Your AI Shopping Assistant is a friendly storefront helper that answers shoppers' questions, recommends the right products, and guides them all the way to checkout — using what's already in your Shopify store.
Here's a clear, honest look at what it can do today and what's still ahead.
✅ What it can do
- Answer product questions in natural language — details, materials, the differences between variants, and size & fit straight from your product descriptions.
- Recommend products based on what a shopper is looking for, like "a gift under $50" or "something for winter".
- Check availability and stock, steering shoppers toward in-stock items — it never recommends something that's sold out.
- Share store information that lives in your Shopify catalog and content, such as a shipping detail when you've described it there.
- Add items to the shopper's cart and help guide them to checkout.
- Offer tappable conversation starters and quick replies so shoppers can start chatting with a single click.
- Show up proactively with nudges at helpful moments in the shopping journey.
🚧 What it can't do (yet)
- Look up order status, tracking, shipping, or returns. Today the assistant focuses on helping shoppers before they buy. When someone asks about an existing order, it tells them so and points them to your support — keeping the experience honest.
- Train on your own FAQs, policies, or external website. For now it answers from your Shopify catalog and content only. Broader knowledge sources are on our roadmap.
- Speak languages other than English. This version is English-only; more languages are something we'd love to add over time.
- Make up answers. This is by design — if the assistant isn't sure about a price, policy, or stock level, it says so rather than guessing.
- Access customer accounts, email shoppers, or change your store. The assistant is read-only apart from adding items to the cart, so it can't touch accounts or store settings.
- Remember a shopper across visits. Context lasts for the current chat session only — each new visit starts fresh.
We're actively building, so this list will keep growing. The limits above are where the assistant focuses today, not where it's headed.
Why it sometimes says it can't help
When a question falls outside what the assistant can see or do, it tells the shopper so instead of guessing — that's honesty by design, not a malfunction. It happens mainly in two cases:
- Orders, tracking, shipping, and returns. The assistant can't see order data, so it won't answer questions about a specific order's status — it points the shopper to your support instead.
- Anything not in your store. If a shopper asks about a product or topic that isn't in your catalog or content, the assistant won't invent an answer.
A reply like "I can't help with that" means the assistant is working correctly — protecting your shoppers from wrong information about prices, policies, or stock.
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Still need help? Reach our team at support@powr.io.
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