Shoppers ask questions before they buy and after they order. Live chat puts a chat button on every page of your store so they can ask right there. Every chat arrives in Support, next to your customer email. You answer it with the same reply box and saved replies.

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Turn it on

Go to Support → Inbox settings and find Live chat.
  1. Switch on Show a chat on your store.
  2. Optional: write a greeting, the first line shoppers see. Leave it empty to use the standard one.
  3. Click Save.
The chat button appears on your published store within about a minute. You don’t need to republish anything. The chat stays out of your store’s way. Pages load one small script after everything else, which draws the button. Nothing more loads until a shopper opens the chat. If the chat can’t load for any reason, your store looks and works exactly as before.

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Who answers

You and your team. Chats show in your inbox with a Chat label. Use the channel filter to see only chats. When you reply, the shopper sees your answer in the chat. If they left their email, they also get it by email, because most shoppers have closed the tab by the time a person replies. Your own AI agent, if you connect one. An agent you connect to your store (Claude, ChatGPT and others, see Connect your own AI agent) can read new chats and reply for you. Its replies show in the chat like yours, labelled Answered by AI. When nobody has replied yet, the chat tells the shopper plainly when to expect an answer:
  • During your team hours: a person will reply here shortly.
  • Outside them: when your team is back (for example “Monday 9:00 AM”, in the shopper’s own time zone), and that the reply comes here and by email.
  • If they haven’t left an email, it asks for one so your reply reaches them after they close the tab.

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Team hours

Under Team hours, set the days and times your team answers, and the time zone. During those hours the chat says a person will reply shortly. Outside them, it says when your team is back and that the reply will also come by email. If you set no hours, the chat never claims someone is online and never names a time.

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Limits that protect you

  • A shopper can send up to 60 messages in one chat per day. One internet connection can start up to 10 new chats an hour.
  • Messages are shown as plain text, never as code. Each shopper can only ever read their own chat.

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For agents

Your own AI agent can manage the chat through the store’s MCP tools: dtc_get_chat_settings, dtc_update_chat_settings, dtc_list_support_tickets with channel: "chat", and dtc_reply_to_ticket to answer. Changes shoppers would see wait for your OK. See the tool catalog.