How to Write a Chatbot Welcome Flow for Ecommerce (2026 Guide)

What a welcome flow actually is (and what it is not)

A welcome flow is a short scripted conversation that starts automatically. It usually has three parts: a greeting, one question, and a next step.

It is not a full customer service script. It is not a place to dump your return policy. Think of it like a greeter at a store entrance — friendly, brief, and pointing you in the right direction.

Most tools let you build this visually, by dragging boxes around. You do not need to write code. If you can sketch a flowchart in a notebook, you can build a welcome flow.

Step 1: Decide what job the flow should do

Before you write a word, pick one goal. Flows that try to do everything end up doing nothing.

Three goals that suit online stores well:

• **Answer the top pre-purchase question.** Usually sizing, shipping time, or "is this in stock?"
• **Rescue a hesitant shopper.** Someone sitting on a checkout page for two minutes gets a nudge.
• **Capture a contact.** Offer a small discount in exchange for an email or SMS opt-in.

Picture a small ceramics brand that tries all three at once in a single pop-up. The greeting runs four sentences and asks two questions. Shoppers close it immediately. Cut it to one goal — "Need help picking a size?" — and the flow has a job it can actually finish.

Pick your goal first. Everything else follows from it.

Step 2: Write the greeting like a human, not a brand

A common mistake is a greeting that sounds like a corporate press release. "Welcome to our store! We are delighted to assist you with your shopping journey today." Nobody talks like that.

Write it the way you would greet someone who walked into a physical shop.

• Keep it under 15 words.
• Use "I" or "we" — a real person's voice.
• Name the value immediately.

Compare these two:

• Weak: "Hello! How may we assist you today?"
• Strong: "Hey! Looking for a gift? I can help you pick."

The second one gives the shopper a reason to reply. The first one gives them a reason to close the window.

If your bot is AI-powered, this greeting still matters. The AI handles the back-and-forth, but the greeting sets the tone. Tidio's Lyro AI, for example, answers from your FAQ automatically — the opening line is still something you write yourself.

Step 3: Ask one question with buttons, not a blank box

An open text box is intimidating. A shopper has to think of what to type. Most will not bother.

Buttons fix this. Give people two to four tappable options that map to your goal. For a clothing store:

• "Help with sizing"
• "Where is my order?"
• "Returns"

For a store selling digital products, it might be:

• "Which plan fits me?"
• "Can I get a demo?"
• "Billing question"

Keep the labels short — three or four words. Put the most common question first; order status and sizing tend to top the list for small stores, so they are the safe defaults.

This is where ManyChat's visual flow builder earns its reputation. You drag a button block, type your labels, and connect each one to the next step. The templates save time if you are starting from scratch. Just know that ManyChat is built mainly for Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — its website chat is secondary. If most of your shoppers are on your site, not in your DMs, a different tool will fit better.

Step 4: Route every answer, then offer a soft exit

This is the part most people skip. The flow should not dead-end. Every button needs somewhere to go.

Here is a simple structure that works:

• **Sizing question** → show a size chart link, or hand off to a live agent if one is online.
• **Order status** → ask for the order number, then either look it up or pass it to support.
• **Returns** → show your policy summary and offer a link to the returns form.
• **Anything else** → offer to connect with a person, or capture an email for a follow-up.

If you sell on Shopify, Gorgias is worth a close look here. Its AI Agent handles order and returns questions on its own, and Gorgias bills it per successful resolution rather than per conversation — with a published range of $0.90 to $1.00 per resolved conversation, and ticket overages at $0.36 to $0.40 each. The catch: it is built for ecommerce, so it is a poor fit if you are not selling physical products. And a busy sale week can push you past your ticket allowance, so budget for overages before a promotion.

Then close the loop. Every flow should end with something — not a hard sell, just a gentle next step:

• "Want 10% off? Drop your email here."
• "Here is the size guide — anything else I can check?"
• "I'll pass this to the team. You'll hear back within a few hours."

Always give people a way out: a "No thanks" button or a plain close option. Shoppers who feel cornered will leave the site entirely, not just the chat window.

Step 5: Test it like a shopper, then review it monthly

Before you turn it live, walk through your own flow on your phone. Then ask a friend who has never seen it to do the same.

Watch for these:

• Does the greeting appear too fast, before the page loads?
• Are the buttons readable on a small screen?
• Does every path lead somewhere useful?
• Does the flow fire on every page, or only where it makes sense?

That last one matters. A welcome flow on your homepage is fine. The same flow firing on your checkout page, mid-payment, is a conversion killer. Most tools let you set which pages trigger the flow — use that setting.

Tidio describes its own setup as getting live chat working in under 10 minutes; that is the vendor's claim, not a stopwatch test on our side. Its free plan allows 50 conversations a month, which is enough to see whether a welcome flow changes anything for your store before you pay.

Once it is live, a welcome flow is never finished. Check three numbers every month:

• **Open rate** — how many visitors open the chat.
• **Reply rate** — how many actually tap a button.
• **Resolution rate** — how many get their question answered without a human.

If open rate is low, your greeting or trigger timing is off. If reply rate is low, your buttons are confusing. If resolution rate is low, your answers are thin — add more to your FAQ, or hand off to a person sooner.

Do not overthink it. One small change per month beats a big rewrite every quarter.

Which tool should you use?

There is no single best pick — it depends on where your shoppers are.

• **Tidio** is the default for small ecommerce stores. Setup is quick, Shopify and WooCommerce integrations are deep, and Lyro AI answers FAQ questions automatically — with the first 50 AI conversations free for the lifetime of the account. The catch: Lyro AI credits run out fast on cheaper plans, and advanced analytics sit on higher tiers. Paid plans start at $24.17/mo billed yearly.
• **Gorgias** is the pick for Shopify and direct-to-consumer brands with real support volume. The Shopify integration lets agents refund, cancel and edit orders inside the ticket — genuinely useful. Ticket-based pricing means unlimited agents on Pro and above, but ticket overages punish spiky volume, and the AI Agent is billed separately on top of the plan. Skip it if you are not selling products online.
• **ManyChat** is the one to choose if your shoppers live in Instagram DMs, Messenger or WhatsApp. The flow builder is excellent for social. Just remember its free plan is capped at 25 active contacts since the March 2026 pricing overhaul, and AI features are a $29/mo add-on rather than included.

Whichever you pick, start with one goal, one greeting, and three buttons. You can always add more later.