AI Chatbot
E-commerce
Most e-commerce stores install a chatbot, park it in the bottom-right corner, and wait for engagement to happen. It doesn't.
A chatbot's existence doesn't drive engagement. Its placement does. The stores that get real value from AI chatbots aren't the ones with the most sophisticated technology – they're the ones that build intentional entry points into the conversation, showing customers exactly when and where AI help is available.
This article shows 4 real examples of that in action, from Lithuanian e-commerce stores in 2026. Every example is a live implementation you can visit and verify. Together they show that visibility beats sophistication – and that the real work of increasing chatbot engagement happens outside the chatbot itself.
Before we get to the examples, a quick reality check on the role of a chatbot in ecommerce and the actual benefits of chatbots for e-commerce. The upside is real, but it's often oversold in ways that damage credibility once buyers see actual numbers.
The genuine benefits of an ecommerce chatbot fall into three categories:
Here's the honest part: chatbot ROI numbers you see quoted online (“300% ROI!”, “10x engagement!”) are usually cherry-picked. The realistic gains from a well-placed AI chatbot in e-commerce are meaningful but not miraculous. The difference between a chatbot that pays for itself and one that doesn't isn't the AI – it's the placement strategy.
That's what the next four examples demonstrate. Each one is a real Lithuanian e-commerce store running Parnidia's AI chatbot for e-commerce and each one uses a different tactic to route customers into the conversation.
We've ordered these from the simplest tactic to the most sophisticated. Each example includes what the store does, what the tactic looks like on the site, and (where available) what the numbers say.
Open24.lt is one of the largest footwear and apparel retailers in Lithuania. Their approach to increasing chatbot engagement is refreshingly unsexy: they added a hyperlink to the chatbot from the “Client service” area on their contact page.
The tactic: Intercept the “I have a question” moment. When a customer navigates to a contacts or FAQ page, they've already decided their question isn't obvious from the site alone. That's the exact moment to offer them a chatbot.
The numbers: Across the Open24 group of brands (Open24.lt, Open24.lv, Open24.ee, Crocs.lt, Crocs.lv, Crocs.ee, Keenfootwear.lt, Keenfootwear.lv, Keenfootwear.ee), the percentage of chatbot conversations that arrived via the FAQ/contacts placement is meaningful but modest – around 5-10% for the sites with the largest sample sizes. Open24.lt itself tracked 3,200 total chatbot conversations from Jan-Jun 2026, with 198 (6.19%) engaged from this specific link. Crocs.ee tracked 376 total with 30 engaged (7.98%), and Open24.lv tracked 462 total with 43 engaged (9.31%).
Why it works: It doesn't require the customer to notice a floating widget or find a new UI element. It meets them where they've already gone looking for help – transforming an FAQ page from a dead end into a conversation.
What readers can learn: Sometimes the highest-value chatbot engagement work is a hyperlink, not a redesign. A well-placed “Ask our AI assistant” link on a FAQ page can generate 5-10% of all chatbot conversations – meaningful volume from what is essentially free real estate. This is why “faq chatbot” as a category deserves attention: FAQ pages are among the highest-intent moments on any e-commerce site.
Crocs.lv also sells footwear and applies the same tactic: a chatbot hyperlink on the FAQ and Contacts page.
The numbers: Crocs.lv tracked 863 total chatbot conversations from January to June 2026, with 47 (5.45%) engaged via the FAQ/contacts placement. Lower than Open24.lv (9.31%), higher than some other sites in the group – suggesting that placement is one variable but not the only one. Category, customer intent, and how the link is written all matter.
Why it matters: An engagement tactic that only works for one specific product category isn't much of a tactic. Seeing similar results across furniture, general merchandise, and footwear suggests the FAQ-link approach generalizes – it's not a quirk of any single vertical.
What readers can learn: If you're skeptical whether a tactic will work for your niche, look for whether it's been tested across multiple categories. Consistency across verticals (5-10% engagement contribution from the same placement) is the signal that a tactic is real rather than an outlier.
HomeByNB (homebynb.lt) is a Lithuanian home goods retailer that uses a dedicated "AI Paieška" button placed prominently in the top navigation, visible from every page on the site – but at a larger scale and with hard traffic data attached. This is the highest-performing tactic in the entire dataset.
The tactic: Make the AI capability impossible to miss. Rather than a bottom-right widget waiting to be discovered, the AI button lives in the primary navigation – the same visual weight as "Products", "Contact", or the shopping cart.
The numbers (Mar–Jun 2026): 1,450 total chatbot conversations tracked. Of those, 343 (23.7%) came from the “ProductSearch” use of the AI Search button, and 322 (22.2%) came from users who typed additional questions after the initial search. In other words, about a quarter of all chatbot engagement is attributable to this single UI element – a meaningful contribution from one design decision.
Compared to the FAQ-link tactic: The dedicated navigation button drives 3-4x the engagement contribution of the FAQ-link approach used by Open24.lt and Crocs.lv (23.7% vs. 5–10%). This is a real, measurable pattern – not a small-sample fluke. Both tactics work, but one works much better.
Why it works: Discovery is the hardest problem in chatbot engagement. Customers can't use a feature they don't know exists. A dedicated navigation button solves the discovery problem completely – every visitor sees it, regardless of what page they're on. And by calling it “AI Search” rather than “Chat,” HomeByNB signals a specific, useful capability rather than yet another support widget.
What readers can learn: If you're serious about increasing chatbot engagement, a dedicated navigation button is worth serious consideration. Yes, it takes design commitment. Yes, it's more disruptive than adding a floating widget. But the data is unambiguous – dedicated entry points outperform passive ones by 3-4x.
Zooming out across all four examples, three patterns emerge clearly – patterns that any e-commerce store thinking about how to increase chatbot for customer engagement should internalize.
Pattern 1: Visibility beats sophistication. The most sophisticated AI in the world can't help a customer who doesn't know it's there. HomeByNB's dedicated button drives 23.7% of engagement not because their AI is 4x better than anyone else's, but because it's 4x more visible.
Pattern 2: Intent-matched placement outperforms passive placement. The FAQ-page link tactic (5-10%) works because it appears exactly when customers are already looking for help. The AI Search button (23.7%) works because it announces itself at every stage of the shopping journey. Both are better than a corner widget waiting to be noticed on its own.
Pattern 3: Labels matter more than most people think. “AI Search” signals a distinct capability. “Chat” signals a support widget. “Help” signals “I'll only click this if I'm frustrated.” The label shapes whether customers even attempt to use the tool, and this small choice quietly compounds over thousands of sessions.
A word of caution on small samples: Two of the smaller Open24 group sites (Keenfootwear.lv, Keenfootwear.ee) show higher percentages (25.42% and 21.88% respectively), but on tiny total conversation counts (under 65 each). That's statistical noise, not a real pattern. When judging chatbot engagement tactics, look at sites with at least a few hundred total conversations – anything less is likely random variation.
If you're evaluating what to do with these findings, here's the practical version. Three tactics, ordered from easiest to hardest, that map directly to the examples above.
What to do: Find the two or three pages where customers already go when they have a question – usually the contact page, the FAQ, and the shipping/returns policy. Add a single line of text with a hyperlink that opens your chatbot.
What to write: Anchor text matters. Effective examples: “Or ask our AI assistant”, “Have a question? Get an instant answer”, “Talk to our AI – available 24/7”. Avoid “Click here” or generic support language.
Realistic expectation: 5-10% of your total chatbot conversations will come from this placement. Not life-changing, but essentially free – no design work, no development cycle, just a link.
What to do: Add a labeled button in your top navigation, at the same visual level as “Products”, “Contact”, or your shopping cart. The button should open your chatbot instantly – not scroll to a section, not open a modal explaining what it does.
How to label it: “AI Search” outperforms “Chat” and “AI Help” in the data. The word “Search” primes customers to think of the tool as a discovery mechanism, not a fallback for when things go wrong.
Realistic expectation: Based on HomeByNB's data, roughly a quarter (~23.7%) of chatbot conversations came from the AI Search button. Your results will depend on your site's traffic patterns and button placement, but this remains one of the highest-leverage single changes you can make.
What to do: An AI assistant that pretends to be human creates awkwardness the moment it fails. A chatbot that introduces itself transparently avoids the whole problem, and under the EU AI Act, it's no longer optional: operators of AI chatbots are required to clearly inform users when they're interacting with an AI system. Parnidia's default assistant opens conversations with something like: "Hi! I'm your AI assistant Natali. I'm here to help, advise, and answer your questions quickly. Feel free to ask anything!"
Why it works: Customers know what they're talking to from message one. That transparency turns out to be a feature, not a weakness – it prevents the frustration that comes with bots that try to pass as human, and it lowers the bar for customers to ask ‘naive’ questions.
The connection to engagement: Engagement isn't just clicks – it's willingness to continue the conversation. A well-positioned AI assistant that acknowledges what it is (and what it isn't) sustains longer, more useful conversations than one that tries too hard to sound human.
Engagement isn't a property of the chatbot. It's a property of how you route customers to it.
The four examples above prove this in concrete terms. Same AI, same underlying platform, wildly different engagement outcomes – driven almost entirely by where and how the chatbot is placed on the site. HomeByNB's dedicated AI Search button drives 23.7% of their chatbot conversations. Open24.lt's FAQ-page link drives 6.19% of theirs. Both are net wins compared to doing nothing, but the difference between them is a nearly 4x lift – from a single UI decision.
If you're considering AI chatbots for your e-commerce store, the most valuable question isn't “which chatbot has the best AI?” – it's “how will we route customers into the conversation?” That decision, more than any technology choice, determines whether the chatbot pays for itself. Parnidia handles all of this end-to-end – the AI, the integration, and the placement strategy for e-commerce stores that want engagement without spending weeks setting it up.
Request a demo here to see how it works for your specific store.
Leo Mazzura
Co-founder & CEO @ Parnidia
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