Installing Convi takes a few minutes. The app installs from the Shopify App Store, walks you through a 5-step setup wizard, and finishes with two switches you flip to make the widget live on your storefront.
In this article
Before you start
Step 1 — Install from the Shopify App Store
Step 2 — Complete the setup wizard
Step 3 — Go live (the three storefront conditions)
How to verify the widget is actually live
Common install issues
Before you start
You need:
A Shopify store you have permission to install apps on.
A theme you can edit (Online Store 2.0 themes are supported out of the box; the widget uses an app embed block — no code required).
About 10–15 minutes including the wizard and the theme step.
You don't need:
A credit card. The Free plan needs no payment, and every paid plan has a 7-day free trial.
Any code changes. Convi uses a Shopify Theme App Extension — no
<script>tags, no Liquid edits.
Step 1 — Install from the Shopify App Store
Open the Convi listing on the Shopify App Store.
Click Add app and approve the OAuth permissions.
You land directly in the embedded Convi admin inside your Shopify dashboard.
When the install completes, Convi starts syncing your store in the background — products, collections, pages, policies, blogs, and your shop info. You can run the wizard while it finishes.
Step 2 — Complete the setup wizard
The wizard has five steps. Each one is short.
Intro — "Meet Convi — your AI shopping assistant." A one-screen overview of what's about to happen. You accept the Terms of Service here and click Get started.
Store profile — "Set Convi's defaults." You set the assistant's name and logo (what shoppers will see in the widget), pick its tone of voice (Casual / Friendly / Professional / Enthusiastic), and choose the assistant's job to do: Help shoppers discover, Reduce support load, or Both, equally. Both are easy to change later under Train → Persona.
Syncing — "Convi is learning your store…" Convi reads your products, collections, pages, policies, blogs, and shop info. The progress bar updates in real time. If the import will take a while, the wizard offers to email you when it's done — you don't have to wait on this screen. Missing policies (returns, shipping, privacy, terms of service) are flagged with a Missing chip so you can address them.
Try it — "Try Convi out." A sandbox chat exactly like the Playground. You ask Convi a question or pick one of five suggested prompts ("Tell me about yourself", "Which countries do you ship to?", "What collections do you have?", "What do you sell in your store?", "I'd like to know where my order is. Can you help me?"). If indexing is still in flight, you'll see a "Convi is still learning in the background" banner — that's normal.
Ready — "Setup complete — you're in preview mode." Convi summarises the 3 steps to go live (see Step 3 below) and sends you to Home.
💡 Tip: You can exit the wizard at any time using Exit setup in the top-right corner. Picking Skip — use defaults on any step is also fine; every choice is editable in Train and Publish later.
Step 3 — Go live (the three storefront conditions)
After the wizard, Convi is in preview mode — fully usable in the admin and the Playground, not visible to real shoppers. The Home dashboard surfaces a Storefront status card that shows you the three conditions for shoppers to see Convi:
Paid plan — the Free plan is admin-only. Pick a Starter / Growth / Scale / Enterprise plan from Settings → Plan (or click Pick plan on the Home card).
Bubble widget active — turn on the chat bubble in Publish → Widgets.
App embed on — open your theme editor and turn on the Convi app embed block. The Storefront status card has an Activate in theme button that deep-links you there.
When all three are green, the widget is live and the card shows Live on store.
How to verify the widget is actually live
Open the Storefront status card on Home. The badge should read Live on store.
Open your store in a private/incognito window.
Look for the chat bubble in the position you chose.
Send a question like "What do you ship?" and confirm you get an answer.
If anything is off, see Troubleshooting: Widget Not Appearing.
Common install issues
Symptom | Most likely cause | Fix |
Bubble widget is not activated yet banner on Storefront status | Bubble widget toggle is off | Open Publish → Widgets, turn on the bubble widget |
Convi's block is off in your Shopify theme banner | App embed not enabled in theme editor | Click Activate in theme on the Storefront status card |
Free plan — upgrade to publish live banner | You're on Free | Pick a paid plan in Settings → Plan |
Widget appears but assistant gives shallow answers | Indexing still running, or store policies missing | Open Home → Import Health and Train → Content to check |