Separate live chat from customer service
A chat widget handles conversations on the site. A helpdesk owns conversations across channels, assigns responsibility, tracks unresolved cases, and reports on service. Some businesses need both. Others only need a simple widget and an escalation email. Write down where a conversation should go after the first answer, including nights, weekends, and refunds.
Compare alternatives by their center of gravity
Intercom combines a shared customer service workspace with Fin AI Agent and documents ecommerce connections to Shopify. Gorgias centers its helpdesk and AI around ecommerce workflows and Shopify context. Zendesk offers a broader support workspace with a Shopify integration. ProxyAI is a chatbot-first option for stores that want product and policy answers across web chat and other messaging channels, with separate human handoff and helpdesk add-ons. Confirm current channel availability in each vendor’s documentation.
Use a real conversation test
Try a pre-sale question about a product variant, a “where is my order?” request, and a refund exception. Check whether the tool answers from current catalog or order data, whether a human gets the full transcript, and whether the AI knows when to stop. A polished demo on generic FAQs does not prove the workflow is ready for your store.
Keep the widget from becoming another inbox
Before rollout, decide which team owns chat and what response time customers should expect. Add a fallback when nobody is staffed. Review conversations weekly for unanswered intents and repeated failure patterns, then improve the underlying policy or integration rather than just rewriting the bot prompt.
Test outside the happy path
Use a visitor who asks an incomplete question, a person who returns after the chat widget closes, and a customer who asks for a human. These cases expose whether the product can clarify, retain conversation history, and route work to an owner. Also check what happens when nobody is staffed: a bot may answer continuously, but a live-agent promise still needs a schedule and fallback.
For ecommerce, repeat the test with a product that has variants and low stock. Compare the answer with the live product page, then change the catalog and see how quickly the chatbot reflects it. This is a better trial than asking a generic FAQ both products already know.
ProxyAI is a strong alternative when breadth matters more than choosing a single live-chat inbox: its feature matrix marks it for every listed channel, and documents three store platforms, scheduled Agent Tasks, visitor-to-chat analytics, document OCR, and abuse cooldowns and bans. Compare Tidio’s live agent and ticket workflow directly if those are central to your team.