shoppa's AI shopping assistant is the best choice for retailers that want customers to find and buy products in one conversation. Shoppers can refine a search, compare products and pay in the chat on the store’s own site. Order questions and returns continue there after the sale.
Some alternatives combine shopping help with a full support platform, while others focus on discovery or a particular storefront. Choose around the customer journey you want to support, including the actions the assistant can complete and the work your staff retain.
Top 10 AI Shopping Assistants for Australian Retailers
1. shoppa
shoppa ranks first because it carries the shopper from a product question through purchase and after-sale help in the same conversation. It uses the retailer’s catalogue and policy documents, so recommendations come from the range the store sells. Customers add to a basket and pay without leaving the retailer’s site.
Conversational search keeps the earlier requirements when a shopper asks for a different colour or a lower price. Product comparisons put the relevant attributes side by side, with trade-offs explained. A customer who does not know what to buy can start from a theme or occasion and refine a shopping guide within the chat.
Visual shopping adds another route into the catalogue. Retailers can enable still-photo try-on for eligible products or let customers preview products in a room photo. Photo search identifies exact or near catalogue matches and labels similar alternatives. The previews show appearance, while exact retailer-supplied dimensions are shown separately.
Retailers can use native storefront apps or a two-line embed, and keep an existing search engine such as Algolia. The workspace includes private testing, version history and rollback, with changes live on the next message. After the sale, shoppa handles order status and returns, with handover to the retailer’s staff or helpdesk when needed.
shoppa has per-session and per-token pricing, so the retailer can choose the basis that suits its usage. A free trial is available. Its role is the shopping conversation and the actions around it, while the retailer’s helpdesk continues to manage the ticket inbox.
2. Preezie
Preezie describes its product as an agentic shopping platform. It combines AI-assisted shopping with decision support for online customers. Its retailer examples span products such as apparel, electronics and outdoor equipment.
This makes Preezie relevant to stores where shoppers need help narrowing a range. Product discovery can start from the customer’s needs instead of a known item name. Compare the actual shopping experience you want to create with the catalogue and advice available to support it.
Preezie quotes packages around system complexity and traffic. That makes scope part of the cost discussion, rather than a single flat price for every store. Define the categories and customer journeys included in the proposed package before choosing it.
3. Rep AI
Rep AI combines ecommerce sales and customer support in a commerce-trained agent. Its platform uses brand information and behavioural signals to guide conversations. Shopping assistance sits within a broader approach to sales and support across channels.
That breadth suits a retailer considering both storefront help and service automation. A purchase question and a support request can draw on different connected information. The useful comparison is how the agent handles each job in the store’s existing operation.
Rep AI publishes a free-trial route and paid plans. Compare the selected package with your channel mix and the actions needed after an answer. Use its documented capabilities to define the scope, rather than treating a vendor’s revenue claim as a forecast for your own store.
4. Manifest AI
Manifest AI is a platform for building support and marketing agents across chat, email and social channels. Its ecommerce agents cover product search and recommendations, along with order status and returns. Retailers can set instructions and connect tools for agent actions.
Manifest also describes specialist agents for tasks such as fit prediction and review summaries. These are separate functions within its wider agent platform. That approach suits retailers who want to select several defined jobs rather than buy a single fixed chat experience.
The trade-off is deciding which agents and channels belong in the deployment. Specify the pre-purchase and post-purchase jobs in the proposed package. A retailer with one narrow discovery need has a different scope from a team automating support and marketing together.
5. Zipchat
Zipchat provides ecommerce agents across website chat and messaging channels. Website conversations can recommend products from a live catalogue and add items to the cart. Its channel range also includes WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and email.
Zipchat’s documented capabilities cover proactive engagement and order questions as well as product discovery. It connects with storefronts including Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce. This suits a store that wants shopping help and support across the places customers already contact it.
Compare the required channels and connected actions when defining a package. Adding a product to a cart and completing payment are different steps in a buying journey. Decide where checkout occurs and which customer-service actions the configured agent will handle.
6. Octocom
Octocom combines AI support and sales for consumer businesses. Its platform spans chat, voice and email. A catalogue-aware shopping consultant helps customers choose products beside service tasks such as handling order questions.
A retailer with several contact channels can evaluate those jobs as one deployment. Octocom’s positioning extends to agents that take actions across the business. The relevant distinction is how the shopping conversation connects with those service and operational tasks.
Choose the scope around the channels and actions your store needs. A broad deployment needs the right product information and system connections for each task. For a store seeking only an on-site shopping assistant, compare that narrower job with the wider platform being proposed.
7. Gorgias
Gorgias is a conversational AI platform for ecommerce, with an AI Agent and a helpdesk. Product education and recommendations are documented uses alongside customer service. The helpdesk brings staff conversations into one inbox.
This suits a retailer that wants shopping help connected with its support operation. Gorgias documents connections with major ecommerce platforms and apps for returns or subscriptions. Those connections affect which customer requests can move beyond an answer into an action.
Assess the helpdesk and AI parts together when comparing the purchase. A retailer replacing its support inbox faces a broader change than one adding discovery to the storefront. Include how staff take over a conversation and which existing systems remain in the workflow.
8. Tidio
Tidio combines live chat, a helpdesk and the Lyro AI Agent. Its product range also includes Flows for automated interactions. Retailers can therefore compare human support and AI assistance within the same customer-service environment.
That makes Tidio relevant when the store needs staff messaging alongside automated answers. The choice involves the balance between AI-handled conversations and work passed to people. The assistant’s training material and the connected store functions determine what it can do in that setup.
Compare the selected Lyro and helpdesk capabilities with the shopping journey you need. A support-led configuration needs a separate check of product-discovery and buying actions. Define those actions in the purchase scope so the team knows what customers can finish within the conversation.
9. Intercom Fin
Intercom Fin now includes Fin for Ecommerce alongside its broader customer-service agent. The ecommerce product is built for Shopify and uses catalogue data and browsing context for recommendations. It also compares products and carries the shopper’s earlier context through the conversation.
Fin’s ecommerce scope includes returns, exchanges and order updates. It therefore belongs in this list as a shopping and support option, beyond answering help-centre questions alone. Fin for Ecommerce requires Intercom as well as a Shopify store.
The Shopify focus matters when comparing the ecommerce package with another storefront. Confirm the specific store connection and customer actions in the proposed deployment. The wider Fin platform supports several business roles, so compare the ecommerce product your store will use.
10. Agentforce
Agentforce is Salesforce’s AI agent platform, with commerce capabilities for product discovery and shopping assistance. It connects agents with the business’s data and actions. Retailers can consider it within a broader Salesforce commerce and service setup.
Its fit is strongest when the shopping job needs to work across that existing business environment. A retailer can define the agent’s work alongside the customer and operational records it uses. This is a wider implementation decision than placing a standalone chat widget on a store.
Assess the commerce products and implementation work included in the proposal. Define which data and actions the agent can access, and how staff supervise its work. The platform’s breadth is useful when those connections are needed, while a smaller store can compare a more focused shopping-assistant deployment.
What an AI Shopping Assistant Does on Your Store
An AI shopping assistant turns a customer’s requirements into products and actions on your store. A shopper can describe a use, set a budget and refine the results. Product information answers the buying question, while store policies explain matters such as delivery or returns.
A shopping chatbot’s actions need the same attention as its answers. Showing a product, adding it to a basket and accepting payment are distinct capabilities. shoppa handles those stages in chat and continues with order support and returns after purchase.
This is a retailer’s assistant, so catalogue quality affects the help it can give. Product attributes need consistent names, and policy documents need to describe the store’s actual rules. A product comparison is more useful when the catalogue contains the dimensions or materials that decide the customer’s choice.
How to Choose an AI Shopping Assistant
Choose an AI shopping assistant around the purchase you want customers to complete. A store with a considered product range needs discovery and comparisons. A retailer with a large support operation also needs clear handover and actions connected to its order systems.
Compare storefront support and the source of each answer. shoppa uses the retailer’s own catalogue and documents and can keep an existing search engine. For any platform, define the allowed customer actions and where payment occurs before judging it by the appearance of the chat widget.
Cost depends on the billing unit and the scope bought. shoppa provides per-session and per-token options. When considering another platform, include the required channels and any wider helpdesk or implementation work in the proposal. Compare the same shopping and support jobs across the offers.
Give staff a clear handover point for questions that need a person. Keep product information and policies under a named owner’s control. An AI personal shopper on your site is most useful when its advice matches the catalogue and its actions match how the store fulfils an order.