“Where is my parcel?” The online shop answers at any hour, without tying up support.
In an online shop, three questions come up again and again: where is my order, is this model still in stock, and how soon will it be delivered. Today the Alyas agent answers those that rest on your own information (delivery, returns, products) on your site’s chat, on WhatsApp and on Messenger, and it picks up the customer service phone. Read-only Shopify order tracking has been announced: it is not open yet.
On the phone, in this line of work
A small online retailer’s customer service often rests on one or two people, who also handle dispatch and suppliers. Messages arrive in waves: the eve of a promotion, Christmas week, the day a carrier falls behind. In the evening and at weekends they wait until Monday, and a buyer who gets no answer sometimes orders elsewhere.
The split of roles is clear. On chat, WhatsApp and Messenger, the agent answers from your FAQ, your delivery times, your returns terms, a PDF catalogue or your website, and takes the contact details of a customer who leaves a request: it lands in your list of leads, you are notified by email and you can export it as a CSV file. On the phone, it answers from the same information or transfers the call to the number you have set. Shopify order tracking is planned for later: products, stock and the status of an order (order number and the customer’s email), read-only and on chat only.
What the agent does for you
Answer questions on delivery times, shipping charges and returns terms as you have written them, on your site’s chat, on WhatsApp and on Messenger.
Present your products before purchase from a PDF catalogue or the content of your website.
Answer the customer service switchboard with that same information, or transfer the call to the number you have set.
Collect on chat the request and contact details of a customer (return, exchange, complaint, pre-sale question): it goes into your list of leads, you receive an email and you can export it as a CSV file.
Coming soon: give the status of an order on chat from Shopify, read-only, after checking the order number and the customer’s email.
An example workflow
Illustrative example
A scenario written to show how it works: it is not the recording of a real call.
- The contactOn a November Sunday evening, a customer writes on the shop’s chat: her Christmas candles were due on Friday.
- Alyas agentThe agent cannot yet see your orders: it recalls the delivery times and the carrier you have given it, then asks for her order number and her contact details.
- Alyas agentShe would also like to send back a gift box: the agent opens no return, it recalls the procedure set out in your terms of sale and notes the reason.
- On Monday morning you receive an email, the request is in your list of leads with her details, and support gets back to her with the exact status of the order.
Connected tools
The chat sits on your website; WhatsApp and Messenger are connected from the dashboard. On the phone, call forwarding (or a dedicated number) brings calls to the agent, which transfers to a number on your team. The connection to your Shopify store, coming soon, is planned as read-only (products, stock, orders) and on chat only. WooCommerce, PrestaShop and other platforms are not connected: the agent answers from your information.
Further reading
Solutions
Chat for your businessResources
Customer service and AI: what you can automate and what should stay humanUse cases
Answer recurring questions without tying up your team.Resources
WhatsApp Business for companies: the app, the platform and AI agentsResources
How to build a chatbot for your website: a step-by-step methodIndustries
Opticians and hearing aid centres
Other industries: Retail & e-commerce
Frequently asked questions
A customer asks where their parcel is: can the agent give the status of the order?
Not yet: Shopify order tracking is announced as coming soon. Today the agent recalls the delivery times and the carrier you have given it and, on chat, notes the order number and contact details (the request reaches your leads and you get an email), then your team replies with the information. On the phone, it can also transfer the call to the number you have set. See also our guide to what the GDPR and the AI Act require.
A customer wants to withdraw from a purchase or send an item back: does the agent register the return?
No. It opens no return and triggers no refund. It explains the procedure in your terms of sale, notes on chat the order number, the item and the reason, and the request reaches you by email. For the record, service-public.gouv.fr (France) states that a consumer buying at a distance has at least 14 days to withdraw: how the request is handled remains up to you.
Can it cancel an order or change the delivery address?
No, that is outside its scope: it has no write access to your shop. It notes the request, with the order number and the address wanted, and passes it to the team. If the parcel is about to leave, you can tell it to transfer the call to the number you have set.
When will the agent be able to look at my Shopify store?
The connector is planned as read-only: products, prices, stock and the status of an order (order number and customer’s email), on chat only. It opens once the Alyas app is in production on Shopify’s side; no date has been announced. The integrations catalogue shows its status.
My shop runs on WooCommerce or PrestaShop: can I use the agent?
Yes, from today and whatever the platform: it answers from your information (FAQ, delivery times, returns terms, a PDF catalogue or your website), without looking at orders or stock. The planned connector concerns Shopify only.
Do customers see that they are talking to an AI on WhatsApp or on the chat?
Yes, you write the agent’s welcome message and can state in it that it is an AI assistant. If the customer would rather have a person, the conversation is flagged “to take over” in your dashboard and the manager is notified by email.
Sources
No call or message left unanswered.
Channel, integrations, volume: you get a clear proposal before you commit.