Most online stores still send a customer from "which one fits my budget?" to a search bar, a filter panel and a checkout page they navigate alone. AnyBot closes that gap. When you let an AI agent sell in chat, the whole path (question, recommendation, cart, payment) happens in the one place the customer already is. This is what people mean by conversational commerce, and AnyBot does it in two distinct ways: one that recommends, and one that actually takes the order.
The distinction matters, so it's worth being precise about which does what.
What does it mean to sell in chat?
To sell in chat is to move a purchase through the conversation instead of a separate storefront. A shopper asks about a product, the agent recommends one from your catalogue, builds a cart as they decide, and closes the sale, without ever telling them to "go to the website." AnyBot splits that into two capabilities: a read-only product catalogue that recommends and quotes across your channels, and WhatsApp Shop, which takes the order and collects payment. Only one of them checks out, and knowing which is the whole point.
How does WhatsApp Shop sell in the conversation?
WhatsApp Shop is the part that does the actual selling. Your agent walks the customer through your catalogue in their own words, builds a cart as they decide, places the order, and hands over a secure checkout link for payment, all inside the WhatsApp thread. This is real WhatsApp commerce: the buying happens in the conversation, not on a page you've sent them off to.
A typical exchange looks like this:
- A customer messages, "Do you have the running shoes in a 42?"
- The AI sales agent finds the match, confirms stock, and suggests a pair.
- "Add those, and a pair of socks," and the cart updates in place. The customer never restates what they already asked for.
- The agent places the order and sends a secure checkout link to pay.
Card details never touch the conversation. The agent hands over a payment link and payment happens there, which keeps sensitive information out of the chat. On your side, every cart, order and payment lands in the shop cockpit, so your team sees what sold without reading the threads. And there's no second system to keep in sync: WhatsApp Shop runs on the same product catalogue you already keep in AnyBot.
Can an AI agent recommend products in chat?
Yes. That's the product catalogue, and it's designed to let an agent recommend products in chat on every channel, not just WhatsApp. It gives the agent three public-safe tools: search products, get product details, and list collections. A shopper can browse in chat, the agent quotes prices and shares details, and it can link straight to the product's page.
One thing it deliberately doesn't do is check out. The catalogue is read-only and non-transactional: the agent recommends and quotes, but it never processes a payment. That's the clean line between the two: the catalogue is how your agent shops with a customer everywhere; WhatsApp Shop is how it closes the sale. If you want the agent to both recommend and take the order, pair the catalogue with WhatsApp Shop.
Is there really in-chat checkout?
There is, for WhatsApp Shop, with an honest caveat. The order is built and placed inside the chat, and the agent hands over a secure checkout link so the customer pays on a protected page rather than typing card numbers to a chatbot. So the in-chat checkout experience is genuine end to end, while the payment step lives on a secure link by design. The read-only catalogue, to be clear, has no checkout at all. It stops at recommend, quote and a link to the product page.
Where does the catalogue come from?
Both capabilities run on one catalogue you populate once. You have two ways to fill it:
- Sync a WooCommerce store. Connect it with REST API keys and your products flow into AnyBot's catalogue, ready for the agent to recommend and quote. WooCommerce here is sync plus recommend and quote. Refunds, order lookup and discount codes in chat aren't part of it.
- Crawl your website. Let AnyBot read the products straight off your site, no store connection required.
Either way you maintain one inventory, and both the read-only catalogue and WhatsApp Shop draw from it. Add products once, and your agent can recommend across every channel and take orders on WhatsApp.
Frequently asked questions
What is conversational commerce?
Conversational commerce is selling inside a messaging conversation instead of on a separate storefront. The customer asks, the agent recommends, and the order closes in the same thread. With AnyBot, WhatsApp Shop makes that a complete flow, from cart to a secure checkout link.
Does the AI agent handle card details?
No. The agent hands over a secure checkout link and payment happens on that page, so card details never appear in the conversation.
Can the agent take an order on web chat too?
The read-only product catalogue lets your agent recommend and quote products in chat on any channel, but placing an order and collecting payment is WhatsApp Shop, which runs on WhatsApp.
Do I need a separate catalogue for selling and for recommending?
No. Both run on the single product catalogue in your space, populated by a WooCommerce sync or a crawl of your website. One inventory serves both.
Selling where your customers already talk is the shortest path from question to paid order. To let an AI agent sell in chat for your business, explore WhatsApp Shop and the product catalogue, then start free.