FAQ
Does ShopChat work with a very large catalog (10,000+ products)?
Yes, but enable Category Scope to limit the search context to relevant categories. Sending 10,000 products to the AI context window is slow and expensive. ShopChat uses vector search to pre-filter the most relevant products before sending them to the AI.
Can customers see their order status in the chat?
Yes, if the customer is logged in. ShopChat can retrieve their recent order history from WooCommerce and answer questions like "Where is my order #1234?"
Does the chat store conversation history?
Conversation logs are stored in the {prefix}shopchat_log database table for analytics and debugging. Logs can be cleared from WooCommerce → ShopChat → Analytics → Clear Logs. Do not store personally identifiable information in chat messages if GDPR compliance requires data minimisation.
Does ShopChat support file uploads (e.g., photos of products)?
Enable Image Input in Capabilities. This passes image data to vision-capable AI models (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet). Requires a vision-capable model configured in AI settings.
Can I customise the chat widget CSS?
Yes - ShopChat enqueues a shopchat-widget.css file. Override styles in your theme's CSS or use the WordPress Customizer's Additional CSS field. The widget's root element is #shopchat-widget.
Will ShopChat make my site slower?
The widget JavaScript loads asynchronously and does not block page rendering. The chat is dormant until the customer interacts with it. No performance impact on page load time.
What happens when the AI provider API is down?
ShopChat displays a fallback message ("I'm temporarily unavailable - please contact support") and triggers the human handoff if configured.
Can I integrate ShopChat with my Zendesk or Freshdesk?
Use the Handoff URL setting to direct customers to your live chat platform when ShopChat triggers a handoff. Full native integrations with specific platforms are on the roadmap.