By Johanna Neuron
AI Shopify Chatbot: How prepmymeal Automates 75% of Support Tickets
An AI chatbot for Shopify answers customer questions straight from your shop data: Where is my order, how do returns work, which product suits me. At prepmymeal, a chat assistant like this cut manual support tickets by 75%. Here is how the project is set up and what matters in a Shopify chatbot.
The starting point: 500 tickets a day
prepmymeal delivers healthy, ready-cooked meals to people's homes. As the brand grew, so did orders and customer requests. In the end, a team of ten was handling around 500 support tickets per day.
Most requests looked alike:
- Where is my delivery and when will it arrive?
- How do I change or return an order?
- Which meals fit my diet, for example vegan or high-protein?
Questions like these are simple, but together they eat up a huge amount of time. The answers almost always already exist in Shopify, the shipping system or on the website.
The solution: a chat assistant that lives in Shopify
We built an AI chat assistant for prepmymeal that is fully connected to Shopify. It appears in the shop as "Anton from prepmymeal" and handles digital customer service end to end.
- Real-time order status: The customer gives their name and order number, the assistant reads the current status from Shopify and sends the tracking link.
- Returns and changes: Common processes such as returns or delivery changes are guided step by step.
- Product advice and cross-selling: Based on the range, it recommends meals and bundles that match dietary preferences.
- Handover to the team: Anything the AI cannot answer with confidence goes to a person, together with the full conversation.
- Analysis of every conversation: All chats are evaluated, so prepmymeal sees which topics customers care about and where the shop or processes can improve.
The result
| Metric | Change |
|---|---|
| Manual support tickets | −75% |
| Response time | −60% |
| Support costs | −50% |
Customers get an instant answer around the clock, including evenings and weekends. The team focuses on the cases where it is really needed.
What matters in a Shopify chatbot
Many Shopify apps promise an AI chatbot in a few clicks. For it to actually save tickets, a few things have to be right:
- Real access to order data: A bot that only knows FAQ texts cannot answer the most common question, the order status. It needs a secure connection to Shopify and your carrier.
- Answers only from approved knowledge: The AI must not make things up. It answers from shop data, shipping info and your policies.
- Clean handover to people: For complaints or special cases, switching to the team must be seamless, without the customer repeating everything.
- Your tone of voice: The assistant should sound like your brand, not like a generic bot.
- Data protection: Customer data is processed in line with GDPR, ideally on servers in the EU.
Frequently asked questions
What can an AI chatbot automate in Shopify? Typically order status, delivery times, returns, changes, product questions and recommendations. At prepmymeal, three out of four requests are resolved without manual work.
How long does the rollout take? A first assistant for the most common questions usually runs within a few weeks. More topics and processes follow from there.
Is it worth it for smaller shops too? Yes, as soon as requests repeat and the team spends noticeable time on them. For shops of any size there is our product pingo, which answers on chat, phone, email and social media.
Does the chatbot replace the support team? No. It takes over the routine, and the team focuses on difficult cases and customer loyalty.
Next steps
Projects like this one led to our product pingo, AI customer service for every channel with a Shopify connection. What to look for when choosing a solution is covered in our checklist AI customer service software: what to look for.
If you want to know how many tickets could be automated in your shop, book a free intro call.
