BigCommerce chatbot: add one as an app or a script

There are two ways to put a chatbot on a BigCommerce store. You install a chatbot app from BigCommerce’s App Marketplace, which is where BigCommerce keeps what other platforms call plugins, or you paste the chatbot’s script tag into Script Manager, under Storefront › Script Manager. An app installs in a few clicks, and shows you the store data it will access first. A script puts the chat on your pages, and three of Script Manager’s settings decide where it shows and who sees it. We read BigCommerce’s help centre and App Marketplace, and each chatbot’s pricing page, on 10 October 2026.

Deacon is an AI customer support agent that goes onto a BigCommerce store as one script in Script Manager. It answers your shoppers in seconds from your own pages, and it shows you what they ask about most, so you know what to fix and what to stock next. Its free plan comes with 50 answers a month, needs no card and has no end date.

The chatbot apps BigCommerce lists, and what they cost

The App Marketplace’s AI Chatbots category listed 16 apps on 10 October 2026. LiveChat came first, rated 4 out of 5 from 27 reviews. In a web search for “bigcommerce chatbot”, the marketplace itself is the top result and ChatBot.com’s BigCommerce guide is next, adding its chat through Script Manager. Both come from Text, Inc., and both pricing pages now sell the same plans, with Text’s AI Agent. Here’s what each one costs, and what you get before paying, from each vendor’s pricing page that day.

The meters differ. Text’s plans charge for each person on your team, and count a resolution for each conversation where the AI solves at least one question. Deacon’s meter is answers, one for each reply. A conversation uses about 2, so 50 answers is about 25 shopper conversations. LiveChat alternatives compares LiveChat with more tools.

Installing a chatbot app from the App Marketplace

BigCommerce’s guide to the App Marketplace sets out the install. You need to be the store owner, or have the Install applications permission on your user account. Without it, the install stops with “Failed to install application”.

1. Use an ordinary browser window. The guide warns that a private or incognito window blocks the third-party cookies the install relies on.
2. Find the app in the App Marketplace by category or by searching, open its page and click Get This App.
3. Log in under Existing BigCommerce store, then click Install.
4. Read the data the app will access and the permissions it needs, tick the box and click Confirm. Some apps then ask you to fill in a form or connect an account you already have.
5. Find the app under Apps › My apps, where you launch it.

An app that adds its own script shows it in Script Manager as a 3rd party script, which you can view but not edit. If an install stalls, the guide suggests cancelling it, allowing third-party cookies and trying again, or using another browser.

Removing an app, and what stays behind

You uninstall from Apps › My apps. That removes any scripts the app added to Script Manager itself, but not a script you pasted in by hand to make the app work, so delete that one yourself. Uninstalling doesn’t cancel the app’s subscription either. You cancel with the developer, through Contact Partner on the app’s page, or, for an app on Unified Billing, in the app’s own account or subscription section under Apps › My apps.

App or script

Take an app when the chatbot you want is in the marketplace and you’d rather click Install than paste code. The install shows you what it can reach before you confirm, and uninstalling cleans up its scripts. Take a script when the chatbot isn’t in the marketplace, or its maker gives you a tag to paste, as ChatBot.com and Deacon do. You choose where it runs, and it stays until you delete it.

Where a chatbot’s script goes in BigCommerce

BigCommerce’s Script Manager guide walks through the form. A store with several storefronts finds Script Manager in Channel Manager instead, one for each storefront.

1. Go to Storefront › Script Manager and click Create a Script.
2. Give it a name, and set Placement to Footer.
3. Set Location to Storefront pages.
4. Set Script category to Functional.
5. Set Script type to Script, paste the whole tag and click Save.

BigCommerce caches scripts for 20 seconds, so give it a moment before you look at your store. Three of those settings are worth understanding.

Storefront pages keeps the chat off checkout

Storefront pages covers every page except checkout and order confirmation, and All pages adds those two. The guide calls checkout a payment page, and says that to meet PCI DSS any script there needs at least one integrity hash, which is fixed to one version of the file. When the script’s maker updates it, the guide says, the old hash stops working. Some chatbot guides, ChatBot.com’s among them, suggest All pages, so choose the location yourself.

The script category decides who sees the chat

When you switch on BigCommerce’s cookie consent banner, shoppers can opt out of whole categories of scripts. The guide lists live chat under Functional, so a shopper who turns Functional off doesn’t see the chat. A script left without a category counts as Essential, which the guide keeps for scripts the store needs to work.

Paste the tag, not its address

Script type offers a URL or the script itself. A URL gives BigCommerce only the file’s address, so choose Script and paste the whole tag, with any settings it carries. The field needs the <script> tags, or it shows “Enter a valid script”.

Catalyst, Multi-Storefront and the old Footer Scripts box

The guide says BigCommerce’s headless Catalyst storefronts load Script Manager’s scripts too. With Multi-Storefront, each storefront has its own Script Manager and its own address. Older stores may still keep scripts in the legacy Footer Scripts box, which still works, though BigCommerce suggests moving them to Script Manager so the consent banner can sort them.

Your store’s trial address

On a trial, your store’s address looks like store-mystore.mybigcommerce.com, BigCommerce’s guide to web addresses says. A chatbot that runs only on the domains you allow needs that address listed until your own domain is connected.

Deacon, an AI support agent for your BigCommerce store

Shoppers ask the same things before they buy. Do you ship to Canada, how long do returns take, which size should I order, will this part fit my model. Your product pages and policies answer most of it, but shoppers don’t find the answer, so they email you or leave. Deacon answers them in seconds, at any hour, from the pages you choose and in whatever language each shopper writes in. When the answer comes from one of your pages, Deacon often links the shopper to it.

Deacon can’t see your BigCommerce control panel, so orders, live stock and refunds are out of its reach. A question about one shopper’s order gets a polite decline and a box for their email. When your pages don’t cover a question, Deacon says it doesn’t know rather than guessing, and asks for their email the same way. A shopper who leaves an address or asks for a person shows up in your dashboard at once, and you get an email a few minutes later if nobody on your team is in the dashboard. You answer from Deacon’s dashboard, and a shopper who still has the chat open sees your reply there under your name.

Then Deacon gets better. A question your pages didn’t cover, such as whether you ship to a PO box, waits in the dashboard with an Answer this button, and what you write becomes part of what Deacon knows. It can answer the next shopper who asks, so the more you answer, the less often you’re needed.

You also learn what shoppers need, from everyone who asks rather than the few who email. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what shoppers asked. Topics groups the questions, counts how many people asked and labels most of them, such as a pricing question, a how-to or a feature ask, so a gap in your product pages shows up as a count. The same script counts your visitors, where they came from and the goals they reach, on Analytics › Website.

Nothing is billed past your plan’s answers, where Text’s plans sell extra resolutions in packs of 50, and there’s no badge to pay to remove on any plan. The paid plans are on the pricing page.

Adding Deacon to BigCommerce

Deacon isn’t a marketplace app, so it goes in through Script Manager. Here’s the shape of its snippet, and yours carries your own key instead of the placeholder. The key sits in the tag’s data-key, which is why Script type has to be Script rather than URL.

<script src="https://heydeacon.com/widget/v1/loader.js" data-key="pk_your_widget_key" async></script>

It takes a few minutes on a store with a Stencil theme.

1. Sign up with Google or an email address, then tell Deacon your store’s address. There’s no card to enter on the free plan. Deacon reads your home page and up to four pages it links to, such as shipping and returns, and it never takes the cart, checkout or account pages.
2. On Deacon’s Install page, make sure your store’s domain is on the list, and add it if not. The address you gave at sign-up is listed already, so your snippet is ready, and the entry covers your address with and without www. On a trial, add your mybigcommerce.com address too, and on Multi-Storefront, add each storefront’s domain.
3. In BigCommerce, go to Storefront › Script Manager and click Create a Script. Choose Footer, Storefront pages, Functional and Script, paste the snippet and click Save.
4. In Knowledge Sources, untick any page you don’t want Deacon to use. The free plan fetches 10 pages a month, including the ones Deacon read when you signed up, so add the product pages shoppers ask about most, one link at a time, with Add website.
5. Before shoppers see it, try their questions in the Playground.

Checking the chat on your store

Five quick checks show the script is working.

1. Wait 20 seconds for BigCommerce’s cache, then open your store in a private window.
2. If your cookie consent banner is on, accept Functional scripts and look for the chat button.
3. Open Deacon’s Install page. Its top shows whether Deacon is live on your store and when it was last seen there, and it keeps checking on its own.
4. Ask about something your shipping page covers, then something it doesn’t. You should get an answer to the first, and to the second an honest “I don’t know” with a box for an email.
5. Ask where an order is. Deacon should decline and ask for an email, so you can look it up in BigCommerce.

Questions about BigCommerce chatbots

Is there a chatbot plugin or app for BigCommerce?

Yes, as apps. BigCommerce’s add-ons are apps from its App Marketplace, and the AI Chatbots category listed 16 on 10 October 2026, with LiveChat first. A chatbot that isn’t an app goes in as a script in Script Manager.

Which BigCommerce plan do I need for a chatbot’s script?

BigCommerce’s guide ties Script Manager to Stencil themes, not to a plan. Catalyst storefronts can load its scripts too.

Should a chatbot run on the checkout page?

Not usually. BigCommerce asks for an integrity hash on any script on a payment page such as checkout, and a hash breaks when the script is updated. Storefront pages keeps the chat everywhere else.

Which script category should a chatbot use?

Functional. BigCommerce’s guide gives live chat as an example of it, and a shopper who opts out of Functional scripts through the cookie consent banner won’t see the chat.

How do I remove a chatbot from BigCommerce?

Uninstall an app from Apps › My apps, which also removes the scripts it added itself, then cancel its subscription, since uninstalling doesn’t. Delete a script you added by hand from Script Manager. BigCommerce’s guide says a script you pasted in to make an app work stays on your store after the app is uninstalled, until you delete it.

Can Deacon look up a BigCommerce order?

No. Deacon can’t see your control panel, so it answers from your store’s pages and never sees an order, a refund or a stock level. A shopper who asks about their own order gets a decline and a box for their email, so you can reply. AI chatbots for ecommerce covers the chatbots that connect to a store’s orders.

What happens when the free plan’s 50 answers are used up?

The chat stays on your store. A shopper who asks gets a short reply saying Deacon can’t look into that one right now, and is asked for an email unless they’ve already left one in that conversation. Nothing is billed, your plan doesn’t upgrade itself, and every conversation stays in your dashboard to read and reply to.