A customer asks where an order is, whether a size is in stock, or how to finish a cart they left. Those answers live in the store, not in a script. An agent can give them only after the Shopify store is connected, and only from the products, orders, and inventory that connection can read.
Connecting the store is the start. It is not a result. Until that connection is on, the agent should say it cannot see the order, rather than guess a tracking line or a price.
Key takeaways
The agent reads the connected store. It does not invent stock, a delivery date, or a discount.
A catalog question uses products. An order question uses that customer’s order. A cart reminder uses the cart they actually left.
A return, a refund, or a price change happens only when the store allows that action and the team has turned it on.
Cash-on-delivery confirmation is a separate job. It is already described in Confirm COD Orders by Voice and WhatsApp.
Cart recovery, prepaid conversion, and the share of questions handled alone are not results this article is reporting.
What the connection allows
After the store is connected, the agent can look up four kinds of records.
Products: name, price, and whether the variant is available.
Orders: status and tracking, when the store has written them.
The customer’s cart: the items still in it, and the checkout link.
A return or a payment link, only if that action is enabled.
If the lookup returns nothing, the answer is that the record was not found. A missing order is not “on the way.”
Catalog questions
The customer describes what they want in ordinary words: a color, a size, a use, a price they have in mind. The agent searches the catalog and names only products the store returned.
It should show the price the store has now, not a rounded guess. If several products match, it can list a few and ask which to open. If none match, it says so. It should not offer a similar item as if it were the one they asked for, unless it labels that item as a different product.
Stock is a number from the store. “Only a few left” is allowed when the inventory record says that. It is not a line to add for urgency.
Order questions
“Where is my order?” needs the order the store can match to this customer. The agent asks for the detail that lookup needs, reads the status, and stops.
If the store has a tracking state, the agent repeats that state.
If the store has no delivery date, the agent does not invent one.
If two orders match, the agent names both and asks which one they mean.
If the account cannot be matched, a person takes the chat. The agent does not read someone else’s order.
A later message can repeat a tracking link that was already on the order. That message is a notice. It does not change the status.
Checkout help
A cart reminder is a message about items still in that cart, plus the checkout link. The timing is one the store set. The items are the ones in the cart.
An offer inside that message, such as a discount code, has to be a code the store already created. The agent does not raise the discount because a day passed, unless the team wrote that step and the code exists.
If the customer asks to pay now instead of cash on delivery, the payment link is the path in the COD article. This page does not restate that call, that WhatsApp follow-up, or what to do with an unconfirmed order.
How a store question is answered
What they ask | What the agent reads | When a person steps in |
|---|---|---|
Is this product available? | The matching variant and its stock | The catalog search returns nothing useful, or the price looks wrong |
Where is my order? | That customer’s order and its tracking state | The order cannot be matched, or the status is missing |
I want to return this | The store’s return action, if it is turned on | The return is outside the rule, or the action is not enabled |
I left items in my cart | Those cart lines and the checkout link | They ask for a discount the store has not created |
Can I pay now instead of cash on delivery? | Hand this to the COD confirmation path | The payment link cannot be created |
What the conversation should record
Every finished store conversation needs an outcome.
Product answer, with the products that were named.
Order answer, with the status that was read.
Cart reminder sent, with the checkout link.
Return started, or return refused because the rule did not allow it.
Handed to a person, with the reason.
Not answered, because the store connection or the record was missing.
That record is what lets the team see which questions the store data can already answer.
Where a person steps in
The agent keeps the lookups the store can complete. A person takes over when:
The customer is unhappy, or the order looks wrong.
The return, the refund, or the price change is not an action the agent is allowed to run.
The lookup fails or matches the wrong person.
The customer asks for a human.
The person should see the products or the order already pulled up. They should not ask the customer to find the order number again if it is already on the thread.
What this is not
An agent connected to a Shopify store does not, by itself, prove that abandoned carts come back, that cash-on-delivery orders switch to prepaid, or that most questions end without a person. Those depend on the store’s data, the offer, and whether the customer acts. Treat the connection as access to products and orders, not as a measured recovery rate.
The same limit applies to message delivery, review requests, and “a few left” warnings. A review request is a message the team scheduled. A scarcity line is allowed only when inventory says so.
This article is also not the cash-on-delivery confirmation. Voice and WhatsApp confirmation, the payment link, and what to do when nobody answers are in that article. Here the store is the source of the answer. The other article is the confirmation before the order ships.
Explore Fonada
Ecommerce for connecting a Shopify store to the agent
Confirm COD orders by voice and WhatsApp for the confirmation and the payment link
WhatsApp for cart reminders and order notices in a thread
Order status calls for reading a status out loud