To add an AI chatbot to BigCommerce, open Script Manager, create a new script with Footer placement and the Storefront pages location, choose to enter the script yourself, paste the chatbot's script tag and save. There's no app to install. The chat then appears on your storefront pages, but not on checkout, which is the right default for most stores.
The fields in Script Manager each change where and when the chat loads. Here is what to pick and why.
Before you start
You need two things:
- A Stencil or Catalyst storefront. BigCommerce's developer documentation says scripts from Script Manager and the Scripts API don't render on legacy Blueprint themes, and that Script Manager is available on non-Blueprint stores. On Catalyst, it says you need version 1.1 or later.
- Your chatbot's script tag. It's one line with your bot ID in a
data-bot-idattribute. If you need the ID, see find your bot ID.
Script Manager sits under Storefront in the BigCommerce control panel, or in a storefront's channel settings on stores with several storefronts.
Fill in Script Manager
At the time of writing (October 2026), creating a script asks for the following.
Name and description. Call it something like "Chat widget" so the next person knows what it is.
Placement: Footer. Placement controls whether the script goes in the head or the footer of the page. Choose Footer. The page content loads first and the chat button appears a moment later, so the chat never slows the first view of your store.
Location: Storefront pages. BigCommerce offers four locations:
| Location | Covers |
|---|---|
| Storefront pages | Every page except checkout and order confirmation |
| Checkout | The checkout page (Optimized One-Page Checkout only) |
| Order confirmation | The order confirmation page |
| All pages | Storefront, cart, checkout and order confirmation |
Storefront pages is the right choice for chat. It covers product, category, cart, brand, search and content pages, which is where shoppers' questions come up.
Script category. BigCommerce uses this for its cookie consent banner, so it changes when the chat loads. More on this below.
Script type: enter the script yourself. Script Manager lets you either link to a script by URL or enter the script directly. Paste the full script tag. If you used the URL option with only the widget's address, the data-bot-id attribute would be lost and the widget wouldn't know which chatbot to load. When it's missing, SpideyChat writes "Missing data-bot-id on the script tag" in the browser console.
Save, then open your storefront in a private window. The chat button should appear in the bottom-right corner.
Checkout: why it's left out
BigCommerce's developer documentation says scripts don't render in the checkout or order confirmation contexts unless the store uses Optimized One-Page Checkout. Even on stores that do, there's a case for keeping chat off checkout. A floating button can cover a field or the order button on a phone, and a greeting bubble over the payment form is a distraction.
The better plan is to answer checkout questions earlier. Delivery costs, payment methods, discount code rules and returns should be clear on your policy pages, so the assistant can answer them on the product page and in the cart. We weigh the checkout question in more detail in should your chat widget show on WooCommerce checkout. The platform differs, but the trade-offs are the same.
The script category and cookie consent
BigCommerce's documentation for its cookie consent feature describes four categories. Essential scripts always load and can't be declined. Functional, Analytics and Marketing scripts load only after the shopper consents.
So the category decides whether the chat appears before the shopper answers your cookie banner. Pick the one that honestly describes the widget, and if your store has a privacy adviser, ask them. To help, here is what SpideyChat's widget stores: it sets no cookies, keeps a session storage flag so the greeting shows once per visit, and, once a shopper opens the chat, stores an anonymous visitor ID in local storage for returning-visitor counts.
If you choose a consent-gated category, shoppers who decline won't see the chat at all.
Training it on a BigCommerce store
Installing the widget is half the job. The assistant answers from what it has learned, so point it at the right pages.
SpideyChat's crawler looks for a sitemap at /sitemap.xml first. BigCommerce's help center says a Stencil store's XML sitemap is at /xmlsitemap.php instead, and that there is no sitemap.xml. (Catalyst storefronts do use /sitemap.xml.) On a Stencil store, the crawler therefore falls back to the links on the page you enter, one level deep.
That still works well if you plan for it. On Starter and above, run a crawl from:
- Your homepage, which picks up the main navigation, categories and featured products.
- Your shipping and returns pages, or a help page that links to all your policies.
- Your busiest categories, to pick up the products listed there.
Each crawl reads up to 150 pages, and running another crawl adds pages without losing the earlier ones. For anything that matters a lot, such as your full returns policy or a size guide, upload it as a document too (PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD or CSV), so the assistant never depends on a link being found.
Then ask your five most common questions and read the answers.
What it can and can't do on BigCommerce
A script-tag chatbot sees your public pages. It answers questions about products, delivery, payment options, returns and sizing from what you've published, and replies in the shopper's language. On Starter and above it captures a shopper's name, email and phone number, and it can open a numbered support ticket.
It doesn't read your BigCommerce orders, carts or live stock levels. "Where is my order?" gets your normal timelines and an offer to pass the order number to your team. Our guide to handling where is my order questions shows how to set that up well. For the wider ecommerce picture, see AI chatbots for ecommerce.
Licensing and testing domains
A SpideyChat chatbot registers the first website it loads on. If you first visit your store on a BigCommerce-provided address and later on your own domain, those are two websites. Add your domain under License & websites on the chatbot's page. Free covers 1 website per chatbot, Starter 3 and Pro 10.
Next step
Create the script in Script Manager with Footer and Storefront pages, test in a private window, then crawl from your key pages. If you manage scripts through Google Tag Manager instead, see installing a chat widget through Google Tag Manager. The integrations page lists every install route.