How to Add an AI Chatbot to a Shopify Store (No App Install)

Look at your Shopify inbox for a week and you will see the same four questions: where is my order, do you ship to my country, what is your return window, does this come in another size.

All four are already answered on your site. A chatbot trained on those pages answers them at 2am without anyone touching the inbox. This guide adds one to Shopify with a single snippet in theme.liquid.

Why not a Shopify app?

The App Store has plenty of chat apps. They come with tradeoffs: another app in your admin, another subscription, and often a review queue if you want to customise them.

Cortexvia is a plain script embed. You paste one snippet into your theme and it works on every storefront page. No app install, no permissions to grant, no review. The Shopify guide page has the short version.

Step 1: Decide what it should know

This is the step people skip, and it decides whether the chatbot is useful.

For a store, the highest-value sources are usually:

• Your shipping policy page
• Your returns and refunds page
• Your FAQ page
• Any sizing or care guide you have
• A product documentation PDF if you sell something technical

Start with shipping and returns. Those two pages usually cover most of your inbox.

Step 2: Create the chatbot

Sign in to Cortexvia and run the create wizard:

1. Add your sources. Paste your policy page URLs, or upload a PDF.
2. Name it and pick a response style. For a store, a concise style usually reads better than a chatty one.
3. Add support contacts. When the chatbot cannot answer, it hands off here. Use whatever address your customers already email.
4. Write a welcome message. Something specific beats "Hi, how can I help?": try "Ask about shipping, returns, or any product."

Wait for your first source to finish processing before moving on.

Step 3: Copy the embed code

Open the chatbot in the Chatbots area and copy its embed code. It already contains your chatbot key, which looks like ctx-cb-.... The full snippet:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.cortexvia.in/chatbotsdk-web.css" />
<script src="https://cdn.cortexvia.in/chatbotsdk-web.iife.js"></script>
<div id="cv-chat"></div>
<script>
  window.ChatbotSDK.mount("#cv-chat", {
    chatbotKey: "ctx-cb-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    config: { mode: "chatbot" }
  });
</script>

Step 4: Paste it into theme.liquid

1. In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes.
2. On the theme you want to edit, open the three-dot menu → Edit code.
3. Under Layout, open theme.liquid.
4. Scroll to the bottom and paste the snippet immediately above the closing </body> tag.
5. Save.

theme.liquid is the wrapper every storefront page renders inside, so anything you add there appears on all of them: product pages, collections, cart, everything.

Before you edit: duplicate your theme first. Themes → three-dot menu → Duplicate. If anything goes wrong you can publish the copy and be back to normal in seconds.

Step 5: Test it on the live storefront

Open your store in a private window and ask something your shipping page actually answers, such as "how long does delivery take to Germany" or whatever fits your policy.

Check three things:

• The launcher appears in the corner.
• The answer matches what your policy page says, not something invented.
• Asking something unrelated hands off to your support contact rather than guessing.

Common problems

The chatbot does not appear. Check you pasted above </body> and not inside another tag. Shopify's code editor will happily save invalid nesting.

It appears on the storefront but not at checkout. That is expected. Shopify checkout is a separate, locked-down surface and does not render theme.liquid.

It gives vague answers. Your sources are too thin. One short FAQ page is not much to work with; add your shipping and returns pages and it improves immediately.

It disappeared after a theme change. Theme edits live in the theme. If you published a different theme, paste the snippet into that one too.

Does it slow the storefront down?

The widget loads after your page is interactive, so it does not block product images, your theme's JavaScript, or the metrics Core Web Vitals measures. It adds one stylesheet and one script, both from a CDN.

This is generally lighter than an app-based chat widget, which usually loads earlier in the page lifecycle.

What to add once it is working

Once shipping and returns are covered, the next most useful source is usually product documentation: spec sheets, care instructions, compatibility notes. Those generate the questions your team spends longest answering, because the answer is not on the product page.

You can also match the widget to your store's branding: header name, logo, colours, welcome message, and position are all configurable. For an inline "ask about this product" panel instead of a floating launcher, see AI website search.

Frequently asked questions

Can it check a specific order's status? No. It answers from your pages and documents, so it can explain your shipping timelines and how to track an order, but it does not connect to live order data. For "where is my order" it points customers to your tracking page.

Does it work with Shopify Plus or custom themes? Yes. Anything that renders theme.liquid gets the widget. Checkout is the only surface it cannot reach.

How much does it cost for a store? Start on the free plan, then pick a flat monthly plan in your local currency once the daily message cap starts to bite. There are no per-conversation fees. Current plans are on the pricing page.