Online Store — Conversational Commerce on Your Website

Introduction

Turn your Answe widget into a mini online store. Display products with images, descriptions, categories, and pricing. Visitors browse, add to cart, and checkout — all within the embedded widget on your website. No need for a separate e-commerce platform.

How It Works

Setting Up Products

1. Create a question with a "shopping" action
2. Open the product catalog editor
3. Add your products with:
   • Product name
   • Description
   • Price
   • Category (drinks, mains, snacks, desserts, clothing, etc.)
   • Image
   • Size/variant options with different prices

The Shopping Experience

When a visitor selects a shopping option:

1. Browse — Products displayed with category tabs for filtering
2. Search — Find products by name
3. View details — Click a product to see full description and images
4. Select size — Choose from available sizes/variants
5. Add to cart — Add items with quantity
6. Checkout — Review cart, specify delivery/pickup, and place order

Delivery Options

Three delivery modes:

• Table service — Specify a table number (restaurants)
• Delivery — Enter a delivery address
• Pickup — Customer collects the order

Order Management

Orders appear in your Chat Inbox with full details:

• Items ordered with quantities and sizes
• Delivery method and location
• Total price
• Order timestamp

Key Benefits

• No separate e-commerce setup — Products live inside your widget
• Conversational — Shopping happens within a conversation flow
• Categories and search — Visitors find products quickly
• Size variants — Support multiple sizes/options per product
• Delivery flexibility — Table, delivery, or pickup
• Mobile-friendly — Full shopping experience on phone screens
• Stripe payments — Accept credit card payments (see Payments)

Revenue in Analytics

Every order placed through your online store automatically tracks revenue in your Analytics dashboard. You can see total revenue, average order value, and paid vs. unpaid breakdowns without any extra configuration.

Formatting product descriptions with markdown

Both the product card and the product detail view (the screen that opens when a visitor taps a product) accept a small subset of markdown for richer formatting. The card preview strips formatting so cards stay short and scannable; the detail view renders the full markdown.

Supported syntax

Headings — start a line with #, ##, or ###:

# Ingredients
## Allergens
### Origin

# renders biggest, ### renders smallest (used as a small uppercase label).

Bullet lists — start a line with - or * followed by a space:

- Sourdough base
- Buffalo mozzarella
- Fresh basil

Bold — wrap text in **:

Contains **gluten** and **dairy**.

Paragraphs — separate blocks of text with a blank line:

A wood-fired classic from our Naples-trained chef.

Ready in 8 minutes.

Worked example — menu item

Slow-fermented sourdough, San Marzano tomato, fresh mozzarella.

# Ingredients
- 72-hour cold-fermented dough
- San Marzano DOP tomatoes
- Fresh basil
- Extra-virgin olive oil

# Allergens
Contains **gluten** and **dairy**.

…renders in the detail view as a tagline followed by a clean ingredient list and an allergen note.

What's not supported

To keep the rendering predictable and the catalog safe, the following are intentionally not supported:

• Italics (*text* or _text_)
• Links inside descriptions
• Images inside descriptions (use the product image field)
• Code blocks, tables, blockquotes, raw HTML

Any HTML-looking input (e.g. <script>) is automatically escaped, so it's safe to paste descriptions copied from external sources.

Tips

• Lead with one short sentence — that's what shows on the card.
• Use # Ingredients / # Allergens / # How to enjoy to group long descriptions cleanly in the detail view.
• Don't use markdown for the product name field — only descriptions are rendered.

Getting Started

1. Create a new question
2. Add an option with the "Shopping" action
3. Add your products in the catalog editor
4. Embed the widget on your website
5. Start receiving orders in your inbox

Related

• Payments — Accept credit card payments
• Product Catalogs — Manage your product data
• Reservations & Booking — Add booking to your store
• Chat Inbox — Manage incoming orders