Shopify Live Chat: How to Add a Chat Button That Sells
Online shoppers have questions that product pages don't answer: Will this fit? When will it arrive? Can I return it? If nobody answers, many of them simply leave. Shopify live chat puts a person (or a well-trained AI assistant) one click away while the customer is still deciding.
This guide covers how to install chat on a Shopify store, and how to set it up so it helps you sell, not just answer complaints.
Two ways to add live chat to Shopify
1. The theme app embed
With the app installed, adding chat is a switch in the theme editor:
- Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize.
- Open App embeds (the puzzle-piece icon).
- Turn on Live Chat, paste your chat code (from Chat widget → Install in your dashboard) and click Save.
Because it's an app embed, it survives theme updates and you can switch it off without editing any code.
2. One line in theme.liquid
No app needed. Go to Online Store → Themes → ⋯ → Edit code, open layout/theme.liquid, and paste this just above the closing body tag:
<script src="https://chat.techsntechnology.com/widget.js" data-key="YOUR_CHAT_CODE" async></script>
Save, and the chat button appears on every page of your store. The script loads after your page, so it doesn't slow your storefront down.
What shoppers ask, and how to answer fast
Most store chats fall into a handful of questions. Have answers ready for:
- Shipping: cost, speed and which countries you deliver to.
- Sizing and fit: your size guide in one sentence, and what to do if it's wrong.
- Returns and exchanges: how long, who pays postage, how refunds work.
- Order status: where to find tracking, and what to do if a parcel is late.
- Stock: whether an item is coming back, and how to be told when it does.
Save each one as a canned response and your team can answer in one click. Better still, write them up as help articles: an AI chatbot can then answer these questions instantly, day and night, linking the article it used, and hand anything it can't answer to your team.
Use chat to sell, not just support
The real value of chat on a store is the questions asked before someone buys. A few ways to start more of those conversations:
- Open the chat on high-intent pages. A short invitation on product pages after 30 seconds, or on the cart page, catches people while they're deciding. Our guide to proactive chat triggers has seven that work.
- Catch people on the way out. An exit-intent message ("Anything stopping you from checking out?") can save a sale you'd otherwise never hear about.
- Watch for frustration. If someone clicks the same button over and over, something's wrong. Rage clicks are a great moment to offer help.
- See what they're typing. Sneak peek shows agents a message as it's being written, so you can look up the product or the order before the question arrives.
Find the problems chat can't fix
Chat tells you what people ask. Heatmaps tell you what they do without asking. If shoppers keep asking about delivery, check where your delivery information sits on the page. A scroll map often shows that most visitors never get that far. Moving one line of text up the page can remove a whole category of chats.
Bring Instagram and WhatsApp into the same inbox
For many stores, Instagram DMs and WhatsApp are as busy as the website. Connect them and every message, from every channel, lands in one inbox your whole team can answer. More on that in our guides to Instagram DMs for customer service and the WhatsApp shared inbox.
Measure what matters
After a month, check three numbers:
- Chats per day and missed chats. Missed chats tell you when to have someone online.
- First response time. On a store, answers within a minute or two keep the sale alive. Here's how to bring it down.
- Satisfaction ratings. Customers can rate each chat with a thumbs up or down; read the bad ones every week.
Get started
Live chat on Shopify takes a few minutes to install and pays for itself with the first saved sale. Start free, add your chat code, and switch on a trigger for your product pages.