AI and automation technologies are finally at a point where we can begin to rely on them running in the background with minimal human intervention or oversight, and trust that our customers are receiving the service and help they need. 

At this point, if your customers aren’t being served around the clock, you’re falling behind the brands that have cracked the code to successful ecommerce customer support automation. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to prepare your website and team for an AI-powered customer service platform. We’ll cover the case for automation, give you some key steps to hit before plugging in an automated customer experience (CX) platform, and finish off with our agency’s pick for the best ecommerce CX automation platform. 

The Value of Automated CX in Ecommerce

It’s no secret that we at Blue Badger love using AI and automation to help our clients better serve and retain their customers.  

Automation lets you handle more inquiries without proportional increases in customer service staff. By automating 40-60% of routine tickets, businesses can reduce the cost per interaction while maintaining quality service. This means you can scale support during peak seasons or periods of rapid growth without straining your budget.

Unlike human agents who might provide varying answers, AI ensures consistent responses based on your knowledge base and preset rules. Every customer hears the same accurate information about your policies, orders, or product details.

The net effect of faster responses, 24/7 availability, and consistency is a better overall customer experience. Happy customers are more likely to come back, and remember, retaining an existing customer is much cheaper than the costs associated with acquiring a new one.

Key Considerations Before Automating Your Ecommerce Customer Support

When integrating a customer service automation service/tool into your store, there are a few things you should consider before getting everything linked together and running:

1. Think about what kind of support you need: Start by auditing your customer service operations. Identify the areas that would benefit most from AI automation. Which inquiries are most frequent and repetitive? Where are response times or satisfaction metrics falling short? For example, if 30% of your tickets are simple shipping-status questions, that’s a prime candidate for automation. Define clear goals (e.g., “reduce first response time to under 5 minutes” or “automate 50% of FAQs”) so you know what success looks like when things get rolling.

2. List your customers’ pain points: Map common pain points across the customer journey, from pre-purchase questions about products to post-purchase issues such as returns or warranty claims. This helps design automated support workflows that actually meet the needs of real customers. 

3. Audit/implement a knowledge base: If you’re already using a help desk/knowledge base, review the content and ensure it's up to date and accurate for your current product lines, FAQs, and policies. If you don’t have a knowledge base, you’ll want to list out the topics you should cover. Most AI-powered chatbots will use that information to reply to customers, and including links to knowledge base articles throughout your CX flows increases customer satisfaction as it makes it easier for them to self-serve their customer service. 

4. Check integration capabilities: Confirm that your chosen AI CX platform can integrate with your ecommerce platform. This is extremely important. You want to make sure the AI and support agents can access order data, customer profiles, and perform actions without manual intervention. Thankfully, most modern CX automation tools support top platforms like Shopify and Adobe Commerce (Magento) out of the box; you’ll just need to check whether any extra steps or platform-specific tasks are required to get set up. 

5. Set internal roles and responsibilities: Preparing for an AI-powered CX platform is a full operational change rather than a simple integration. Decide who on your team will manage the automation system moving forward. This includes setting up automated workflows, reviewing AI-proposed responses, and maintaining the knowledge base. You may designate an internal CX automation leader to oversee the rollout. Also, determine who will handle escalations that the AI can’t resolve. This job usually falls on the leader(s) of your customer service team. 

6. Define your success metrics: Identify the KPIs you’ll use to measure the impact of automation. Common metrics include first response time, resolution time, deflection rate (what percentage of inquiries the AI handles without human help), customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, and cost per ticket. Setting a baseline for these now will help you monitor the AI’s performance later.

While you could just go ahead and get started with AI-powered CX automation right away, you’ll be much better off taking some time to organize and prep prior to implementing the tool. Adding this kind of functionality to your store will fundamentally change how you handle customer issues moving forward. It’s worth taking the time to take a step back and ensure you’re ready to go before adding this new “member” to your support team. 

Best Practices for Implementing Ecommerce CX Automation

Once you feel ready to start setting up your new automation platform, it’s a good idea to keep a few things in mind as you go through the implementation process. First, it’s tempting to automate everything at once, but a gradual rollout is wiser. Identify 2 - 3 common inquiries or automated tasks as your pilot. 

Focus your ecommerce chatbot setup on these scenarios first. By resolving the most frequent questions, you’ll immediately remove a large burden from your team and prove the value. You can then expand to more use cases over time.

Next, maintain a human touch by blending AI and your human customer service agents. Automation works best when it augments your human team, rather than replacing it. Always provide customers with the option to reach a human agent, especially for complex or sensitive issues. 

Configure your AI platform with triggers to hand off to a live agent if it detects customer frustration or unanswered queries. For example, if a customer says "This doesn’t help" or uses an angry tone, the system should route the conversation to a person. Remember, you want your AI tool to improve customer satisfaction. By balancing AI efficiency with human empathy, you ensure customers feel cared for, as many appreciate the speed of automation and the human touch.

Your messages should reflect your brand’s voice. Spend time writing and customizing the AI’s replies and chatbot prompts. Most platforms let you edit the default text for greetings, answers, and even the virtual assistant's name or persona. Additionally, leverage personalization: use customer names and reference their order details in automated replies when possible and relevant. 

One benefit of customer experience automation (CXA) is that you can use AI to proactively improve the customer experience. Don’t wait for customers to ask for help; instead, use automation to anticipate their needs. For example, set up triggers or campaigns that automatically reach out via chat or email at certain moments. 

If a customer lingers on the checkout page without completing a purchase, an automated chat message can pop up, asking whether they need help or offering a discount code to complete the purchase. 

Finally, don’t forget to monitor performance and tweak/optimize regularly. Track things like response accuracy, how often customers ask to speak to a human, average handling time, and satisfaction ratings for AI interactions. This data will reveal where your AI and automations are excelling and where they might be falling short. Set a regular schedule to review the AI’s performance and check your automated flows for issues, gaps, or outdated materials or links. 

Our Top Platform Pick for Automated CX

At Blue Badger, we always recommend Gorgias to our clients looking to implement AI-powered CX into their ecommerce stores. Gorgias is built specifically for ecommerce, and aims to centralize all your support channels and automate a large portion of routine work by combining traditional helpdesk ticketing with AI agents and automation rules, so you get the best of both worlds (efficient automation and human oversight, when needed).

Gorgias’s AI engine can handle up to 60% of common customer support tasks on its own. These AI agents are trained on your help center content and even your brand’s tone, meaning they craft replies that sound like your company’s voice, not a robot.

For example, if a customer asks, “Where is my order?” Gorgias AI can instantly pull the tracking info from your system and respond with something like, “Your order is in transit and expected by Friday”, all without agent intervention.

Since Gorgias integrates with most major ecommerce platforms, getting it up and running is easy, and users benefit from its ability to pull data from the rest of your ecommerce stack to respond to queries and update orders/customer information. Linking it to your social media, CRM, email, live chat, etc., allows you to configure and run support and automations no matter where your customers are reaching out from. 

Conclusion

Implementing AI-powered CX automation positions your ecommerce business for sustainable growth, cost efficiency, and greatly improved customer satisfaction. With the right prep, like auditing your support needs, preparing your team, and integrating AI tools like Gorgias, you can deliver responsive, personalized support around the clock, regardless of where your customers reach out to you from.

At Blue Badger, we've seen firsthand how automation transforms ecommerce businesses, empowering them to scale efficiently with less friction. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our Gorgias implementation and maintenance services.