Ninhle AI Sales Assistant – AI Chatbot for WooCommerce

Turn shopper questions into orders. Ninhle AI Sales Assistant is an AI chatbot and shopping assistant for WooCommerce. It answers from your real catalog, adds products to the cart right in the chat, tracks orders, and shows you why shoppers ask but don't buy. Shoppers ask the same things all day: Is it in stock? How much is shipping? Where is my order? This WooCommerce chatbot answers from live lookups in your store, and says so when it does not know. Get started in three steps

1. Connect an AI provider. Paste your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude) or Google (Gemini), or use the AI connection built into WordPress 7.0 and later. You pay the provider directly. Or start in local-only mode with no key at all.
2. Sync your catalog. One click, or wp ninhle-ai-sales-assistant sync-products, and the assistant knows your products, prices and stock.
3. Go live. The chat appears on your store with your name, logo, colour and suggested questions.

Add to cart in the chat Product answers come with product cards: photo, current price, stock and rating, read from WooCommerce when the reply is shown. Shoppers tap Add to cart without leaving the chat. WooCommerce updates the cart in the shopper's own browser, so your prices, stock rules and discounts apply as usual. In the free version, products with options link to the product page. The Starter plan lets shoppers pick options, change quantities and apply the discount codes you allow, right on the card. Shipping and total before checkout Asked about shipping or the total, the assistant shows an order summary calculated by WooCommerce: shipping options for the shopper's address, tax, total and your payment methods. Payment happens on your checkout page through your gateway (Stripe, PayPal or any other); the chat never takes card details. A payment link opens the same items on another device. Answers from your real catalog Product facts come from your WooCommerce store: prices, stock, product details, store policies and your own pages. When a search finds nothing, the assistant suggests the nearest categories and asks one question instead of guessing. It never invents prices or stock, and products you hide from the catalog are never shown. Order tracking in the chat "Where is my order?" gets an order card in the chat: status, items, total and tracking number with a Track link (from WooCommerce Shipment Tracking, Advanced Shipment Tracking with TrackShip, AfterShip, ParcelPanel, Trakoo, YITH Order Tracking or an order field you choose), with the delivery status when your shipping plugin reports it. Logged-in customers see their recent orders straight away; guests give the order number with the email or phone number used for it. Without that proof, nothing is revealed. Replies in the shopper's language The assistant detects the language of each message (15 languages, without an AI call) and answers in it, keeping product names, prices and order numbers exactly as in your store. You can keep every reply in your store's language instead. Sales Insights: why shoppers don't buy The Sales Insights tab lists the questions the assistant could not answer, grouped and ranked; type your answer there and the assistant uses it from the next reply. It also shows what shoppers searched for but could not find, and which products they wanted while out of stock. Contact details are hidden. In the Starter plan, an AI labels each night why chats did not lead to an order (price, shipping, size, stock and more), with quotes and an optional weekly email. A person is one tap away "Talk to a person" is always visible, and the assistant hands off complaints, explicit requests and questions your store data cannot answer. Your team replies from the Inbox in WP Admin, and a badge on the minimized chat button shows new replies. In the Starter plan, the Inbox shows a customer card with orders and total spent. See the orders the chatbot helped close The AI Value & Performance tab shows what the AI cost, how many orders followed a chat and how conversations ended, each with its sample size, from the day you install. Ready for AI agents (MCP) On WordPress 6.9 and later, turn on "AI agents" in Settings to register read-only abilities with the WordPress Abilities API: search products, product details and store policies. The MCP Adapter plugin can offer them to MCP clients. Only published, visible products and your store policies are shared, never orders, carts or customer data. Off by default, limited to 60 requests per hour per IP address. Your key, your data, no per-conversation fee Use your own OpenAI, Anthropic Claude or Google Gemini API key and pay the provider directly, or use the AI provider connected in WordPress 7.0+ (Settings > Connectors). There is no middleman server and no per-chat fee from us. Greetings, store policies, cart questions and order status are answered from store data without an AI call when the store has the answer, and AI replies run in the background so a slow provider does not hold up your pages. Everything in the free WooCommerce chatbot

• Store tools: product search and details, order status for the order's owner, digital downloads, store policies and site content.
• Sales playbook and rules: persona, qualifying questions, objection handling, closing and keyword rules.
• Lead capture in the chat, stored in your database and exportable to CSV.
• Human handoff and Inbox: a clear status for visitors, a new-replies badge, take over and hand back, an optional webhook.
• AI Value & Performance: AI cost per request, AI-assisted orders and conversation outcomes.
• Voice input (optional, off by default).
• Your brand: name, logo, colour, font and suggested questions, with a live preview.
• Local-only mode: answers from store data without any AI provider.
• Light, private and translation-ready: the chat loads only when needed; personal-data export and erasure; HPOS and Cart and Checkout blocks supported.

Optional paid plans Ninhle AI Sales Assistant is free to install and use. Optional paid plans add extra code to the plugin; nothing in the free version is locked or time-limited. Starter — cash-on-delivery and bank-transfer orders in the chat; "payment received" messages, with payment checks for your team when a shopper says they paid; VietQR for Vietnamese dong; orders your team creates in the Inbox with a payment link; shipment updates in the chat (off by default); options, quantities and allowed discount codes on product cards; nightly AI labels of why shoppers did not buy, with a weekly email summary; a customer card in the Inbox; product variations with per-variation add-to-cart links; Telegram notifications for new leads and handoffs; a sales dashboard; cached answers for repeated questions; the revenue of orders that followed a chat, per currency, on the AI Value & Performance tab; and signed webhooks with automatic retries (Standard Webhooks) for n8n, Make, Zapier and CRMs. Pro — everything in Starter, plus coupon validation, automatic failover to a second AI provider, daily and monthly AI budget caps, rule-based lead scoring with advanced analytics, price-output verification, payment method order by country or customer group in the chat, and sales abilities for your own AI agent (conversations, leads, orders after chats, checkout links and draft replies that your team reviews in the Inbox). AI usage is never included: OpenAI, Anthropic and Google bill you directly for your own API key, on every plan including Free.

2.7.0

• Added: order summary in the chat: items, shipping options for the shopper's address, tax, total and the store's payment methods, calculated by WooCommerce in the shopper's browser. Checkout opens the store's checkout page; nothing is ordered from the card.
• Added: checkout links: "Get a payment link" opens the same items on another device, and the assistant can offer a "Checkout with these items" button. Orders placed from a link still count as orders that followed a chat.
• Added: tracking numbers and delivery status from AfterShip, ParcelPanel, Trakoo and YITH Order Tracking, and the delivery status from TrackShip, on order cards.
• Added (Starter): cash-on-delivery and bank-transfer orders placed in the chat with the store's own address fields, a consent notice under the phone field and payment instructions. Stores with checkout fields the chat cannot show keep using the checkout page.
• Added (Starter): "payment received" in the chat when an order is paid. A shopper saying they paid, or sending a screenshot, never confirms a payment: it opens a payment check for your team in the Inbox.
• Added (Starter): VietQR codes for bank-transfer orders in Vietnamese dong, made on your site.
• Added (Starter): create an order for a shopper in the Inbox, with WooCommerce shipping and totals, and send a payment card or a checkout link.
• Added (Starter, off by default): shipped, delivered and delivery-problem updates in the chat and optionally by email, once per update, only for orders placed after a chat.
• Added (Starter): webhooks with Standard Webhooks signatures, automatic retries and a delivery log, now in Starter instead of Pro; new cart, checkout, order and shipment events you can turn on.
• Added (Pro): sales abilities for your own AI agent (WordPress 6.9+ and the MCP Adapter), with draft replies your team reviews in the Inbox. Sending directly to shoppers is off by default.
• Added (Pro): two roles for your agent's WordPress user, "Ninhle AI agent (read only)" and "Ninhle AI agent", so its Application password reaches only the abilities you allow. A wrong key gets 401, a call without permission 403. Each call is logged with the key name and result, never the key.
• Added (Pro): payment method order by country or customer group for shoppers coming from the chat.
• Added (Starter): the order form keeps a consent record for each purpose (processing the order, order updates by email) with the conversation and the exact text shown. The email updates question is optional, never pre-ticked, and shown only when shipment emails are on.
• Added: a notice in the AI settings about what the AI provider receives.
• Changed: new default notice under the chat about AI assistance and sensitive information. A notice text you changed is kept.
• Fixed: the City field of the shipping calculator was never shown, and stores' calculator filters were ignored.
• Fixed: the conversation.started webhook event was listed but never sent.
• Fixed: the default text under the chat ("AI sales assistant, available 24/7") was not translated.
• Fixed: a product card marker the AI wrote without product numbers could appear as text in the reply.
• Fixed: opening your own payment link on the device that already had those items in the cart doubled the quantities.
• Fixed: orders paid with gateways that create the order early, such as PayPal Payments, were not counted as orders that followed a chat, so no "payment received" message was sent.

2.6.0

• Added: add to cart in the chat. Product answers show cards with photo, current price, stock and rating, read from WooCommerce when the reply is shown. Simple products have an Add to cart button that uses the WooCommerce Store API in the shopper's browser; the plugin server never changes the cart. A cart view in the chat shows the items, subtotal and Checkout.
• Added: order tracking cards in the chat, with status, date, items, total and tracking number with a Track link (WooCommerce Shipment Tracking, Advanced Shipment Tracking or an order field you choose in Settings). Logged-in customers can ask for their recent orders without giving an email address.
• Added: Sales Insights tab: questions the assistant could not answer, grouped and ranked, with "Add answer" to teach the assistant; searches with no matching product; products wanted while out of stock. Email addresses and phone numbers are hidden.
• Added: replies in the shopper's language (15 languages detected without an AI call). New installs reply in the customer's language; upgraded sites keep the store's language until you change "Reply language" in Settings.
• Added (Starter): choose options and quantities on product cards, remove items and apply discount codes you allow; the assistant can prepare the card with the shopper's choice.
• Added (Starter): nightly AI labels of why chats did not lead to an order, with quotes, a monthly spending limit and an optional weekly email summary.
• Added (Starter): a customer card in the Inbox for logged-in customers and customers who proved an order: order count, total spent, last order and recent products. Shown only to users who can view WooCommerce orders.
• Added: a badge on the chat button when a reply arrives while the chat is minimized.
• Added: "WordPress AI connection" as an AI provider on WordPress 7.0 and later (Settings > Connectors).
• Added: optional read-only abilities for AI agents (WordPress Abilities API, WordPress 6.9+): product search, product details and store policies. Off by default.
• Added: after a week of use, once the assistant has answered at least 10 conversations or helped with an order, administrators are asked on the plugin screens whether they would leave a review on WordPress.org, with "Maybe later" and "Don't ask again". At most three times, never within a day of an AI error, and it can be turned off with a filter.
• Changed: AI replies now run in the background after a message is sent, instead of inside the visitor's next request. At most 2 replies run at the same time by default. The chat checks for replies often right after a message and less often while idle.
• Changed: product search also finds products when the shopper's words are in a different order or include extra words.
• Changed: the plugin is now named "Ninhle AI Sales Assistant – AI Chatbot for WooCommerce".
• Fixed: products hidden from the catalog could still be recommended.
• Fixed: a product on sale for 0 was quoted at its regular price, and a sale scheduled for later was quoted before it started.
• Fixed: questions that mention payment (for example "Do you have a plugin for QR payments?") were answered with the checkout link.
• Fixed: logged-in customers were treated as guests in the chat, so their account could not be used to look up their orders.
• Fixed: with Google Gemini, a saved model that Google no longer offers to new API keys made every reply fail. The plugin now falls back to the current Gemini Flash model and logs a reminder to update the setting.
• Fixed: Gemini could return an empty reply when its thinking used up the answer length.
• Fixed: with LiteSpeed Cache, the cart shown in the chat could be served from the page cache and look empty or out of date.
• Fixed: when the AI provider was slow, the visitor could be told the assistant was still looking and then get no answer.

2.5.0

• Added: optional voice input, off by default ("Let visitors speak their message" in Settings). Visitors tap the microphone and the browser turns their speech into text in the message box; they check it and send it themselves. The plugin never receives or stores audio. Shown only on HTTPS pages in browsers with speech recognition (not Firefox). Clear messages if the microphone is blocked, missing or not understood; typing always works.
• Fixed: assistant replies no longer show raw formatting characters such as ** or -. Bold text, lists, tables, links and product images now display properly in the chat.
• Fixed: product images could show as broken when the original file had been deleted from the server. The plugin now uses a resized copy that still exists, hides any image that cannot load, and loads same-site images over https on https pages.
• Fixed: clicks on site-relative links in the chat are now counted for AI-assisted orders.
• Changed: the chat window loads only when a visitor is about to open it, so pages load less JavaScript up front.
• Changed: the Inbox shows readable statuses and senders, and the Rules Engine describes each rule in plain words instead of JSON.

2.4.1

• Added: an Affiliation page in the plugin menu, for administrators, to apply for the Ninhle AI affiliate program: 30% commission on new sales and renewals, with a 45-day cookie. The program terms are loaded from Freemius when you open the page.
• Added: an "Earn 30% commission" link on the Settings page, shown only to administrators. The automatic affiliate notice of the Freemius SDK is turned off.
• Changed: the External services section of this readme lists every case in which the plugin contacts Freemius.

2.4.0

• Added: AI Value & Performance tab - AI cost recorded per request with the provider's usage and a dated price table, AI-assisted orders, and conversation outcomes (confirmed resolved, probably resolved, handed off, unresolved or unknown) with sample sizes. Figures start on the day you upgrade; older data is not backfilled.
• Added: "Talk to a person" button in the chat widget. It hands the conversation to your team without calling the AI, and pressing it again does not create a second handoff.
• Added: the widget shows a real status (AI assistant, waiting for a team member, a team member is helping you) and a short progress line while the assistant looks up products or orders.
• Added: a "Did this answer your question?" prompt inside the chat, at most once per conversation, which visitors can skip.
• Added: a line telling visitors they are chatting with an AI assistant, on by default and editable.
• Added: WhatsApp and Telegram links next to Messenger, Zalo and phone; an option to hide the chat on the checkout page.
• Changed: redesigned chat widget - simpler header, secondary actions in a "..." menu, no borders, text colour chosen for contrast on your brand colour, full screen on phones, keyboard support (Escape closes and returns focus).
• Changed: on cart and checkout pages the chat button moves out of the way of the place-order button on phones.
• Changed: revenue of AI-assisted orders is now part of the Starter plan.
• Changed: the settings screen shows the model each provider actually uses and an estimated cost per conversation, and warns when a saved model has been retired.
• Changed: Gemini replies count the model's thinking tokens in the recorded cost, as Google bills them.
• Changed: browser pop-ups (alert and confirm) in the admin screens and the widget are replaced by in-page messages.
• Removed: Thinking mode and the prompt generator ("create prompt") in the chat widget. Their settings are kept but no longer used.
• Fixed: the assistant's internal reasoning could appear in replies, the inbox and data exports; it is now removed before anything is saved, and older messages are cleaned when they are read.
• Fixed: handoffs were counted only while a conversation was waiting for staff, so taking over or handing back made them disappear from the statistics.
• Fixed: automation rules created in the Rules screen never ran.
• Fixed: OpenAI errors (wrong or expired key, used-up quota, server errors) were treated as an empty answer, so the backup provider was never tried and nothing was logged. They are now reported as errors and the next provider in the chain answers.
• Fixed: when the AI provider returned an empty answer, the visitor received no reply at all; they now get a short message asking them to rephrase.
• Fixed: when every AI provider failed, the reply said the visitor had been passed to a colleague without doing so; it now says the assistant is briefly unavailable and points to "Talk to a person".
• Fixed: migration steps from earlier versions could not be recorded because their names were too long.
• Fixed: the sample business details added at install (opening hours, cash on delivery, delivery times, 7-day returns) were given to shoppers as if they were the store's own terms, even after the field was cleared. New installs start with this field empty, unchanged sample text is no longer used, and Settings asks you to enter your real details. Until then the assistant offers to check with your team instead of stating terms.
• Fixed: "Restore default playbook" also replaced your business information with the sample text.
• Fixed: product search results given to the assistant now state your store currency, so it no longer guesses one (for example "$" in a VND store), and product summaries use your currency format instead of always "đ".
• Fixed: products with variations (size, colour) had no price in the assistant's product list, so it could not quote a price and price searches skipped them. The assistant now sees the price range and quotes a "from" price unless it has checked the chosen option.
• Fixed: with "Delete data on uninstall" turned on, two plugin options were left in the database.
• Fixed: on sites with WooCommerce, scheduling the plugin's background tasks could log a "translation loading triggered too early" notice.

2.3.0

• Added: WordPress personal-data export and erasure cover every table the plugin creates.
• Added: declared compatibility with WooCommerce HPOS and the Cart/Checkout blocks.
• Changed: the chat widget is one continuous white card (header, messages and composer) and fits narrow phone screens.
• Changed: the widget uses the system font by default and loads Google Fonts only if you pick a Google font in the settings.
• Changed: a chat session is created only when a visitor opens the chat, not on every page view. Returning visitors are no longer rate-limited, so visitors on shared mobile or office networks keep the chat button.
• Fixed: on phones, the chat button could sit off-screen when the theme has content wider than the screen (for example a news ticker).
• Fixed: automation rules could not be saved because the rules table was missing two columns; existing sites are repaired automatically.
• Fixed: deleting an automation rule reported an error even though the rule was deleted.
• Changed: the plugin is now named Ninhle AI Sales Assistant for WooCommerce.
• Fixed: inline scripts attached to the admin and widget bundles were dropped when the bundles were loaded as ES modules.
• Changed: Telegram notifications, product variations, coupon validation, provider failover, budget caps and the sales dashboard now ship only in the paid plans, as separate code.
• Changed: translations come from translate.wordpress.org; the plugin no longer bundles its own translation files.
• Fixed: handoff replies are now translatable instead of always Vietnamese.
• Fixed: on/off settings saved as "on" were read back as "off", so link reading, the prompt creator and the adaptive playbook never ran when enabled.
• Fixed: the assistant could stop replying after looking up products or other tools.
• Fixed: the assistant now reads PDF files customers attach, and reliably looks at attached images when using OpenAI.
• Fixed: when link reading is on, files a customer uploads are no longer sent to the link-reading service.
• Fixed: AI cost was recorded as zero when no model was chosen in the settings; the default model is now used for cost estimates.
• Fixed: Gemini failed when the model field was left empty.
• Fixed: attached files were never removed from conversations that were not closed, and deleting or clearing a conversation left its files on the server. Files sent in the chat are now deleted after the retention period, and immediately when their conversation is deleted or cleared.
• Fixed: file uploads no longer require the PHP fileinfo extension.
• Security: attachment paths are validated before files are read for the AI provider.
• Changed: if processing a message fails unexpectedly, the visitor gets an apology instead of no reply.
• Added: customers can paste an image (for example a screenshot) straight into the chat box.
• Fixed: suggested follow-up questions sometimes appeared as raw "[SUGGESTIONS]" text instead of buttons.
• Fixed: the response cache no longer stores answers that contain prices or stock status.
• Security: YouTube caption downloads only go to youtube.com over HTTPS.
• Changed: the free version no longer shows settings for features that exist only in the paid plans.
• Fixed: the leads CSV export downloaded as escaped text instead of a spreadsheet; it now opens correctly in Excel, including accented names.
• Changed: licensing and upgrade notices appear only on the plugin's own admin pages.
• Fixed: when coupon checking is not available, the assistant no longer tells customers a code is invalid; it asks them to enter it at checkout.
• Security: chat responses are never stored by page caches (for example LiteSpeed Cache or a host CDN). A cached response could be served without a valid chat session, and visitors could miss the assistant's reply.
• Fixed: with Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude, product and order lookups could fail and the internal lookup command could appear in the chat.
• Fixed: the default Gemini and Claude models had been retired by Google and Anthropic. The plugin now defaults to current models and ignores retired model names saved by earlier versions.
• Changed: the default chat widget name is "Shop Assistant"; set your own name in the settings.
• Added: the assistant knows the current date and time in your store's timezone (Settings > General), so it can tell customers the date and take it into account for opening hours, delivery times and promotion end dates.

2.2.0

• Added: three-tier licensing - Free, Starter and Pro - with Pro inheriting all Starter features.
• Added: premium code moved to a separate directory so the Free build genuinely excludes it rather than hiding it.
• Added: safe fallbacks so the Free build runs with no paid code present at all.
• Changed: minimum WordPress raised to 6.3.

2.1.0

• Changed: the admin interface is now English throughout; Vietnamese ships as a translation.
• Changed: default widget tagline and policy fallbacks are English and brand-neutral.
• Fixed: the Rules screen was calling REST helpers that did not exist, so every action on that tab failed.

2.0.0

• Added: Freemius SDK for optional paid plans, supporting annual subscriptions and lifetime licenses.