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Connect your Shopify store to IllumiChat and transform your AI assistant into an e-commerce agent that helps customers browse products, track orders, manage carts, and update their account — all through natural conversation.
You do not need to edit your theme’s code. IllumiChat’s chat widget is delivered as a Shopify theme app embed — after you connect your store, you turn it on with a single toggle in your theme editor. The Enable in theme editor button in IllumiChat links you straight to it.

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What Your Customers Can Do

Once connected, your assistant can handle real shopping conversations:

Browse Products

“Do you have any running shoes under $100?”Your assistant searches your Shopify catalog and returns real products with names, prices, images, and links.

Track Orders

“Where’s my order #1042?”Customers can check order status by order number or the email address they used at checkout.

Manage Carts

“Add the blue hoodie in size M to my cart”Your assistant can create a cart, add or remove items, and share a checkout link.

Update Account Info

“Can you update my shipping address?”Look up customer records and update contact details, addresses, and notes.

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Getting Started

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Prerequisites

  • An IllumiChat workspace with Admin access
  • A Shopify store (development stores work for testing)
  • Your store’s .myshopify.com domain
The fastest way to get started is through the assistant creation wizard:
  1. Click New Assistant and check Shopify Store in the assistant type step
  2. Configure your assistant’s name and system prompt
  3. Add your store URL in the Knowledge step — your store will be auto-crawled for product pages, FAQs, and policies
  4. In the Share step, enter your .myshopify.com domain and click Connect to Shopify
  5. Approve permissions in Shopify — you’ll be redirected back automatically
  6. Turn on the widget: click Enable in theme editor, toggle IllumiChat Widget on in the App embeds tab, and click Save
That’s it — your assistant is live on your storefront.
You can enter just your store name (e.g., my-store) without the .myshopify.com part — IllumiChat adds it automatically.
Use your .myshopify.com domain, not your custom domain. If your store has a custom domain like petfood.shop, that won’t work here — IllumiChat needs the underlying .myshopify.com address (e.g., petfood-store.myshopify.com). To find it, go to your Shopify admin dashboard: Settings > Domains. Your .myshopify.com domain is listed there as your default Shopify domain.
Product Search and Order Tracking are enabled by default. To toggle Cart Management or Customer Updates, go to your assistant’s Knowledge Base → Realtime data → Shopify after setup.

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Manual Setup

If you already have an assistant and want to add Shopify:
  1. Go to your assistant’s Knowledge Base → Realtime data → Shopify
  2. Enter your store domain and click Connect
  3. Approve permissions in Shopify
  4. Enable the AI actions you want:
  1. Turn on the widget: in the Enable the widget on your storefront card, click Enable in theme editor, toggle IllumiChat Widget on, and click Save
Start with Product Search and Order Tracking — these cover the most common customer questions. Add Cart Management and Customer Updates when you need them.

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Turning on the widget

IllumiChat’s widget is a Shopify theme app embed — there’s no code to paste and nothing to “install.” You turn it on once per theme:
  1. From your assistant’s Knowledge Base → Realtime data → Shopify, click Enable in theme editor (this deep-links you straight to the right screen), or in Shopify admin go to Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds.
  2. Toggle IllumiChat Widget on.
  3. Click Save.
App embeds are per-theme. If you switch or duplicate your live theme, re-enable IllumiChat Widget on the new theme (Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds).

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Test the Connection

Click Test Connection on the Shopify settings page to verify everything is working. Then visit your storefront and try asking the widget about your products.

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Shopify Actions

Shopify Actions are the AI-powered capabilities your assistant uses to interact with your store data in real time. Each action can be toggled on or off independently. When enabled, your assistant can search your entire Shopify product catalog and return real results including:
  • Product name and description
  • Price and variants (sizes, colors)
  • Product images
  • Direct links to the product page
Example conversations:
  • “What laptops do you have?”
  • “Show me dresses under $50”
  • “Do you have the Nike Air Max in size 10?”

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Order Tracking

Your assistant can look up any order using either the order number or the customer’s email address. It returns:
  • Current order status (fulfilled, unfulfilled, partially fulfilled)
  • Tracking information
  • Line items and quantities
  • Order total
Example conversations:
  • “Where’s my order #1042?”
  • “Can you check the status of my recent order? My email is jane@example.com”

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Cart Management

Your assistant can create shopping carts and manage items during the conversation:
  • Create a new cart
  • Add products by name or variant
  • Remove items
  • Show cart summary with totals
Example conversations:
  • “Add the blue hoodie in medium to my cart”
  • “What’s in my cart?”
  • “Remove the socks from my cart”

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Customer Updates

Your assistant can look up and modify customer records:
  • Find customers by email
  • Update shipping/billing addresses
  • Update contact information
  • Add notes to customer profiles
Example conversations:
  • “Update my address to 123 Main St, New York, NY 10001”
  • “What email do you have on file for me?”
Customer Updates requires the read_customers scope. This is included by default when you connect your store.

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Analytics

Track how customers are using your Shopify integration from the analytics dashboard on your assistant’s Knowledge Base → Realtime data → Shopify page. Metrics tracked:
  • Product Searches — How often the assistant searches your catalog
  • Order Lookups — Number of order status inquiries
  • Cart Actions — Cart creates, item additions, and removals
  • Customer Updates — Customer data lookups and modifications
  • Webhooks Received — Store events received from Shopify
Filter by 7 days, 30 days, or 90 days to spot trends.

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Managing Your Integration

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Enable / Disable

Toggle the integration on or off from the Shopify page without losing your configuration. When disabled, AI actions stop and the widget stops responding, but your store stays connected.

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Disconnect Store

Click Disconnect Store to remove the integration and delete the stored access token. The chat widget stops working immediately. To also remove the app embed from your theme, toggle IllumiChat Widget off in Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds. You can reconnect at any time by going through the OAuth flow again.

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Connection Status

Your assistant’s Knowledge Base → Realtime data page shows the Shopify connection status at a glance:
  • Connected (green) — Store is connected and active
  • Not Connected — No store linked yet

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Best Practices

When you connect via the wizard, your Shopify store is automatically crawled to build a knowledge base — including product pages, FAQs, and policies. This usually takes about 30 seconds. You can review and manage crawled content from the Knowledge tab in your assistant’s settings.
Add Shopify-specific instructions to your assistant’s system prompt. For example:“When helping with product questions, always include the price and a link to the product page. If a product is out of stock, suggest similar alternatives. Keep responses concise and helpful.”
Shopify offers free development stores for testing. Connect one first to verify your assistant handles product searches and order lookups correctly before going live.
Fewer tools means faster, more focused responses. Most stores only need Product Search and Order Tracking. Add Cart Management and Customer Updates when you have specific use cases for them.
High product search volume suggests customers need better product discovery on your site. High order lookups may indicate gaps in your shipping notifications. Use the data to improve both your assistant and your store.

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Troubleshooting

  • Verify your store domain is correct (must be a valid .myshopify.com domain)
  • Ensure you have owner or admin access on the Shopify store
  • Make sure your IllumiChat instance is accessible via HTTPS
  • Confirm IllumiChat Widget is toggled on in your active (live) theme’s App embeds tab — not an unpublished draft
  • If you recently switched themes, re-enable the app embed on the new theme (app embeds are per-theme)
  • Clear your browser cache or try an incognito window
  • Make sure the integration is enabled (not just connected)
  • Verify the store is connected (green status on the Knowledge Base → Realtime data page)
  • Ensure the specific action toggle is on (e.g., Product Search)
  • Click Test Connection to verify the access token is still valid
  • If the test fails, disconnect and reconnect the store
  • The store owner may have uninstalled the app from Shopify’s admin
  • The access token may have been revoked
  • Reconnect from Knowledge Base → Realtime data → Shopify — it only takes a few clicks

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Next Steps

Widget Customization

Customize the look and feel of the chat widget on your storefront.

Effective Prompts

Write better system prompts to get the most out of your Shopify assistant.