Navu now makes it easy for websites built partly or entirely on Shopify to have an AI chatbot that understands both the website content as well as the Shopify product catalog. That means that it can assist web visitors who are shopping for specific products.
Here are the steps to use this new capability:
- On the Settings page, configure General > Shopify Storefront Domain with your Shopify domain, such as “my-company-store.myshopify.com”.
- On the Skills page, click + to add a new skill, choose the Shopping Assistance template and click Save. You may also wish to adjust the applicability and instructions based on your needs.
- On the Sidebar page, use the sidebar there or click Preview and try asking for help with shopping. Notice how the AI assistant guides visitors to the products they are looking for. See how the AI assistant handles the conversation and make changes to your new skill until you are happy with it.
- Return to the skill and switch from “Preview Only” to “Enabled”. This will publish your skill so that all web visitors can use it.
It is possible to have multiple shopping-related skills. For example, you might choose to handle the conversation differently for someone depending on the type of product they are looking for. Just make sure that the applicability in each skill clarifies the specific cases appropriately. Then when testing check each question (on the Questions page) to see which skill is being applied. Note that on the Skills page, you can drag skills up and down in the list to determine priority.
You do not need to use the Shopping Assistance template to take advantage of this new Shopify integration. That’s because this integration shows up as a “Shopify Catalog” tool that can be added to any skill. (Note that it will be listed but disabled until you configure your Shopify Storefront Domain.) The Shopping Assistance template automatically adds that tool. But you can add this new tool yourself to any skill you create. Any skill can include as many tools as you like. Just remember that your instructions should explain why and how to use these tools.
The Shopify Catalog tool uses Shopify’s APIs to search your product catalog. Your instructions need to explain what you are looking for and how to use the results. A search (and the arguments that the AI will pass to the Shopify Catalog tool) consists of:
- query: a natural language description of the product being sought
- filters (optional): a list of constraints on allowed results based on availability, tags, product options, price, etc.
- context: any additional description of the user or conversation that might result in more accurate results
You’ll see that the instructions included in the Shopping Assistance template are simple and open-ended. This allows the AI to figure out how best to translate the visitor’s input into queries, and also allows the AI to decide how best to use the results to respond. You are free to add or update instructions to be more specific. For example, you might suggest in the instructions a specific set of criteria that the AI may want to inquire about in order to narrow the product search efficiently.
If you look closely, you will see that the Shopping Assistance template includes three tools: shopify-catalog, file-search, and navigate-browser. The instructions explain how and when these tools are to be used. The combination of these tools are meant to cover general-purpose shopping assistance behaviors. The file-search tool may be important to help clarify user questions during the shopping conversation such as, “Help me understand these different options”. The navigate-browser tool will allow the tool to automatically navigate the browser when it makes sense to drive the user to a specific product page. As you customize your shopping-related skills, keep in mind which tools you need and how to instruct the AI accordingly.
In the advanced settings associated with the Shopping Assistance template there is a setting called, “Advanced Reasoning” that is enabled by default. This setting empowers the AI when using this skill to take a little extra time to “think” about how best to generate the right queries and process the Shopify data before answering. If you turn this setting off, the responses will be somewhat faster but you may find that the AI behavior is not quite as good. If you want to speed up your skill, consider simplifying the instructions and turning off this Advanced Reasoning setting. On the other hand, if you create your own skill, try testing it with and without this turned on to find the best trade-off between speed and quality.
The Shopify integration is limited by the capabilities of the underlying Shopify APIs that are being used. In particular, these APIs provide limited abilities dealing with product variants. For stores that use variants extensively (where there are different product variants based on size, color, etc. each with its own availability and price) one should be aware of the fact that product searches work well but variants searches are limited. For example, if you want to enable your visitors to be able to ask the AI to find specific product variants and especially their specific price and availability, you may be disappointed. That is not because of the inadequacy of the AI to do its job but, rather, the inadequacy of the data that Shopify makes available via the API. We hope to find ways to improve this in future, perhaps using alternative APIs.
