> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.merchantai.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# MerchantAI: frequently asked questions and answers

> Answers to the most common questions about setting up MerchantAI, managing your knowledge base, handling leads, and understanding your plan.

MerchantAI is built to be straightforward — quick to set up, easy to manage, and transparent about what it can and can't do. Whether you're evaluating the product, mid-onboarding, or running it in production, the questions below cover the ground most merchants ask about. If something isn't answered here, you can reach the support team directly from your dashboard.

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### Getting Started

<Accordion title="How long does setup take?">
  MerchantAI is designed for quick setup. Shopify stores can typically be live with a lightweight install within a few minutes. From there, you review your agent's brand voice, configure guardrails, and define handover rules before sending real traffic to the assistant. Most merchants go from sign-up to a deployed agent in under an hour.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Do I need an engineer to install MerchantAI?">
  No. If you're on Shopify, install the app and the widget appears on your storefront automatically — no code required. For custom themes or headless setups, you paste a single `<script>` tag. Either way, there's nothing to compile or deploy separately.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Which platforms are supported?">
  Shopify is natively supported — install the app and your store is connected automatically. A drop-in JavaScript widget works on any website, including WordPress, WooCommerce, and custom-built sites. Webhooks and headless APIs are available on the Enterprise plan for more advanced integrations.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Is there a free trial?">
  Yes. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial with no credit card required at sign-up. Your card is only charged on day 15 if you haven't cancelled. You can cancel in one click from your account settings, and nothing carries over without your say-so. A permanent Free plan (20 messages/month) is also available with no trial period needed.
</Accordion>

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### Knowledge & Accuracy

<Accordion title="Can the agent give wrong answers?">
  MerchantAI is designed to ground every answer in your approved sources rather than generating responses from general knowledge. You can set confidence thresholds so the agent declines to answer when it isn't sure, and you can configure escalation rules to hand the conversation to a human when it can't respond with confidence. No system is perfect, but these controls are specifically designed to prevent guessing.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="What content can the agent learn from?">
  The agent can be trained on a wide range of content: your Shopify catalogue (products, variants, collections, policies, blog posts, and pages), uploaded files in PDF or DOCX format, manually entered Q\&A pairs, plain text, and additional website URLs. Shopify sources are refreshed automatically on change; other sources can be updated by re-uploading or triggering a re-crawl.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="How quickly does the agent pick up catalogue updates?">
  Shopify webhooks push product, price, and policy changes to your agent automatically after store updates, so your assistant stays in sync without manual intervention. A manual bulk re-sync is also available from the Knowledge dashboard if you want to force a full refresh — useful after a large batch import or theme change.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Can I block topics or keywords?">
  Yes. You can configure topic blocklists, profanity filters, and competitor-mention controls per agent from the Guardrails settings. Anything outside your defined policy gets a polite refusal or is routed to your handover flow, depending on how you've set it up.
</Accordion>

***

### Shopify

<Accordion title="Can the agent execute actions like checkout?">
  MerchantAI supports Shopify-aware workflows where enabled, including product discovery, cart review, checkout link generation, and order lookup. Before going live, your team should confirm which actions are active, logged, approval-gated, or reserved for humans. Sensitive actions — refunds, order changes, cancellations, returns, and account modifications — should remain governed by your team's rules and require human approval.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Does cart and checkout still go through Shopify?">
  Yes, always. MerchantAI can surface cart summaries and generate checkout links, but the actual checkout flow runs through Shopify. Your store retains full control of payment processing and fulfilment — nothing bypasses Shopify's native commerce infrastructure.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Does it work for subscription products?">
  One-time product knowledge is fully supported through Shopify sources. Subscription-specific workflows require additional confirmation before launch and should be explicitly configured or reserved for human handling until your team has validated the behaviour in your specific setup.
</Accordion>

***

### Handover & Leads

<Accordion title="What happens when the agent can't help?">
  When the agent hits a low-confidence answer, encounters a trigger phrase, or receives an explicit request for a human, it surfaces a handover card. You choose what options appear on that card — phone number, email address, or a contact form. The conversation is escalated to your Contacts inbox, where your team can pick it up with full context.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Can my team take over a conversation live?">
  Yes. The Contacts inbox in your dashboard shows every active conversation in real time. One click transfers control from the AI to a human team member, and your messages appear inline with the existing chat history so the shopper has a seamless experience.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Where do leads land?">
  All captured leads and contact-form submissions appear in the Contacts inbox in your dashboard, complete with full conversation context. You can also set up optional email forwarding to a shared team inbox so nothing gets missed.

  <Note>
    Lead capture is available on the Pro plan and above. Make sure lead capture is enabled in your Configuration settings.
  </Note>
</Accordion>

***

### Privacy & Security

<Accordion title="Where is my data processed?">
  All data is scoped to your workspace, encrypted in transit, and encrypted at rest. For full details on processing locations, data retention, subprocessors, and transfer mechanisms, refer to the Privacy Policy and Security page on the MerchantAI website.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Is the chat GDPR-compliant?">
  MerchantAI provides privacy documentation, including a Data Processing Agreement (DPA), to support your GDPR compliance obligations. The DPA is available on request — contact the team from your dashboard to obtain the current version before publishing compliance claims.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Can visitors opt out?">
  Yes. The widget includes a built-in "end chat" control that visitors can use at any time. Cookie consent banners are supported, and right-to-delete requests can be fulfilled in one click from the Contacts inbox. Honouring opt-out requests is a core part of the platform's design, not an add-on.
</Accordion>

***

### Pricing & Plans

<Accordion title="Is there a long-term contract?">
  No. All plans are month-to-month. There are no annual lock-ins unless you choose an Enterprise arrangement, and you can cancel at any time from your account settings with no penalty.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="What happens if I exceed my message limit?">
  If you reach your monthly message allocation, your agent's responses are throttled until your next billing period resets the quota. You'll receive an email alert before you hit the cap. Upgrading your plan restores your full allocation immediately — you don't have to wait for the billing cycle to renew.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Can I switch or pause my plan?">
  Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated for the remainder of your billing cycle. Downgrades apply at the end of the current billing cycle, so you keep your existing plan's features until then. Pausing your agent stops billing for that period — useful during seasonal closures or planned downtime.
</Accordion>