FAQs

Straight answers about Asa: setup, Shopify, training, billing, privacy, and how Asa assists shoppers on your storefront.

Getting started

What is Asa?

Asa is a storefront AI agent for D2C brands. Not a scripted chatbot, and not a live-chat seat. It lives on your online storefront, reads what a shopper is doing, proactively steps in to assist, answers from your catalog and policies, recommends products, and takes real actions like resolving order status, subscriptions, and more. Asa handles the conversation until a human is actually needed to handover to.

How is Asa different from a chatbot?

Chatbots wait for a typed question, then reply from a script. Asa does both the floor-associate sales & support job: it uses live session context, knowledge from your store, and your catalog to recommend products, and escalates when it should not decide. One agent for shopping, sales, and support. Not a Q&A bubble plus a separate sales bot.

Does Asa replace my support team?

No. It works alongside them significantly making their jobs easier. Asa takes the repetitive frontline (product questions, order tracking, policy, recommendations) and hands off when the shopper needs a person, or when you have told it to (refunds, damaged orders, complaints). Your team keeps the exceptions.

Does Asa work on my platform?

Shopify is the native path: connect, train, deploy. You can also embed Asa on HTML/JS and headless (Next.js) storefronts. WhatsApp, Instagram, and voice channels are on the roadmap.

How long does setup take? Do I need a dev support?

Most stores go from connect → train → live in minutes. No developer required: connect Shopify, pick what to train, set appearance, tone, and guardrails, then deploy the widget. Need something more custom? Advanced customization is available as an add-on or bring your own developer for building custom experiences on top of it.

Plans & Billing

Is there a free plan or trial?

Yes. Our Free plan is available for $0/month: 50 conversations a month, 100 knowledge sources total (with usage and capabilities limitations). All paid plans include a 7-day trial to get you started before you commit. See [Pricing](/pricing).

What counts as a conversation?

A conversation is roughly one shopper in a billing month. Unlimited messages in that conversation still count as one. Conversations that get escalated to your human support do not count toward your limit. Usage resets each billing cycle; unused conversations do not roll over. Plan limits can be found on our [Pricing](/pricing) page.

Can I change plans anytime? Is there a contract?

Month-to-month. Change plans from billing in the dashboard. No annual lock, no long-term contract on Free, Starter, or Growth. Cancel when you want to stop.

What happens if I hit my conversation limit?

Usage is monthly. When you hit the cap, upgrade to keep Asa assisting at that volume. Unused conversations do not roll over. The counter resets each billing cycle.

Is billing through the Shopify App Store?

Yes. Install Asa from the Shopify App Store and subscribe in Shopify admin. Billing runs through Shopify — invoices, upgrades, and cancellations live there with your other apps.

What’s the refund policy if I cancel mid-cycle?

Purchases are generally non-refundable. If you hit a technical issue or a billing error, email [hello@asa.so](mailto:hello@asa.so) within 7 days. We review case by case. [Refunds policy](https://docs.asa.so/legal/refunds).

Product Capabilities

Can Asa recommend products from what a shopper is browsing?

Yes. Asa reads the live session (page, cart, what they asked) and matches it to your catalog. Higher paid plans unlock more capable recommendation algorithms — deeper intent understanding and purchase signals — so more browsers turn into buyers.

What does “proactive” mean, and can I control it?

Proactive means Asa can step in on product, search, and cart pages when a shopper hesitates, before they open chat or ask a question. You can configure it and provide custom instructions and guardrails on paid plans. It is context-triggered on the storefront, not an annoying automated blast to every visitor.

Shopping Assistant, Sales Rep, Support Agent: do I get all three?

They are roles of one agent, not three products. Shopping guides discovery and comparisons. Sales handles upsells, bundles, and social proof. Support handles WISMO, policies, and smart escalation. You get all three in one. No need to buy three apps handling these roles anymore.

Can Asa check real-time order status?

Yes. WISMO is on every plan. When a shopper asks where an order is, Asa looks up live Shopify order data and updates the shopper on the status. It does not guess from a help article or FAQ article.

Can Asa handle returns, exchanges, or refunds end-to-end?

It explains your return, exchange, and refund policies from trained content. Processing a refund or exchange stays with a human or helpdesk; you typically tell Asa to escalate those. It does not replace your returns app.

Can Asa issue discount codes mid-conversation?

It can surface eligible shipping discounts already on the cart. Generating or issuing new coupon codes mid-chat is not live yet. Dynamic incentives are coming soon.

Does Asa work only on-site, or also on WhatsApp, Instagram, and email?

On-site today: Shopify widget, HTML/JS, and headless. WhatsApp, Instagram, and email are coming soon.

Setup & Training

How does Asa learn my products, policies, and FAQs?

Connect Shopify and train products, collections, pages, policies, and blog articles. Add files, URLs, and Macros for anything Shopify does not cover. Asa primarily answers from that trained content. It can also handle context-relevant or inferred questions using general category understanding — and it stays transparent when a reply is a suggestion rather than a trained store fact. It does not scrape the internet for your brand. See the [Help Center](https://docs.asa.so) articles for more details.

Does knowledge sync when I update prices, inventory, or catalog?

Yes for connected Shopify content. Product and content updates come through webhooks and refresh the same knowledge source. Prices, promos, and stock can lag a short time after you save in Shopify.

How current is Asa’s knowledge?

Shopify-connected sources stay current via webhooks: near real time, not a nightly batch. Manual uploads and Drive/Notion stay as of last train until you retrain them. Order and subscription actions use live integrations, not the knowledge index.

Can I upload my own docs on top of catalog sync?

Yes, on every plan: files, URLs, and Macros. Macros do not count toward the knowledge-source cap.

Can I connect Google Drive or Notion?

Yes, on every plan. Each selected Notion page or Drive file counts as one knowledge source.

Does Asa pull in reviews (Judge.me, Yotpo) and cite them?

Only on paid plans: Judge.me, Yotpo, and Klaviyo Reviews. Reviews ride along with the trained product. They are not extra knowledge sources.

Can I write custom rules or SOPs (e.g. always escalate refunds)?

Yes. You can provide custom instructions and guardrails for Asa to follow. This includes communication style, when to clarify, when to hand over, and extra rules. Keep instructions specific and Asa follows them literally.

Privacy controls

What if Asa doesn’t know the answer?

It should not invent store facts. When trained content does not cover the question, Asa can still offer a context-relevant suggestion from category understanding — and it is transparent that the reply is inferred, not from your docs. If you marked the topic for handover, or the shopper needs a firm store answer, Asa clarifies or passes them to your team (email, a URL, or Gorgias). Redirected chats show up in the inbox.

Can Asa say something off-brand or wrong?

Asa primarily answers from your catalog, policies, and uploads — not the open web. It can also make context-relevant suggestions from general category understanding when helpful, and it flags those as suggestions so shoppers know what is trained vs inferred. You set tone, response length, and guidance for what to say and what never to handle. AI can still be wrong if source content is wrong or stale, so review conversations and keep training current. There is no 100% accuracy guarantee.

Can I restrict what topics Asa is allowed to talk about?

Yes. Guidance and handover rules are the control surface: always escalate refunds, don’t discuss competitors, ask skin type before a routine. You also choose what to train. Store facts should come from knowledge; inferred suggestions stay labeled as such, and you can block topics entirely via handover rules.

Does Asa use my store data to train models for other brands?

No. Your catalog, policies, and chats run your Asa. We do not use any of your identifiable store content to train a shared model that answers for other brands. Your data is always secure and private.

Is Asa GDPR/CCPA compliant? Is chat history stored or exportable?

We're not yet GDPR/CCPA compliant, but we process shopper and account data under our [Privacy Policy](https://docs.asa.so/legal/privacy), including access, correction, deletion, and portability. Conversations are stored in your Asa inbox so you can review them. Email [hello@asa.so](mailto:hello@asa.so) if you need an export.