for.

This is where good AI really makes a difference. Modern platforms like eesel AI don't just look for keywords; they actually learn from your store's past support tickets. By looking at thousands of your previous customer conversations, the AI understands the unique ways your customers talk about exchanges and returns. This means it can have much more accurate and helpful conversations right from the start.

Tapping into your knowledge sources and store data

A chatbot that’s cut off from your store’s data is pretty much useless for handling exchanges. It needs real-time access to your Shopify product catalog to check if the item they want is in stock. It also needs to know your store's return policy and be able to look up the customer's order history.

A big drawback of many chatbots is that they can only pull answers from a single FAQ page. That leaves them stumped when a customer asks something dynamic like, "Is the large size in stock?" A solid solution has to bring together knowledge from all your business sources. eesel AI does this by connecting directly with your Shopify store, your help center, and even internal docs in Google Docs or Confluence. This gives the bot a complete picture of your business, so it can confirm product availability and answer policy questions correctly.

This infographic shows how a Shopify chatbot integrates with various knowledge sources to handle exchange requests effectively.

Taking action with custom API calls

Answering questions is one thing, but a truly automated chatbot needs to be able to do things. Creating a draft order in Shopify is an "action" that requires the chatbot to talk to Shopify's API. This is where most standard customer service chatbots hit a wall. They're built to chat, not to act.

This problem often pushes businesses down a couple of frustrating paths: either hiring developers for a complicated, custom-coded solution or trying to patch together a clunky workflow with a bunch of different tools like Zapier. The best way to avoid this mess is with a customizable workflow engine. eesel AI's AI Actions are designed for exactly this. You can easily set up your AI agent to perform specific tasks, like creating a draft order, tagging a ticket in your helpdesk, or passing a chat to a human, all from a simple, self-serve platform.

A screenshot of the eesel AI platform where users can build custom AI Actions, such as a Shopify chatbot to create draft order for exchange requests.

Comparing tools for automating exchanges: Native vs. specialized AI platforms

When you're ready to get a chatbot, you'll find there are a few different types of tools out there. Each has its pros and cons, especially for a specific, action-based task like creating a draft order for an exchange.

Shopify's own tools (Shopify Inbox)

Shopify Inbox is a free and genuinely handy tool that comes with every Shopify plan. It’s a great place to start with live chat. It lets you talk to customers right from your Shopify admin and gives you helpful context, like seeing what’s in their cart. It even has some AI that suggests replies to your agents to help them answer faster.

But it’s important to know what it can't do. Shopify Inbox is there to assist your agents, not to be a full automation platform. It's designed to make your human team more efficient, but it can't handle a multi-step process like an exchange on its own. A person still has to be there to ask the questions, check the inventory, and create the draft order by hand.

• Pricing: Free with all Shopify plans.

Third-party helpdesks with chatbot add-ons

Popular helpdesks like Gorgias and Tidio are often the next step up for growing stores. They pull all your customer communication channels (email, chat, social media) into one place and offer chatbot features to handle common questions. Gorgias, for example, is great at letting agents see and edit order details without ever leaving the helpdesk.

While these tools are great for human-led support, their chatbot automation can be a bit stiff. They're mainly built to deflect simple questions like "Where is my order?" by pointing to an FAQ. Trying to set up a more complex, transactional workflow like creating a draft order often isn't possible with their standard chatbot builders. You might have to upgrade to their priciest plan or pay for professional services to get that kind of functionality, assuming they even offer it.

• Gorgias Pricing: Plans start at $10/month for 50 tickets, with higher tiers at $60/mo (300 tickets), $360/mo (2,000 tickets), and $900/mo (5,000 tickets). Automation features can cost extra.

• Tidio Pricing: Tidio has a free plan with basic features. Paid plans include the Communicator plan ($25/month), the Chatbots plan ($29/month), and the all-in Tidio+ plan ($394/month).

eesel AI's integrated and customizable approach

This is where a specialized platform like eesel AI really shines. It’s designed to fill the gaps left by other tools. Instead of making you switch helpdesks, eesel AI plugs right into the tools you already use, like Gorgias or Zendesk, and gives them powerful automation capabilities.

Here’s what sets it apart for a workflow like this:

1. Get going in minutes: eesel AI is a true self-serve platform. You can connect your store, configure your AI agent, and launch it without ever having to sit through a mandatory sales demo.

2. Customizable Actions: Its flexible workflow engine is built to handle specific, transactional tasks. You can easily set up an AI Action to create a draft order in Shopify, which is something most other chatbots just can't do out of the box.

3. Risk-Free Simulation: This part is a huge confidence booster. Before your AI agent talks to a single live customer, you can run it in a simulation mode on thousands of your past support tickets. You get to see exactly how it would have handled every exchange request, check its accuracy, and get a clear idea of its performance and how much money it will save you.

• eesel AI Pricing:

Plan	Monthly Price (Billed Monthly)	Key Features for Shopify
Team	$299	AI Copilot for agents, trains on website/docs, Slack integration.
Business	$799	Everything in Team + AI Agent, AI Actions (for draft orders), trains on past tickets, bulk simulation.
Custom	Contact Sales	Advanced actions, custom integrations, multi-agent orchestration.

How to set up an automated exchange workflow

Getting this workflow running doesn't have to be some huge technical nightmare. Here’s a simple, step-by-step way to think about it.

Step 1: Decide what the chatbot should handle

Before you build anything, figure out exactly what you want the bot to take care of. A great starting point is automating simple, one-for-one exchanges, like swapping a t-shirt for a different size of the same shirt. You can then set a rule to send more complex requests... over to a human agent.

This is easy to set up on a platform that lets you be picky with your automation. With eesel AI, for example, you can create precise rules that tell the AI agent exactly when to step in and when to immediately pass the conversation to your team.

This screenshot shows how you can set up precise rules for a Shopify chatbot to create draft order for exchange requests, ensuring it only handles specific scenarios.

Step 2: Plug in your data sources

Next, you need to give your AI the information it needs to be helpful. This means connecting it to your Shopify product catalog, your help center articles (especially your return and exchange policy), and most importantly, your past support conversations so it can learn your brand's voice.

With eesel AI's one-click integrations, this step is super simple. You can instantly connect all these sources, giving your bot the context it needs to answer questions correctly and check inventory in real time.

An image of the eesel AI platform showing how to connect various data sources to train a Shopify chatbot to create draft order for exchange requests.

Step 3: Map out the conversation flow

Now it's time to plan the chat. The best flow is one that feels simple and natural for the customer. The bot should greet the user, ask for their order number, confirm the item they want to exchange, and then ask what they'd like instead (e.g., "What new size do you need?"). After that, it should verify the new item is in stock and confirm the shipping address.

Using a prompt editor, like the one inside eesel AI, you can easily define the bot's tone of voice and guide it through this exact sequence, making sure the experience is smooth and feels human.

Step 4: Build and test the action

This is the final and most important piece of the puzzle. You'll set up an AI Action to take all the info it has collected, the customer's ID, the new product variant, and the shipping address, and send that data to the Shopify API to create the draft order.

Instead of needing a developer to write code, you can build this action right in eesel AI's no-code workflow builder. And before you turn it loose on your customers, you can use the simulation mode to test the entire flow on hundreds of your past exchange tickets. This lets you confirm that it works perfectly every time, so you can feel completely confident before you go live.

A screenshot demonstrating the simulation mode used to test a Shopify chatbot to create draft order for exchange requests before it goes live.

Automate exchanges and scale support with a Shopify chatbot

Manual exchanges are a major drag on any growing Shopify store. They eat up your support team's time and create a clunky experience for your customers. An AI chatbot that connects deeply with Shopify and can actually take action is the best way to solve this problem for good.

When you're looking for the right tool, focus on platforms that do more than just answer simple questions. Look for one that offers truly customizable actions and gives you a safe, reliable way to test your automation before it ever interacts with a real customer.

eesel AI is built to handle complex, transactional workflows like this from day one, letting you go live in minutes, not months. Start a free trial to see how you can automate your exchange process today.