Customers love it when they can get answers to their problems right away, not by reading a FAQ but by chatting. Chat is pretty much a worldwide standard now, and many websites use a chat app so that their customers can get answers quickly.
But what are the best chat and communication apps for Shopify? There are seven apps I recommend, and we will look at what they can do together.
Messenger Channel by Shopify
Facebook Messenger is the first one on our list, but this one is made to work with Shopify. This app was made with help from Shopify itself.
With Messenger Channel, you can make a menu of your products right inside your Messenger app. People can see and browse your products in Messenger while they’re chatting with you. They don’t have to leave the app and go to your store or Facebook page.
Here are some of the things the app can do:
- Browsing: Customers can look at your store’s items from within the app
- Order Updates: The system will automatically send updates about the order’s status in Messenger.
- Chatbot: lets you make Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that already have answers in the app. Customers only have to click on a question to see the answer.
- Messaging: Ask your customer to send you a message.
- Analytics: You can see how your Messenger app brings people to your shop and makes sales.
What’s also great about this app? It is free of charge. As you can see, you are using the Facebook Messenger, and Shopify doesn’t charge you anything to use it. But you have to meet some qualifications before you can use it.
Before you can add Facebook to your store, you must be the admin of the store’s official Facebook page. Also, you can only sell in the currencies that Facebook supports. Before you can use this feature, you must also add your Facebook store as a channel to your Shopify store.
Tidio Live Chat
Tidio is not just a system for live chanting; he is also a robot. You can set it up to answer questions even when you are not there in person.
Here are the things that the chat app can do:
- Widgets: let you change the look of the chat app on your site.
- Languages: It supports more than one language, so it’s easy to talk to buyers from all over the world.
- Automation: You can use dozens of bot templates that have already been set up.
- Typing Spy: lets you see what your customer is typing right now, so you can look for an answer before the customer sends the message.
- Support – Users can get help at any time of day or night.
The app can be used for free or paid. The prices are as follows:
- Free: and you can use it for as long as you want, but you can only have three operators. You get live chat and integration with Facebook Messenger. This can also be linked to an email app. You can only use up to 100 chatbot triggers per month.
- Communicator: costs $18 a month. This plan has the same features as the free plan. You also get the Live Typing preview function. Also, the tool will tell you in real time how many people are looking at your store.
- Chatbot: This one also costs $18 per month, but Tidio might have made a mistake with the price. This plan has all the features of the other two plans, plus you can start as many chatbot conversations with your customers as you want.
If you are just starting out, you should get the free plan. But if you want a chatbot, it will save you a lot of time and money to get the Chatbot plan.
SMS & Messenger marketing by Tobi
This app is both a Messenger app and an SMS app. It can send your customers text messages. As a Messenger app, Facebook Messenger is the main part of the software.
Here’s what the app can do:
- Abandoned Cart: If a customer adds items to his cart but doesn’t buy them, you can set up the app to send him a text or a message through FB Messenger to remind him.
- Messages For Marketing: You can write messages on the app and then send them to your customers or cold traffic via Messenger or text.
- Order Confirmations: You can send your customer’s order details through the Facebook Messenger app. This happens automatically, so you don’t have to do it by hand every time. This update tells you how things are going with the order.
- Discounts: You can make discount codes that will be sent to customers’ phones via SMS. This is great because you know the person will read your text message.
- Reviews: When a customer buys something from you, an SMS message will be sent to him asking him to leave a review.
So, what’s the price? Getting the app is free. So, you can install it and use some of its features, but not all of them. If you want all the features, you need to switch to the Pro Plan.
The Pro Plan costs $29 each month. SMS messages are not included in this cost. As your sales increase, so will the price of your monthly fee.
Abandoned Cart by Super Lemon Apps + WhatsApp Chat
Like Viber, WhatsApp is a well-known chat app. Facebook paid $21 billion for it in 2014. If you want to reach people who use WhatsApp, you need to use this chat app.
This is what the WhatsApp Shopify plug-in can do:
- Live Chat: Your store will get a WhatsApp button. If your client uses WhatsApp, he can get in touch with you right away.
- Share Button – A site visitor can use the share button. He can tell his friends and contacts about your website through his app.
- Message Templates: let you send automatic messages, like a robot, if you want to. These messages change based on what the customer does.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: If a customer did not finish shopping, the app would automatically remind the customer to finish shopping.
- Order Updates: You can set up the app to send messages when the order is complete, delivered, shipped, or in any other state.
- Manual Messages: You can write new messages and send them to people you know on WhatsApp.
What is the price? The app can be downloaded for free or for money.
- Free: With this plan, you can have as many chats, widgets, phone numbers, button designs, and the share button as you want on WhatsApp.
- Paid: means it costs $9.99 a month. With this plan, you get everything that the free plan gives you, plus the ability to recover a card that was left behind. You also get the messaging feature, which keeps customers up to date on their orders.
Not everyone in the world can use the app. You can find out what countries the app serves by going to the app’s page in the Shopify store.
Texting Platform for Message Mate by OwnerListens, Inc.
This is an SMS platform, not a chat platform. As a result, you should be ready to spend money every time you send a text message to a customer’s phone number.
Here are some of the things the app can do:
- Virtual Number: You can give your customers a virtual number they can text. So, you won’t have to give out your personal phone number.
- Forwarding: You can send text messages to your email, phone, or web dashboard, where you can read them and reply.
- Multiple Recipients: If you have virtual assistants, you can set up the app to send a customer’s text message to more than one person, so anyone can answer.
- Auto-Reply: This tool lets you set up an out-of-office reply. If you are not available, the app will send a message on its own.
- Image Support: You can ask the developer to make a phone number that works with images for you.
- Follow Requests. You can ask your customers for feedback or reviews. This can be done through Instagram and Facebook with the help of the app.
- Facebook Integration: If you want to, you can connect your Facebook Messenger app. If you want to talk to your customers through Messenger, you can do that.
- Widgets: You can change the colors of widgets to match the theme of your website.
The app can be used for free for 14 days. After that, you will have to pay $25 each month. Note that the $25 per month fee does not cover the cost of sending text messages. You can also connect this app to Zendesk, Slack, HelpScout, and SalesForce FreshDesk.
SMSBump SMS + MMS Marketing
The best way to use this product is if your main goal is to text message customers. It is an automation app that can help you and your assistants or employees do less work.
Here are some of the things the app can do:
- Compliance: The app is made to follow laws such as GDPR and TCPA.
- Integration: You can connect the app to other programs like Giphy, Pexels, Klaviyo, Privy, and many more.
- SMS: You can send your customers texts and texts with photos. You can send photos of your products, which is great.
- Abandoned Cart: You can set up the tool to send automatic reminders to shoppers who left items in their carts but did not finish their purchase.
- Segmentation: You can make lists of your customers that are divided into groups so that you can market your products better.
- AB Testing: AB You can try out different versions of your SMS messages. After that, you can test them to see which ones bring more people to your site or make more sales.
- Scheduling: You can make SMS campaigns right now and turn them on at a later time. For example, you can make a campaign now and send the message when the promotion is already running.
You can also use the tool to turn on the “opt-out” feature. All a customer has to do to stop getting text messages from you is tap on a link.
The tool is free to download, but sending texts will cost you. If you live in the US, each text costs at least $0.015 to send.
Cart Recovery by Shipway Sends an SMS
The last thing on our list is an SMS app for cart recovery. You can send messages to more than 200 countries with this app. You can let your customers know about their carts that were left behind, the status of their orders, and a lot more.
Here are some of the things the app can do:
- Follow Up: If a customer abandons your cart, you can send them up to three follow-up messages via SMS.
- Messages: The app will send you different kinds of messages and alerts based on what’s going on. It can send messages about how the order was completed, how it was shipped, or if the order was canceled.
- Integrations: The app can be linked to ShipWay, Judge.Me, and ReConvert.
- Change Of Status: The customer will get a message every time the order’s status changes.
- Birthday Message: You can set up the app to send birthday messages, but only if the customer gives you his birthday.
What is the price? Installing the app is free, but using the SMS messaging system costs $30 per month. The cost of the text message is not included in this monthly price. You will be charged for each text message you send, and the price will depend on which country you send it to.
You have to go to the developer’s website to see how much each text message costs. It can be seen here.
Summary
Pick one of these Shopify apps for your store. They work well with the marketing apps you already have for Shopify. Even though some of them aren’t free, you should really think about how useful it would be to have one. You decide which features you need based on how much customer service you want and how busy you are.
For example, if you already have virtual assistants who can answer customer questions, you don’t really need a robot chat. But if you are a one-person team and you have a job, a robot chat will save you time and money.
