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The Best Shopify Bots & Sneaker Bots (2024)

by Gosia Szaniawska-Schiavo·Updated
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For many Shopify store owners, the meaning of Shopify bots is as clear as mud.

Some say that bots violate retail terms and conditions while others claim bots help them sell.

What Shopify store owners might not realize, though, is that—

Shopify bots come in two types.

One includes the so-called sneaker copping bots for auto-checkout. The other consists of chatbots designed to help Shopify store owners to automate marketing and customer support processes.

In this article:

  • Shopify bot definition
  • 5 examples of sneaker copping bots
  • Are Shopify sneaker bots legal?
  • 5 Shopify chatbots for store owners

Automate your customer service and increase sales with Shopify bots

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To learn all about Tidio’s chatbot features and benefits, go to our page dedicated to chatbots.

Looking for other info on chatbots or Shopify? Check out these helpful guides:

The support team is amazing and responds really fast. If you’re looking for chatbot automation, look no further!

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Let’s begin.

What Are Shopify Bots?

A Shopify bot is software designed to automate processes on Shopify sites. Using different kinds of Shopify bots, you can share marketing messages, answer questions from customers, and even do shoe copping.

There are actually two main types of Shopify bots:

  • Sneaker bots. These bots support auto-checkout and auto-shopping to “cop” limited sneakers from Shopify stores. This way you can get your hands on limited editions of Adidas, Nike, Supreme, or other brands of hype sneakers.
  • Chatbots for lead generation, marketing, and customer service. Designed to help Shopify online store owners automate marketing campaigns, build an email list, and answer simple questions from customers.

Let’s take a closer look at the sneaker Shopify bots next.

Five Examples of Top Shopify Bots (Sneaker Copping Bots)

A sneaker bot is a computer program that automatically looks for and purchases limited-edition and popular sneakers from online stores. In some cases, bots also have an option to buy other streetwear. A typical sneaker bot is an app for Windows and Mac.

Such people as shoe collectors, resellers, and “sneakerheads” use these Shopify bots to reserve and buy shoes before others have a chance to. Bots search and make purchases in milliseconds, so they are the fastest way to get limited items during sneaker releases.

The top Shopify sneaker bots are:

  • Nike Bot ($499/year) A Shopify bot service for sneaker collectors that automatically bypasses Shopify checkout queues and solves captchas to reserve sneakers.
  • AIO Bot ($325/year). AIO is a sneaker bot that creates customer accounts on e-commerce platforms and cops sneakers for sneakerheads and resellers.
  • Supercop Bot ($49.99). Compatible with all Shopify website checkouts, this bot auto-fills info and makes purchases. Offers services like restock watch that notifies about new deliveries.
  • KickMoji ($349.99 for the bot, $29.99/mo later). A Shopify auto-checkout bot that supports 24 stores, including Footlocker and Champs.
  • Easycop ($600/year). This auto-checkout bot supports all major footsites (i.e. Footlocker brands, including Eastbay) and allows users to get hold of unlimited pairs at once.

Since an automatic Shopify checkout bot buys products within seconds, it prevents human shoppers from getting them. The technology is advanced, so bots even have the best proxies to present themselves as customers with real residential IP addresses.

This unfair advantage leads to one logical question:

“Are Shopify bots even legal?”

The answer for this one is a bit complicated. Here’s what you need to know.

Shopify Sneaker Bots—Are They Legal?

The answer is yes. 

But—

Automatic order placement with Shopify bots is a service that frustrates business owners and concerns authorities.

In fact, similar technology in other industries is already getting strong resistance.

Take ticket bots, for example. They do essentially the same thing as Shopify bots, but instead of sneakers, they buy concert tickets.

The Federal Trade Commission (FDA) now has a legal tool against them: The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act. The first case under BOTS started in January 2021 against brokers who got thousands of event tickets with ticket bots.

So, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the FDA will try to regulate Shopify auto-checkout bots at some point. There are no legal restrictions now, of course, but many retailers aren’t exactly happy with them.

Store owners, from small Shopify businesses to large retailers like Kith, don’t appreciate bots because they buy all products in seconds. This leads to frustrated customers who have to wait for a restock, which rarely happens for unique streetwear releases (think Yeezy Supply products).

That’s why businesses are looking for ways to protect their Shopify websites from botting. Shopify Plus, for example, has a built-in bot protection tool.

But—

Shopify bots aren’t just robots for copping sneakers from sites in record time.

As mentioned before, there’s a second type:

Shopify chatbots for customer service and marketing automation.

These bots—also called Shopify chatbots—are totally different from auto-checkout sneaker bots. They work for store owners, not collectors, and help to run their businesses by automating repetitive tasks.

Let’s see how adding a Shopify chatbot can help your business.

Jano, the founder of Whisker Bag, had little experience with Shopify chatbots when he added one to his new store. The results: Jano is adding new leads to his list 4 times faster than before. The full story: How We Turned Cat Travel Bag Idea Into a $100K/year Side Business

Five Shopify Bots for businesses

Here are the five best Shopify chatbot apps. Unlike checkout bots, this kind of bots supports Shopify business owners by generating leads, providing customer support, and enhancing the shopping experience altogether.

  • Tidio ($0-$399/mo) is an all-in-one customer service platform for small businesses. Its flagship product is live chat boosted by chatbots, which lets business owners provide amazing customer support and generate more leads.
  • Gorgias ($60-$750/mo) is a good solution for those looking for chatbot automation and a ticketing system in one. It also provides advanced issue tracking and segmentation tools, which makes it a perfect tool for businesses coping with large volumes of queries.
  • Reporty ($0-$15/mo) (formerly known as Shoppy) is a unique bot for Shopify that acts as a virtual assistant. It seamlessly integrates not only with your Shopify website, but also with Slack. It can also send 30+ types of sales reports and notifications to Shopify store owners.
  • Tobi ($29/mo for $1k and more) is an SMS chatbot platform where you can send welcome messages, abandoned shopping cart reminders, and re-engagement notifications through Messenger and Shopify.
  • WhatsApp Photo Reviews ($0-$9.99/mo) enables businesses of all sizes to maximize social proof and customer trust by collecting reviews automatically. You can also set up an incentive that will motivate users to leave feedback.

Want to discover more tools that will improve your online customer service efforts? Read our article comparing the best Shopify chatbot platforms.

Shopify Bots: Summary

Now we know that both customers and store owners can benefit from Shopify bots.

Bots make auto checkout to get sneakers to resell at a higher price or keep in a private collection. The best Shopify bots for that are:

  • Nike Shoe Bot
  • AIO Bot
  • Supercop Bot 
  • KickMoji
  • Easycop

Shopify store owners can get help with lead generation, customer support, and marketing. The best Shopify bots in this category are:

  • Tidio
  • Gorgias
  • Reporty
  • Tobi
  • WhatsApp Photo Reviews

Automate your customer service and increase sales with Shopify bots

Try Chatbots Now Learn more about Tidio for Shopify

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Gosia Szaniawska-Schiavo
Gosia Szaniawska-Schiavo

Gosia manages Tidio's in-house team of content creators, researchers, and outreachers. She makes sure that all our articles stick to the highest quality standards and reach the right people.

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