PrestaShop Chatbot Builder

PrestaShop is one of Europe's leading open-source e-commerce platforms, powering roughly 300,000 online stores worldwide, with particular strength in France, Spain, Italy, and across Latin America. Merchants choose it for full ownership of their store, a huge module ecosystem, and strong multi-language, multi-currency foundations - the natural toolkit for selling across borders.

Those same cross-border stores face the sharpest support challenge: shoppers in different countries, languages, and time zones, all expecting instant answers about shipping, payment methods, and returns. An unanswered question at 22:00 in Madrid is an abandoned cart by 22:05.

The Conferbot PrestaShop module puts an AI chatbot on your storefront in about three minutes. It passes the logged-in customer's identity and live cart context to the bot, includes per-page-type visibility controls (show chat on product and cart pages, hide it on checkout - your choice), and connects your store to the full Conferbot platform: a no-code visual flow builder, AI-powered answers, live agent handover, and a shared team inbox.

The only credential the module needs is your Chatbot ID - no API keys, no theme edits. Appearance and behavior are configured centrally in the Conferbot dashboard, so the same bot can also serve your website, WhatsApp, or a second store on Shopify without rebuilding anything.

This guide covers how the module works, real installation steps for PrestaShop 1.7 and 8.x, the per-page visibility system, exactly what data reaches the bot, use cases, and an honest comparison with generic live chat modules. The module is open source: Conferbot/conferbot-prestashop on GitHub, with the merchant guide on the Conferbot developer portal.

The Conferbot PrestaShop module is a careful, minimal wrapper around the official Conferbot web widget embed. It hooks PrestaShop's displayHeader hook and injects the standard loader on the storefront pages you have enabled:

<script src="https://cdn.conferbot.com/dist/v1/widget.min.js" async></script>

followed by the boot call:

window.ConferbotWidget("YOUR_BOT_ID", "live_chat", options)

The options object carries the logged-in customer's identity (when there is one) and live store/cart context - detailed in the context section below. The widget resolves everything else server-side from the Chatbot ID over Socket.IO (wdt.conferbot.com). In practice this means:

• One credential - the Chatbot ID is the only thing stored in your PrestaShop configuration. No API keys or secrets sit in your database.
• No theme edits - the module renders through a standard hook and template; your theme files are never modified, and uninstalling leaves nothing behind.
• Dashboard-driven behavior - position, colors, greeting, language, auto-open, proactive prompts, and disabled URLs are delivered at runtime from your Conferbot dashboard. Change them there and every page updates on the next load, with no PrestaShop cache clearing.

Try it before you sign up

The configure screen includes a one-click "Try our demo bot" button that fills in the public demo Chatbot ID (691c970890527a0468f9b2c9). It works without any Conferbot account, so you can watch a real AI conversation run on your own storefront before creating an account at app.conferbot.com. When you are ready, build your own bot in the visual builder (or start from a template), copy its Bot ID from Share > Embed into website, and paste it in.

There are two ways to get the Conferbot widget onto a PrestaShop store: the module (recommended) or a direct embed in your theme. Both take minutes; the module does more for you.

Option A: The Conferbot module (recommended)

One-click install through the PrestaShop admin, and the module automatically passes the logged-in customer's identity and live cart context to the bot, plus per-page-type visibility controls. Supports PrestaShop 1.7 and 8.x, PHP 7.2+.

1. Download conferbot.zip from the latest release on GitHub (the zip contains a top-level conferbot/ directory, as PrestaShop expects)
2. In your PrestaShop admin, go to Modules > Module Manager > Upload a module and upload the zip. Alternatives: copy the folder to /modules/conferbot/ and install from Module Manager, or run bin/console prestashop:module install conferbot
3. Click Configure, paste your Chatbot ID (or click "Try our demo bot"), flip the Turn the chat on switch, and Save
4. Open your storefront - the chat bubble appears. Log in as a customer, add a product to the cart, and start a chat: your Conferbot inbox shows the customer's name, email, and live cart total

Option B: Direct embed in your theme

The pre-module method still works: paste the canonical widget snippet into your theme's footer.tpl before the closing </body> tag (or use a custom-code module):

<script src="https://cdn.conferbot.com/dist/v1/widget.min.js" async></script>
<script>window.ConferbotWidget("YOUR_BOT_ID", "live_chat");</script>

Note the trade-offs: a direct embed does not pass the logged-in customer or cart context automatically - that is exactly what the module adds - unless you hand-write the third options argument yourself. You also lose the per-page-type visibility toggles, and theme edits are overwritten by theme updates.

Troubleshooting

If the widget does not appear, check four things:

• The module is enabled
• The Chatbot ID is correct and the bot is published and not disabled
• The current page type is enabled under Show on these pages
• The PrestaShop cache is cleared (Advanced Parameters > Performance > Clear cache)

The full checklist is in the developer portal guide.

The configure screen keeps to the settings that genuinely belong in PrestaShop. Everything you will iterate on weekly - greetings, colors, prompts - lives in the Conferbot dashboard, where changes apply instantly to every channel.

Setting	Description
Chatbot ID	Required. The 24-character hex ID of your bot, from the Conferbot dashboard under Share > Embed into website.
Turn the chat on	Master on/off switch for the storefront widget.
How the chat appears	Advanced. Floating chat bubble (live_chat, default) or popup window (popup_chat).
Show on these pages	Advanced. Per-page-type visibility: home, category/search, product, cart, checkout, customer account, and all other pages. Detailed in the next section.
Widget script URL	Advanced. Leave as is for the Conferbot CDN; useful for staging or self-hosted widget builds.

Forgiving Chatbot ID input

You do not need to carefully isolate the bare ID. Paste any of the following and the module extracts and validates the 24-character hex ID automatically on save:

• The bare Bot ID
• The full embed snippet copied from the dashboard
• A Conferbot dashboard URL containing the bot ID

Invalid input is rejected rather than silently stored, so a typo cannot leave your storefront with a broken embed.

What deliberately is not here

No color pickers, position dropdowns, or greeting fields. Widget appearance and behavior are configured in the Conferbot dashboard under Customize and delivered at runtime - the module does not duplicate those settings, so the admin and the dashboard can never disagree about what the widget should look like. This is the same philosophy across all Conferbot store integrations, from WordPress to Magento.

Not every store wants chat everywhere. Some merchants want the bot selling hard on product pages but out of the way at checkout; others want it only where confused visitors land. The PrestaShop module has the most granular admin-side page controls of any Conferbot store integration, built on a controller-to-page-type resolver.

The seven page types

Under Show on these pages, you toggle the widget independently for:

Page type	Covers	Typical choice
Home	The storefront front page	On - first impressions and proactive greetings
Category / search	Category listings and search results	On - guide shoppers who are comparing
Product	Product detail pages	On - pre-sale questions decide purchases here
Cart	The cart page	On - rescue hesitation before checkout
Checkout	The checkout funnel	Merchant's call - support vs. distraction
Customer account	Order history, addresses, account pages	On - order support where orders live
All other pages	CMS pages, contact, everything else	On - catch-all

How it works internally

On each request, the module maps the active PrestaShop controller to one of these page types and checks your visibility settings before rendering anything. If the page type is disabled, the loader is simply not injected - no hidden widget, no wasted script download, nothing in the page source. The controller-to-page-type mapping and the visibility rules are among the most heavily unit-tested parts of the module.

Two layers of control

Page-type toggles live in PrestaShop; URL-level exclusions live in the Conferbot dashboard (disabled URLs under Customize). Use the module for structural decisions ("never on checkout") and the dashboard for tactical ones ("not on this one landing page this month") - the dashboard layer applies at runtime without touching your store. Together they give you precise placement without editing a single template.

A note on checkout

There are two defensible positions: chat at checkout answers last-minute payment and shipping questions (rescuing sales), or chat at checkout is one more distraction in the funnel. The module deliberately leaves this to you as a one-click toggle - test both against your own abandonment numbers.

The module gathers live customer and store data on every render and passes it into the widget boot call, so bot flows and human agents both know who they are talking to and what is at stake in the cart.

Customer identity (logged-in customers)

When a customer is logged into their PrestaShop account, the module passes a user object with:

• id - the PrestaShop customer ID
• name - the customer's name
• email - the customer's email address

For guests, the user object is omitted entirely - no placeholders, no fingerprinting.

Store and cart context (all visitors)

Every session includes a customData object:

Field	Example	Why it matters
platform	prestashop	Flows and analytics identify the channel
storeName	Ma Boutique	Personalizes bot messages
storeUrl	https://maboutique.fr	Distinguishes multistore setups
storeLanguage	fr	Route to the right language flow
storeCurrency	EUR	Quote prices correctly in chat
cartTotal	89.50	Prioritize and branch on cart value
cartItemCount	2	Detect active shopping sessions

What this enables

An agent opening a chat in the Conferbot inbox sees "Claire Dubois, [email protected], cart: 89.50 EUR, 2 items" before replying - no identity round-trips with a customer who is already logged in. Flows can branch on the same data: offer shipping help above a cart threshold, a welcome discount when the cart is empty, or a French-language flow when storeLanguage is fr. The context refreshes on each page load as the customer shops.

The inlined JSON is script-context-safe: customer names containing quotes, angle brackets, or a closing script tag cannot break out of the snippet. This exact property is covered by dedicated tests in the module's suite.

PrestaShop merchants range from single-founder boutiques to multi-country operations. The patterns below map to what the module's context and visibility controls make possible:

1. Multilingual pre-sale support

PrestaShop's international strength pairs directly with the storeLanguage field: route French, Spanish, and English sessions to matching flows from one bot. AI answers extend coverage to free-text questions in each language.

2. Cart-aware rescue

With cartTotal and cartItemCount in context, flows can treat a visitor with a 200 EUR cart differently from a casual browser - proactively offering help with shipping costs or payment methods at the moment hesitation sets in, on exactly the pages you enabled.

3. Order status deflection

"Where is my order?" dominates every e-commerce inbox. A flow collects the order reference and email, answers what it can, and hands over only the genuine exceptions. Enable the customer-account page type so the bot sits where customers already go to check orders.

4. Checkout question rescue

If you enable chat on checkout, last-minute questions - "do you ship to Belgium?", "can I pay by bank transfer?" - get answered inside the funnel instead of becoming abandonments. Test it against your own numbers; the toggle makes the experiment one click.

5. Logged-in customer service

Because identity arrives automatically for logged-in customers, repeat buyers get service that starts from "Hello Claire" rather than an interrogation. Agents see the account email immediately, so account-specific issues resolve in fewer messages.

6. Lead capture on content and category pages

Out-of-stock products, size guides, B2B quote requests - the bot collects emails and details conversationally, feeding your follow-up lists. Ready-made e-commerce flows are in the template library; the broader playbook is in chatbots for e-commerce.

The module contains no appearance settings - deliberately. Widget styling and behavior are configured once in the Conferbot dashboard under Customize and delivered to the widget at runtime. The module never duplicates those settings, so there is nothing to keep synchronized between your PrestaShop admin and Conferbot.

What you control from the dashboard

• Position - bottom-right or bottom-left, with offsets so the bubble clears your theme's own floating elements
• Colors and theme - brand colors for the launcher, header, and messages; light and dark theming
• Launcher and avatars - bubble icon, bot avatar, agent avatars
• Greeting and language - welcome message, input placeholder, widget UI language
• Behavior - auto-open rules, load delay, proactive prompts on specific pages
• Disabled URLs - URL-level exclusions that complement the module's page-type toggles

Why runtime delivery matters on PrestaShop

PrestaShop caches aggressively (Smarty templates, full page cache on many hosts). Because appearance settings never pass through PrestaShop - the widget fetches them at runtime from Conferbot - a dashboard change reaches every visitor on their next page load with no cache clearing. During a sale you can switch the greeting to promote a discount code in the morning and revert at night, without touching the store.

Embed types

• Floating chat bubble (live_chat, default) - the familiar corner launcher that expands into a panel
• Popup window (popup_chat) - opens the conversation in a centered popup, for stores that prefer chat as a deliberate action

Because styling is central, the same brand configuration applies wherever the bot runs - PrestaShop, your main site, or any connected channel. One look, everywhere.

The module connects your storefront to the full Conferbot platform - the same engine behind every Conferbot channel.

Visual flow builder

Design conversations in the drag-and-drop builder: greetings, button menus, product FAQs, order lookups, lead capture, and conditional branches on the context the module passes - cart value, language, login state. No code at any step, and templates give you working e-commerce starting points.

AI answers

Connect AI models to answer free-text questions from your own content: shipping zones, payment methods, return policy, product details. The AI covers the long tail your buttons did not anticipate, in the languages your customers use, with knowledge and boundaries you control.

Human handover

When a conversation needs a person - a damaged parcel, a B2B quote, an angry customer - the bot hands over to your team in the Conferbot shared inbox. This is where the module's context does real work: the agent sees the customer's name, email, cart total, item count, currency, and store before sending a first reply. For a logged-in repeat customer, the conversation starts already knowing who they are.

One inbox across channels

If the same bot also runs on WhatsApp, Messenger, or your website, every conversation lands in one inbox with the same assignment, tags, canned responses, and analytics. On when to automate versus staff up, see chatbot vs live chat.

Every module you install competes for your storefront's speed budget. This one is engineered to cost essentially nothing:

Async, non-blocking loading

The widget script loads with the async attribute from the Conferbot CDN. It downloads and executes independently of page rendering - products, prices, and the checkout render exactly as fast as before. There is no synchronous request in the critical path, and the widget mounts into its own container after the page is interactive, so it causes no layout shift.

Negligible server-side work

Per request, the module resolves the page type, checks visibility, builds a small options array, and renders a template - microseconds. It adds no database queries beyond PrestaShop's standard configuration load, no cron tasks, and no calls from your server to anyone. All chat traffic flows directly between the visitor's browser and Conferbot's servers over Socket.IO, never through your hosting.

Pages where chat is off cost zero

Thanks to the per-page visibility system, disabled page types get no loader at all - not a hidden widget, but literally nothing in the page source. If you disable checkout, your checkout pages carry zero Conferbot bytes.

SEO considerations

• The widget renders client-side after load and does not alter crawlable HTML content, headings, or structured data
• No render-blocking resources are introduced, protecting Core Web Vitals
• Chat content is not indexed - product pages remain exactly what search engines see

Caching notes

After installing or changing module settings, clear the PrestaShop cache (Advanced Parameters > Performance > Clear cache) so the template output refreshes. Day-to-day widget changes made in the Conferbot dashboard never require this - they are delivered at runtime. General guidance: how to add a chatbot to your website.

A module that renders on every page of your store and handles customer data should be inspectable. This one is fully open source under the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0) - the license convention of the PrestaShop Addons marketplace - at Conferbot/conferbot-prestashop.

Thoroughly tested

The module ships with 73 PHPUnit tests (155 assertions) - the largest suite of any Conferbot store integration - covering:

• Bot ID parsing - bare ID, full embed snippet, dashboard URL, garbage, and empty input
• Controller-to-page-type mapping - every storefront controller resolves to the right page type, with priority rules for ambiguous cases
• Visibility rules - each page-type toggle actually gates rendering
• Widget option building - guest, logged-in customer, and cart variants
• Script-injection safety - hostile customer names cannot break out of the inlined JSON
• Settings persistence - including cleanup of legacy configuration keys on upgrade

The architecture makes this possible: the module class only wires PrestaShop hooks and the configure screen, while the logic lives in small pure classes (bot ID handling, page resolution, widget context, settings). The suite runs without a PrestaShop installation, in seconds, on any PHP 7.2+ machine.

Minimal surface area

The module stores a handful of configuration keys, registers one display hook, and requests nothing else - no telemetry, no external calls from your server, no admin-side JavaScript beyond the configure form. Everything it injects into your storefront is visible in one template file.

Current limitations, stated plainly

Outbound webhooks - order status pushes, product updates, abandoned-cart events flowing from PrestaShop into bot flows - are not part of this version. The integration is storefront-side: the context passed at page load covers live-conversation assistance, and deeper commerce automation is on the roadmap. If a vendor promise of "abandoned cart chatbot campaigns" matters to your evaluation, know that this module does not do that today, and we would rather say so here than have you discover it after install.

The PrestaShop Addons marketplace offers many chat modules. Most are either embed wrappers around generic chat services or self-hosted PHP chat scripts. An honest comparison by category, without naming specific products:

Capability	Conferbot module	Generic chat embed module	Self-hosted chat module
AI-powered answers	Built in	Varies, often a paid add-on	Rarely
No-code flow builder	Included	Usually chat-only	No
Customer identity passed automatically	Yes	Sometimes, with setup	Sometimes
Live cart total / item context	Yes	Rarely	Rarely
Per-page-type visibility in the admin	Yes, 7 page types	Varies	Varies
Theme file modifications	None (hook-based)	Varies	Often
Chat traffic on your hosting	None (CDN + Socket.IO)	None	Yes
Multi-channel inbox (web, WhatsApp, more)	Yes	Varies	No
Open source module code	Yes (AFL 3.0)	Rarely	Varies
Cost	Module free; free plan; paid from $19/mo	Often paid module + subscription	One-time license typical

The honest trade-offs: if you want plain human-to-human chat and nothing more, a simple embed module may suffice. Self-hosted chat appeals if you require zero third-party involvement - at the cost of running chat infrastructure on your store's own server and giving up automation.

Conferbot's case is strongest when automation should carry real load: AI answering pre-sale questions in three languages overnight, flows branching on cart value, per-page placement tuned from the admin, and a team inbox that also covers your other channels. The module is free, the platform has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/month.

You can have a working AI chatbot on your PrestaShop store in the next few minutes - without creating an account first:

1. Download the module - grab conferbot.zip from the GitHub releases page
2. Install it - Modules > Module Manager > Upload a module, then click Configure
3. Try the demo bot - click "Try our demo bot", flip the switch, save. The widget is live on your storefront with a working AI bot
4. Create your own bot - sign up free at app.conferbot.com, build a flow in the visual builder or start from an e-commerce template, and publish it
5. Swap in your Bot ID - copy it from Share > Embed into website, paste it into the module, save, and tune Show on these pages to taste

From there, iterate from the dashboard: refine flows, connect AI answers, bring your team into the shared inbox, and measure in analytics. The module is free and the widget is included in all plans, including the free tier - see pricing.

Resources:

• Module source code on GitHub (AFL 3.0)
• Developer portal: PrestaShop integration guide
• Guide: chatbots for e-commerce
• Guide: how to add a chatbot to any website
• Guide: chatbot vs live chat
• Multi-platform seller? See the Shopify, Magento, OpenCart, and WordPress integrations