Everything To Know About Shopify Sidekick

GemPages Team
2025-05-20T13:43:46-04:00
GemPages

Is there any tool specifically tailored to Shopify that automates the operational system of your Shopify store?

If this is the question you want to look for the answer to, then congratulations, this article is the right place!

Introducing Shopify Sidekick, the smart AI assistant in the AI Toolkit of Shopify, designed to help Shopify owners at all levels simplify their store management.?

Curious about what can be done and how it works? Read more to know!

What Is Shopify Sidekick?

Shopify Sidekick is a smart AI assistant built right into your Shopify admin to help you run your store more smoothly. It officially launched on December 10, 2024, as part of the Shopify Winter Editions 2025, after an early access release in June 2024. It works alongside Shopify Magic, the platform’s AI toolkit.

The tool gives you tailored suggestions, automates daily tasks, and helps you make smarter decisions by offering real-time insights. It assists in updating products, analyzing sales, or managing marketing.

You can chat with it just like you would with a real person, manually clearing the chat anytime and starting over, and it is also available from any page in your Shopify admin. Your chat history stays active during your browser session, but it resets when the session ends.?

Shopify Sidekick & Magic.?Source: Shopify

How Does Shopify Sidekick Work?

Shopify has quoted: “Every entrepreneur is a hero. But even heroes need a sidekick.”

The tool is like your smart co-pilot for running an online store, and it's powered by an advanced AI technology behind the scenes.

Here’s how the Shopify Sidekick algorithm works:

It understands your language: Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), Sidekick can understand the way you naturally talk or type. So whether you're asking “How do I add a product?” or “What were my top sales this month?”, it can figure out exactly what you mean and give you the right answer or help you take action.

It learns and improves over time: With Machine Learning, the more you use Sidekick, the better it gets at understanding your business style and preferences. It adapts to your store’s data, so the tips and insights it gives you become more accurate and useful the longer you use it.

It’s built on Shopify Magic: This is Shopify’s AI toolkit that supports Sidekick. Magic powers things like smart photo editing (such as background removal or AI-generated scenes), summaries of app reviews in the Shopify App Store to help you decide what tools to install, and more!

So while Shopify Magic provides the AI power, Sidekick is the friendly face of that AI. It talks with you, understands your goals, and gives personalized support based specifically on your store’s data and activities, like a real assistant who knows your business inside and out.

Shopify Sidekick Features

Managing an online store can feel overwhelming, especially when you're just starting out. That's where Shopify Sidekick comes in.?

Built into your Shopify admin, Sidekick is an AI-powered assistant designed to simplify store management and help you grow your business more efficiently. Here is what Shopify Sidekick can provide to support Shopify businesses:

1. Automatically Set Up Tasks Based on Your Requests

One of Shopify Sidekick’s most powerful features is its ability to perform tasks based on simple instructions you type. Instead of clicking through menus or adjusting settings manually, you just describe what you want, and Sidekick handles the rest.

For example, you can ask:

“Set up a 20% discount for all products in the Spring Collection.”

“Create a new product category for summer essentials.”

Even tasks like setting up free shipping for orders over $50 are completed in seconds with no extra steps required. This feature is especially useful for new store owners who want to focus on growing their business, not getting stuck in the technical setup.

Ordering a task set up by Shopify Side simply with a prompt.?Source: Ecommerce Platforms

2. Real-Time Support and Step-by-Step Guidance

Shopify Sidekick is also great at helping you learn the platform. If you're unsure how to do something, you can ask, and it will walk you through the process clearly.

Try questions such as:

“How do I set up my store?”

“How do I manage shipping rates?”

The tool gives you detailed, step-by-step instructions. When asked how to increase sales, it even provided a full strategy tailored to the store. This saves time and removes the guesswork, especially for first-time users.

3. Content Creation That Matches Your Brand

Writing good product descriptions or email copy can take a lot of time. Shopify Sidekick helps by generating content that fits your store’s voice and brand.

You can ask it to write things like:

Product descriptions that highlight key features

Email templates for sales or cart recovery

Blog posts to boost SEO and keep your store active

It pulls the right product info and writes polished, ready-to-use content instantly!

4. Customer Segmentation and Personalization

Shopify Sidekick helps you better understand and market to your customers. Just use natural language to request insights or create targeted campaigns.

Examples include:

“Show me customers who purchased in the last month.”

“Create a discount campaign for new customers.”

Even if your store data is limited, Sidekick adapts and still provides useful suggestions, like creating a discount code to attract first-time buyers.

5. Easy Store Design and Theme Editing

Not a designer? No problem.?

Shopify Sidekick helps you edit your store layout, fonts, and colors based on your brand style. It works especially well with the Shopify Dawn theme (version 11.0.0 or higher) and allows you to make visual changes without needing any coding knowledge.

Products designed by Shopify Sidekick & Magic.?Source: Shopify

Want even more design flexibility?

Use GemPages alongside Sidekick to unlock drag-and-drop customization, advanced layout options, and conversion-focused templates with no coding skills needed. By combining the tools, you get a clean, professional-looking storefront that matches your brand without hiring a developer.?

6. Instantly Improve Product Images

With Shopify Magic, you can also transform product photos quickly and easily. Whether you're removing a background or placing your item in a lifestyle scene, it takes only a few clicks or keywords.

For example, you can place your product on:

A minimalistic podium

A bookshelf

A living room table

An abstract backdrop

This helps your product stand out and look visually impressive without needing advanced photo editing skills.

7. Automatically Generate Product Descriptions

Shopify Magic can also turn a few simple keywords into complete, SEO-friendly product descriptions in various styles, such as playful, professional, or persuasive.

This tool saves time and ensures consistency across your product listings. For example: “Rock your next adventure with our powerful portable speaker! Experience clear, crisp sound wherever you go…”

8. Smart FAQs for Better Customer Support

To reduce friction and increase buyer confidence, Shopify Magic can also generate helpful FAQs for your store. These can be published on product pages or used in live chat.

You get ready-made, relevant responses that help answer common customer concerns quickly, by setting automated answers for common questions such as:

“Do you ship worldwide?”

“How can I return an item?”

Smart FAQs by Shopify Sidekick.?Source: Shopify

9. Smarter Email Marketing

Shopify Magic helps streamline your email campaigns by suggesting:

The best time to send an email

Engaging subject lines

Complete email content tailored to your product

Instead of writing from scratch, you get a strong starting point for every email, helping you stay consistent and on-brand.

10. Live Chat That Helps You Sell

When Sidekick powers your live chat, customer interactions become faster and more effective. It generates personalized responses in real-time, helping you resolve questions quickly and turn more conversations into actual sales.

The Pros & Cons of Shopify Sidekick

While Shopify Sidekick is a powerful tool that helps store owners manage their business more efficiently, it does have a few limitations to keep in mind.

It doesn’t talk to customers: Shopify Sidekick is designed to assist you, not your customers. That means it can’t jump into live chats or respond to customer questions on your behalf. You'll still need to handle customer conversations yourself or use other tools like Shopify Inbox.

It doesn’t automate changes: Even though the tool can help you set things up, it will never make changes to your store automatically. You’re always in control. It will show you suggestions or setup options, but nothing gets applied until you approve it.

It can’t edit images in your store: This tool can guide you through many tasks, but it can’t directly edit product images or theme visuals. For those edits, you’ll still need to use Shopify’s image editor or theme customizer manually.

It only keeps your last 10 conversations: Shopify Sidekick saves your recent chats across sessions, but only up to 10 conversations. Once you go beyond that, the oldest ones are automatically deleted. This helps keep things simple and ensures the tool runs smoothly.

Yes, although it has some downsides, users cannot deny its remarkable impacts, such as:

Saves time and increases efficiency

Giving instant answers to your questions

Guiding you through tasks step-by-step

Automatically setting things up when you ask

Writing product descriptions, emails, and blog posts for you. Instead of digging through tutorials or doing everything manually, you just type what you need, and Shopify Sidekick takes care of it.

Improves accuracy and supports sales growth

Segmenting your customer base with just a simple request

Suggesting targeted campaigns for specific audiences

Creating quick, accurate sales and performance reports

Recommending visual or layout changes to improve your store. All of this helps you better understand your audience and focus on actions that boost results.

Enhances the shopping experience: Shopify Sidekick provides smart, personalized suggestions for your store’s content and design. This keeps your storefront engaging, easy to navigate, and tailored to your customers’ needs, making it more likely they’ll stay, shop, and come back.

Reduces the learning curve: Especially helpful for new store owners, the tool simplifies Shopify by removing the guesswork. You don’t need to be an expert. Just ask, and you’ll get clear, helpful guidance right away.

Shopify Sidekick acts as a multi-functional assistant to help with store operations.?Source: Locate2u

How To Use Shopify Sidekick

Shopify Sidekick is built right into your Shopify admin, and it's super easy to use. You can chat with it just like you would with a real person—it understands plain language and responds right away.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1 - Log into your Shopify admin: Once you're inside your dashboard, look for the Shopify Sidekick icon.

Step 2 - Click the Shopify Sidekick icon to open the chat window: This brings up a chat interface where you can start asking questions or giving commands.

Step 3 - Ask Shopify Sidekick for help in one of two ways:

Use a suggested prompt: Click one of the example questions that show up in the chat window.

Type your own request: In the “Ask anything…” box, type what you want help with (like “Set up free shipping for orders over $50”), then click the paper airplane icon to send.

Step 4 - Follow Sidekick’s guidance:

Take you to a specific page in your store (click the “>” button to go there)

Offer a setup or piece of content (click “Apply” if you want to use it)

Let you try a different version (click the refresh arrow to regenerate a new response)

Step 5 - Give feedback (optional): You can give a thumbs up or down on the response to help Shopify improve Sidekick.

Step 6 - End or reset your chat anytime:

To clear your chat and start fresh, click the new chat icon.

To close the window, just click the Sidekick icon again or the “X” in the corner.

Shopify Sidekick is already installed on your Shopify Dashboard.?Source: Website Builder Expert

Note: Sidekick remembers your chat history during your current browser session. But once you close your browser, the history resets. You can always start a new conversation whenever you’re ready.

Should I Use Shopify Sidekick?

Shopify Sidekick is a powerful AI assistant built specifically for Shopify store owners, and for many, it’s absolutely worth using. It’s designed to streamline store setup, simplify day-to-day tasks, and provide smart, personalized support without needing advanced tech skills.

This is especially efficient in these scenarios:

For new store owners: If you’re just getting started and overwhelmed by Shopify’s features, Sidekick offers real-time guidance, sets things up for you, and helps avoid common setup mistakes.

For solo entrepreneurs or small teams: When resources are limited, Shopify Sidekick can save hours by automating tasks like creating product descriptions, setting up promotions, and guiding store updates.

For anyone needing quick answers: Instead of digging through help docs, you can ask Shopify Sidekick questions in plain language and get instant, step-by-step instructions.

For improving operational efficiency: Shopify Sidekick handles customer segmentation, campaign suggestions, and provides a simplified way to make informed business decisions based on store data.

While Sidekick is a great assistant, it has its limits. Therefore, if you're looking for advanced automation across platforms or more robust marketing tools, you might want to explore alternatives like:

Zapier: For building multi-step automations across Shopify and other tools

Tidio or Gorgias: For more advanced customer support chat and ticketing
ChatGPT plugins or integrations: For broader AI tasks and custom workflows beyond Shopify

Conclusion

Shopify Sidekick is a revolution for Shopify owners at all levels looking to save time, get more done, and grow their store smoothly and automatically. It helps you set up your store, create content, and make smarter decisions, all by simply chatting with it.?

While it’s not a complete solution for every task, it’s a powerful starting point.?

And especially when combined with Shopify supporting tools like GemPages, you unlock even more control over your store’s design and user experience.?

If you're looking for a smarter, easier way to manage your Shopify store, Shopify Sidekick is definitely worth trying.

FAQs