Best 7 Ways to Use a Product Recommendation Bot for Online Retailers

Octane AI is a specialized chatbot platform designed for e‑commerce stores, particularly on Shopify. It integrates seamlessly with the store’s product catalog, enabling real‑time, AI‑driven product recommendations, upsells, and cross‑sell suggestions. Octane AI’s conversational interface can be embedded as a floating widget or integrated into the checkout flow to capture intent and recommend complementary items. The platform also offers automated email sequences that trigger when customers add items to cart or abandon their cart, which can be customized to include product recommendations and incentives. Octane AI’s strengths lie in its deep integration with Shopify’s data model and its ability to surface recommendations that are directly tied to inventory levels, promotions, and customer purchase history. The platform’s analytics dashboard provides insights into chatbot performance, conversion rates, and revenue attributed to the bot. While Octane AI offers a robust set of features, it is focused primarily on the Shopify ecosystem and may require manual setup for stores on other platforms.

ManyChat is a versatile chatbot platform that has evolved beyond Facebook Messenger to become a multi‑channel marketing tool. For online retailers, ManyChat offers a drag‑and‑drop visual builder that lets users create conversational flows, product showcases, and automated sequences without coding. The platform integrates with e‑commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, allowing product catalogs to be pulled into bot conversations. ManyChat also supports email, SMS, and push notifications, making it a unified communication hub. ManyChat’s recommendation capabilities are built around product cards and dynamic content blocks that can display items based on user input or browsing history. The platform’s built‑in analytics track engagement metrics, conversion rates, and revenue attribution. While ManyChat is highly flexible, its recommendation logic is less sophisticated than dedicated recommendation engines, relying more on predefined rules and dynamic content than on machine learning.

Drift is a conversational marketing platform that focuses on B2B lead generation but is increasingly adopted by online retailers for its advanced chatbot capabilities. Drift’s AI assistant can answer product questions, qualify leads, and schedule demos or appointments. The platform leverages AI to personalize conversations and guide visitors toward conversion paths. Drift also offers real‑time chat, email integration, and a robust CRM connector that feeds conversational data into sales tools. While Drift is powerful for inbound lead qualification, its recommendation engine is not as specialized for product discovery. Retailers can use Drift’s chat widgets to direct users to product pages or offer personalized picks, but the logic is largely driven by custom scripts and integration with external recommendation services.

Recombee is a cloud‑based recommendation engine that provides highly personalized product suggestions through a simple API. It supports collaborative filtering, content‑based filtering, and hybrid approaches, allowing retailers to surface items that match user preferences or similar customers’ behaviors. Recombee can be integrated into website chat widgets, email campaigns, or mobile apps to deliver real‑time recommendations. The platform offers a developer‑friendly interface, extensive documentation, and real‑time data ingestion. While it excels at recommendation accuracy, it does not provide a built‑in chatbot UI; retailers must build or embed a chat interface separately. Recombee’s pricing model is usage‑based, with a free tier for low volume and professional tiers that scale with request volume.

Algolia Recommendations builds on Algolia’s powerful search infrastructure to provide AI‑driven product recommendations that surface alongside search results. The platform offers real‑time, personalized suggestions such as “Customers who bought this also bought…” and “Related products” that adapt to user context. Algolia’s recommendation service can be integrated into any website, mobile app, or chatbot via API. Algolia’s strengths include low latency, robust search indexing, and a unified dashboard that tracks both search and recommendation performance. However, the platform does not provide a standalone chatbot or messaging interface; retailers must implement their own conversational layer or integrate recommendations into product pages.

Bold Brain is a Shopify‑centric recommendation engine that specializes in personalized upsells and cross‑sell suggestions. It offers AI‑driven product suggestions that appear on product pages, cart, and checkout, as well as in email sequences. Bold Brain’s recommendation logic is powered by machine learning models trained on the store’s own data, allowing for high relevance and conversion. The platform is easy to install via the Shopify App Store and requires no coding. Bold Brain also provides a dashboard for monitoring performance, setting up reward structures, and customizing appearance to match brand guidelines. While Bold Brain excels at in‑page recommendations, its chatbot capabilities are limited, and it does not offer a standalone chat widget.