Orbit: a chat and voice assistant for storefronts
A shopping assistant that answers product, policy and order questions from the store's live catalog and knowledge base, and can search, add to cart and start checkout in the conversation.
- Industry
- E-commerce, customer experience
- Services
- AI assistant, voice bot, admin console
- Stack
- FastAPI, MySQL, Google Gemini, FAISS, React
- Surfaces
- Chat widget, voice bot, merchant and owner admin
The problem
Most storefront chatbots either repeat canned scripts or make up answers, because they are not connected to the store. Shoppers want to ask about a specific product, a return policy or their order and get an answer they can trust, by typing or speaking, without waiting in a support queue.
How we approached it
We connected the assistant to the store itself: live product and policy data, plus a knowledge base the merchant edits and that is searched semantically. It has tools to search products, add to cart and look up orders. The same model runs the chat bubble and a real-time voice bot, and each store can adjust tone and answers without code. The platform owner manages every store from one admin console.
What we built
Chat widget
A storefront bubble that streams answers from the live catalog, looks up policies, tracks orders and updates the cart.
Real-time voice bot
The same assistant by voice, using each store's own prompts and knowledge base.
Editable knowledge base
Merchants add FAQs, policies and brand facts, which are embedded and searched alongside the catalog.
Custom prompts
Per-store prompts for greeting, identity and tone, with sensible defaults so the assistant works from day one.
Guided onboarding
On install it seeds prompts, builds the knowledge base and backfills recent orders, then guides the merchant to launch.
Conversation analytics
Every chat is logged with usage stats and full transcripts, so merchants can see what shoppers ask.
Tech stack
- FastAPI
- Python
- SQLAlchemy
- MySQL
- Google Gemini
- FAISS
- Sentence Transformers
- React
- Shopify App Bridge
- Polaris
- Vite
- Three.js
Results
Shoppers get accurate, on-brand answers when they ask and can act on them without leaving the conversation. Merchants set up through a guided flow, read real transcripts to learn what customers want, and keep improving the answers, while the platform owner oversees every store from one console.
What is Orbit?
Orbit is an AI shopping assistant that sits on a storefront as both a chat bubble and a real-time voice bot. It answers product, policy, and order questions using the store's live catalog and a knowledge base the merchant edits, and it can search products, add to cart, and start checkout inside the conversation.
How does Orbit avoid giving made-up answers?
Orbit is connected to the store itself. It searches live product and policy data plus a semantic knowledge base the merchant controls, so responses are based on real information rather than guesses, and merchants can shape the assistant's tone and answers without writing code.
Can merchants see what shoppers are asking?
Yes. Every conversation is logged with usage statistics and full transcripts, so merchants can review what customers want, spot gaps, and keep improving the assistant's answers over time.
Want an assistant that answers from your own store?
Tell us about your catalog and the questions shoppers ask most. We will explain how a chat and voice assistant would work for you.