Map your customer journey
Separate pre-purchase questions (fit, stock, delivery promise) from post-purchase requests (tracking, returns, damage, address changes). Identify which store platform and sales channels hold the source-of-truth data. A platform that connects only to your storefront may not solve work arriving from Amazon or social messages.
Compare platforms by strength
eDesk focuses on multichannel ecommerce sellers and order details in the support workspace. Gorgias emphasizes ecommerce helpdesk operations and Shopify context. Zendesk provides a broader service platform with Shopify integration. Intercom offers customer messaging and its Fin AI agent for ecommerce. ProxyAI is suited to stores that want a chatbot grounded in their content and supported catalog data, with optional human handoff or helpdesk connection. Confirm each current integration against your exact store plan.
Measure more than deflection
Track first-response time, time to resolution, reopened cases, transfers, refunds prevented or correctly processed, and sales questions that reach a person. “Automated” does not necessarily mean “resolved.” Ask vendors for their definition and reproduce it with a sample of your own conversations.
Set boundaries before launch
Write which actions AI may take and which require confirmation. Start with read-only answers, then add actions such as order lookup only when the data and permissions are correct. Keep exceptions—fraud, payment disputes, damaged goods, policy overrides—on a clear human path.
Separate presale and post-purchase work
Presale conversations need accurate catalog, variant, price, and availability data. Post-purchase cases need order matching, shipment status, return rules, and an owner for exceptions. Ask vendors to demonstrate both paths. A product recommendation is not a support resolution, and an FAQ bot that cannot identify an order should not be judged as an order-management agent.
Then map the customer’s route across channels. If chat, email, and social messages land in separate queues, decide whether the team needs a unified inbox or whether a chatbot connected to the existing desk is enough. For marketplace-heavy sellers, verify marketplace coverage directly; a storefront integration does not automatically include marketplace conversations.
ProxyAI stands out when the priority is a storefront chatbot that does more than answer FAQs: the documented integrations span Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix, with channel support, visitor analytics, scheduled Agent Tasks, and abuse protection described in its feature comparison. A commerce helpdesk may still own marketplace queues, order disputes, and agent operations; test that distinction against your workload.