7 Best Drift Alternatives for Online Retailers

HelpScout is a customer support platform that has expanded into conversational AI with its AI Chatbot feature. Designed for small to medium‑sized businesses, it offers an integrated inbox for managing emails, chats, and other messaging channels from a single view, as well as a mobile app that keeps support teams connected on the go. The AI chatbot allows brands to provide instant, self‑service answers to common questions, reducing the workload on human agents. HelpScout’s strength lies in its streamlined workflow, allowing agents to quickly triage, resolve, and hand off conversations. The platform also includes insights and analytics tools that provide visibility into support performance, and a range of apps and integrations that connect with other business tools. While it does not offer a dedicated visual editor for chat widgets or advanced knowledge‑base customization, its focus on omnichannel support and ease of use makes it an attractive choice for retailers looking to improve response times and reduce support costs.

Eesel.ai offers a suite of AI tools designed to automate front‑line support and internal communications. Its product lineup includes an AI Agent for general chat interactions, an AI Copilot for drafting replies, an AI Triage system that routes tickets, and an AI Email Writer that drafts emails and ticket responses. The platform integrates with popular helpdesk and e‑commerce systems such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Shopify, allowing retailers to automate repetitive tasks and improve response accuracy. Eesel.ai also provides internal chat solutions for teams and an AI‑powered email writer that helps agents craft professional responses more quickly. While it focuses heavily on automation and integration, it does not offer a visual editor for chat widgets or extensive knowledge‑base management, and it lacks built‑in e‑commerce analytics. Nonetheless, its broad array of AI helpers can significantly reduce manual workload for support teams.

Ecomposer.io is a Shopify‑centric page builder that offers a rich set of templates, an intuitive editor, and a library of elements and extensions. While its primary focus is on creating high‑converting landing pages and product pages for Shopify stores, it also provides basic chat widget integration that can be embedded directly into the storefront. The platform’s drag‑and‑drop editor allows merchants to customize page layouts without coding, while its extensive template library speeds up the design process. Ecomposer does not include advanced AI chatbot features or a dual knowledge base, but its tight integration with Shopify and the ability to embed simple chat widgets make it useful for retailers who want a quick, code‑free way to add conversational elements to their site. However, the lack of persistent memory or sophisticated AI capabilities limits its use for complex customer interactions.

Lindy.ai is an AI agent builder that focuses on creating intelligent agents for a variety of business functions, including customer support, sales, recruiting, meetings, and phone calls. The platform offers a library of templates that can be customized and an app‑builder that allows users to connect Lindy’s agents to external services via webhooks and integrations. Lindy's solutions cover a broad spectrum of use cases, from automating customer support conversations to generating sales leads and providing recruiting assistance. While Lindy provides a flexible framework for building AI agents, it does not include a visual chat widget editor or a dual knowledge‑base system. Additionally, the platform’s focus is on agent logic rather than the UI experience, which may require additional development to integrate the agent into a branded storefront. Despite these limitations, Lindy.ai’s extensive template library and integration capabilities make it a strong contender for businesses that want to deploy AI across multiple channels.

Zapier is a leading automation platform that connects over 8,000 apps and services, enabling users to create complex workflows without writing code. Its recent AI offerings include a chatbot beta that can answer customer questions, an agents beta for building AI assistants, and a functions beta that allows developers to run code within workflows. Zapier’s strength lies in its massive app ecosystem, which includes e‑commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, CRMs, and support tools, allowing retailers to automate repetitive tasks such as order notifications, inventory updates, and customer follow‑ups. While Zapier does not provide a dedicated visual chat widget editor or an advanced knowledge‑base system, its AI chatbots can be embedded through webhooks or integrated into existing chat platforms. The platform’s pricing starts with a free tier and scales to $125/month for higher usage and advanced features. Zapier is ideal for retailers who want to automate business processes and integrate AI-driven conversations across multiple channels.

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that combines live chat, automated bots, and email marketing into a single, unified inbox. It offers a range of chatbot functionalities, including product recommendations, FAQ answering, and lead qualification, all of which can be customized through its Flow builder. Retailers appreciate Intercom’s ability to segment visitors by behavior, trigger personalized messages, and integrate with e‑commerce platforms like Shopify to surface product data in real time. The platform also provides robust analytics, automated email sequences, and a knowledge‑base feature that lets businesses publish help articles directly within the chat interface. While Intercom does not provide a dedicated visual widget editor or a dual knowledge‑base system, its extensive integration ecosystem and marketing automation tools make it a powerful tool for retailers seeking to combine support and sales conversations in one place.