How to Integrate an AI Chatbot with the Shopify API for Better Order Management

Integrating Shopify with your virtual shopping assistant provides a game-changing advantage. This is achieved by seamlessly merging the capabilities of e-commerce with the personalized and interactive experience of conversational AI. This combination allows businesses to effortlessly expand their online presence into a dynamic virtual storefront that operates 24x7. 

Customers can browse products, get personalized recommendations, and make purchases in a single conversational interface, skipping having to browse pages of products. This seamless experience can enhance customer satisfaction and help boost sales potential.

This guide will help you easily connect your Shopify Shop instance with the Kore.ai Ai for service to find information regarding Customers, Products, and Orders. We will also explain how to authorize and enable the Shopify action and install the pre-built templates.

Configuring the Shopify Action

Authorizations Supported

The Kore.ai Ai for service supports basic authentication to allow Shopify integration to exchange data. For more information, read the Bot Authorization Overview article.

The Kore.ai AI for Service supports the following authorization types for the Shopify integration:

• Pre-Authorize the Integration –You can pre-authorize the integration by providing necessary credentials to obtain the access token, making the process smoother for developers and customers.
• Allow Users to Authorize the Integration – This method requires the end user to provide credentials during the conversation for authorization. This authorization process involves requesting permission for the Kore.ai Shopify app to access an access token at runtime. To learn more about Shopify account types, see Shopify Documentation.
  

Enable the Shopify Action

Prerequisites:
Before enabling the Shopify action, complete the following requirements:

• Create a custom app for a store in the Shopify admin page.
• Authenticate the custom app by installing the app.
• Generate API credentials and the necessary API access tokens. Refer this link for more information related to custom apps:- Shopify custom apps.
• Configure the app with the following scopes to perform the actions provided by the Kore.ai Ai for Service.
  • read_orders
  • read_products
  • read_customers
• Provide the Admin API access token and Domain provided by Shopify in Kore.ai Pre-authorize the Integration.
• If you don’t have Shopify account credentials, create a developer account in Shopify and write down the login credentials. Use the Shopify Documentation for more information.
• Copy your Shopify account’s API Key and Domain name and keep it for future use.

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Pre-authorize the Integration

You can authorize the integration using your credentials. The developer authorization lets you authorize the integration with preconfigured Kore.ai’s app with the Basic Auth option. See the Kore.ai Documentation for a step-by-step walkthrough to pre-authorize the Shopify  integration. 

Allow End User to Authorize

You can authorize the integration at a user level with their login credentials. The user authorization process involves requesting permission for Kore.ai’s Shopify app to access an access token at runtime. You can also use the basic auth profile to let a user configure the integration at runtime. See the step-by-step process here. 

Install the Shopify Action Templates

Once you have configured a Shopify integration, you can explore and install action templates.

Steps to install action templates:

1. On the Integration Successful dialog, click the Explore Templates button to view the templates. You can also click the Skip for Now button to install the Dialog Task templates later.
2. In the Integration Templates dialog, click the Install button to begin the installation.
3. Once the template is installed, click the Go to Dialog button to view the dialog task.
4. Once all templates are installed, a dialog task for each template is auto-created.
5. Select the desired dialog task from the templates and click Proceed. For example, select the Get products by name task.
6. Once you click Proceed, the dialog task is auto-created, and the canvas opens with all required entity nodes, service nodes, and message scripts.
   

Using the Shopify Action Templates

You can use the Prebuilt Action Templates from your Shopify integration to auto-create dialog tasks and test them using the Talk to Bot option.

Supported TasksDescriptionGet order by IDRetrieves the order details with an order ID from the system.Get orders by customer IDRetrieves orders using the customer ID from the system.Get products by nameRetrieves products using their names from the system.Get product by IDRetrieves product details using the ID from the system.Get products by collection IDRetrieves products using the collection ID from the system.Get variants by product IDRetrieves product variants using the product ID from the system.

Let's use the Get Order By ID action as an example on how to install a Prebuilt Action Template. This function is important to tell the Virtual Assistant which order the customer is referring to when requesting an Order Status update. 

Get order by ID

Steps to find an order using an order ID:

1. Refer to the Installing the Shopify templates section to install this template.
2. The Get Order by ID dialog task is added with the following components:
   

1. getOrderbyID: A user intent to fetch an order by ID.
2. orderID – Entity node for entering the order ID.
3. getOrderbyID Service – A chatbot action service to get an order by ID in an external integration. Click the Plus icon to expand to view the getOrderbyIDService chatbot action component properties.
4. (Optional)In the Component Properties window, click the Edit Request link to edit the request parameters as shown below:
   
   
   To add one or more responses, scroll down and click the +Add Response button:
   

By harnessing Shopify's ecommerce capabilities, Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) can securely handle transactions, manage inventory, and maintain order history. This integration not only simplifies the customer journey but also allows for real-time order tracking, instant customer support, and personalized product suggestions based on individual preferences. Using API integrations, like Shopify, helps redefine the online shopping experience, fostering customer engagement, increasing sales, and setting companies apart in today's competitive retail landscape.

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