Shopify AI Agents Australia: Custom Agents for Store Operations
Your Shopify store has outgrown the spreadsheet and the shared inbox. Stockists email PDF orders, payouts need matching in Xero or MYOB, stock lives in Cin7 or Unleashed, and parcels go out with Australia Post, StarTrack or Sendle. We design, build and support AI agents that do the reading and checking across those systems. Your team approves anything with money attached, and you own the code.
What does a Shopify AI agent do for an Australian store?
A Shopify AI agent reads the messy inputs behind a store, such as emailed stockist orders, return requests and payout reports, and prepares the next step in Shopify, Xero, MYOB or your inventory system. It tags orders and drafts the next step. A person approves refunds, prices and anything posted to the ledger, and every action is logged.
Established Australian brands and wholesalers on Shopify or Shopify Plus, usually selling direct and to stockists, often on one or two marketplaces as well, with an operations team that spends hours a week moving information between Shopify and the back office. If your store takes a handful of orders a day, Shopify Flow and a good app will serve you better than a custom build. We take on stores anywhere in Australia, from Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Shopify’s own tools come first. Sidekick, Shopify’s assistant in the admin, presents changes for your review before applying them, and Flow runs fixed rules for free. An agent earns its place where a rule cannot work out what a stockist meant, or where the job crosses into Xero, Cin7 or a courier. Sidekick ↗ Flow ↗
- Does Shopify have an AI agent?Sidekick
- Is Shopify Flow enough?For fixed rules
- Does it replace my Xero connector?No
- Do I need Shopify Plus?No
- Who approves refunds?Your team
- Who owns the code?You
Each answer is explained in full in the questions at the end of this page.
Shopify AI agents for Australian store operations
Each card is one job with one written limit. Most stores start with one of the first five and add the next once the first has run for a month.
Order exception agent
Reads each new order against your rules: a PO box sent to a courier that will not deliver there, a billing and delivery state that do not match, a quantity far above that customer’s usual, a SKU your Cin7 or Unleashed stock says is gone. It tags the order with a one-line reason and puts it in the right person’s queue.
Limit: Adds a tag and an order note. Cancelling or editing stays with your team.
Stockist purchase order agent
A stockist emails a PDF order under a trading name that differs from the business name on their ABN. Their prices are GST-inclusive, but your trade list is ex-GST. The agent works out which account the order belongs to. It checks each line against that stockist’s trade price level in MYOB, Xero or your price sheet, and against your minimum order quantities. Then it builds a draft order for your Shopify B2B or wholesale channel. Any product code missing from your catalogue is left out of the draft and listed in a note for your wholesale team.
Limit: Builds drafts. A person sends the invoice.
Returns and change-of-mind agent
Finds the order, reads the request and photos, checks the item against the returns policy you have written (window, condition, final-sale items), and prepares the return or exchange with a reason code. Faulty-item claims are kept apart from change-of-mind requests so your team handles them the way your policy says.
Limit: Refunds above the limit you set always wait for a person.
Reorder and stock agent
This agent supports Shopify inventory management for stock that comes from overseas. Imported stock can spend weeks at sea, so it plans from each supplier’s real lead time rather than a fixed reorder point. It reads what sits at your 3PL (the outside warehouse that packs your orders) in Sydney or Melbourne and on the shop floor, plus inbound shipments recorded in Cin7 Core, Unleashed, NetSuite or a spreadsheet, and drafts orders early enough to land before Christmas or the EOFY (end of financial year, 30 June) sales. A supplier confirmation that shows a new price or a later ship date raises a flag.
Limit: Drafts lists. Your buyer raises every purchase order.
Payout and ledger check agent
Each day it compares Shopify orders, refunds and payouts, including Afterpay, Zip and Stripe settlements, with what landed in Xero, MYOB Business, MYOB Acumatica or QuickBooks Online. When an invoice is missing or a GST line looks wrong, it writes a short note on what does not match and prepares the correction for your bookkeeper to check.
Limit: Read-only in your ledger until a person approves a fix.
Marketplace exception agent
If you also sell on Amazon.com.au, eBay, Kogan, Bunnings Marketplace or THE ICONIC, orders reach Shopify or your inventory system through a connector. The agent watches for the orders that fall through: a listing mapped to the wrong SKU, stock that went negative, a cancellation that never synced back.
Limit: Reports and drafts. Listing and stock changes need approval.
Catalogue data agent
Turns supplier spreadsheets into Shopify product drafts: titles, descriptions, tags, size charts and metafields (extra product fields you define, such as fabric or care notes) in Australian spelling and your brand voice. It checks each draft against your rules, such as required fields and claims you never make, before anyone sees it.
Limit: Saved as draft products. Nothing goes live on your storefront until someone on your team publishes it.
Sidekick, Shopify Flow, an App Store app or a custom agent?
Four tools, four different jobs. The most avoidable cost is building an agent for a job Flow already does for free.
Swipe sideways to see every column.
| What you need | Custom agent | Sidekick | Shopify Flow | App Store app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best at | A job shaped by your systems and rules | Helping a person in the admin | Fixed if-this-then-that rules | A job every store shares |
| Reads emails and PDFs | Yes | No | No | Some |
| Works without someone asking | Yes, on a schedule or event | No | Yes | Yes |
| Checks Xero, MYOB or Cin7 | Yes, through their APIs | No | Through connectors | If it supports them |
| Your own approval rules | Written per action, per limit | Reviews each change | Rules you write | The app’s settings |
| Who owns it | You | Shopify | Shopify | The app maker |
Sidekick and Flow facts from the Shopify Help Center (Sidekick, Flow), checked 29 October 2026.
Which Australian systems can a Shopify agent connect to?
We build each agent as a custom app on Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API. That is the interface Shopify requires for new public apps. The agent then connects to your back office through each vendor’s API. You keep the software you have.
Accounting
Xero, MYOB Business, MYOB Acumatica and QuickBooks Online. Agents check what your existing connector posted; they do not replace it.
Inventory and ERP
Cin7 Omni, Cin7 Core (formerly DEAR), Unleashed, NetSuite and Odoo. We agree which system owns stock, cost and price before any build.
Marketplaces
Amazon.com.au, eBay, Kogan, Bunnings Marketplace and THE ICONIC, through the connector you already use to bring those orders in.
Payments
Shopify Payments, Stripe, Afterpay and Zip settlements, matched against orders and refunds before they reach the ledger.
Couriers
Australia Post, StarTrack and Sendle tracking and address data, so exceptions are caught before the day’s cut-off.
Helpdesk and inbox
Gmail, Outlook, Gorgias and Zendesk, where stockist orders, return requests and supplier confirmations arrive.
REST Admin API legacy since 1 October 2024, GraphQL required for new public apps from 1 April 2025: shopify.dev.
What the agent does alone, and what waits for your team
Each agent comes with one page that sorts its actions into three groups: free to do, needs sign-off, and forbidden. The app is granted only the Shopify access scopes that list needs, so a returns agent cannot touch product prices even if someone asks it to.
Approvals arrive where your team already works: a Slack or Teams message, an email with one-click approve or send-back links, or a tag queue in the Shopify admin. A webhook is the message Shopify sends when something happens, such as a new order. Shopify says a webhook can be delivered more than once, so every agent records each event ID and skips repeats rather than tagging or drafting twice. shopify.dev ↗
- Tag and note an orderexceptions, fraud signalsAutomatic
- Draft orders and returnsstockist POs, exchangesDraft only
- Reorder listsgrouped by supplierDraft only
- Refunds, discounts, pricesany money decisionAlways approve
- Posts to Xero or MYOBcorrections, credit notesAlways approve
- Delete customers or ordersoutside every agent’s jobNever
From your brief to a live Shopify agent in seven steps
Tap a step for the detail and the thing you hold when it ends. Steps one and two come before any contract.
01Read your brief and your real orders
You send a brief or RFP if you have one, and we look at a sample of last month’s orders, returns and stockist emails with the person who handles them. We note which system owns stock, prices and customers.
You get: A one-page map of the job and the systems it touches.
02Build a demo on your data
Before you sign anything, we run a working version against a copy of your own orders or emails, so you see what the agent would draft or flag. Sample data only where you prefer it.
You get: A demo you can poke at, and a written list of what it got right and wrong.
03Scope and price one phase
We list the actions the agent can take on its own, the ones a person signs off, and the ones that are off limits, then quote that phase as a fixed price. The next phase gets its own scope and its own signature.
You get: A signed scope with a fixed price and the defect cover period stated.
04Connect Shopify and your back office
A custom app on Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API (the interface software uses to read and change your store), with only the access scopes (permissions) the job needs, plus official connections to Xero, MYOB, Cin7, Unleashed, NetSuite or Odoo. Everything is built in a test store or sandbox first.
You get: Working connections in a test environment, documented in your repository.
05Test on past cases, including the awkward ones
The agent runs over hundreds of your past orders and messages. We compare its output with what your team actually did, and fix the gaps before it touches live work.
You get: A test report showing the match rate and every hand-off reason.
06Run a supervised pilot
The agent works on live orders while a person reviews every action. Low-risk actions move to automatic when the numbers support it. Anything with money attached stays with a person.
You get: Pilot results against the measure we agreed, and a go-live call you make.
07Go live with logs and an off switch
Each action goes into a log showing the input and the reason, and a single switch pauses the agent. Support afterwards is optional: you can run it yourselves or ask us to quote each change.
You get: A live agent you own, with its code, prompts and logs in your accounts.
Next step
Which Shopify job is eating your operations team’s week?
Name the job and the systems it crosses. We build a demo against a copy of your own orders or emails, so you see what the agent would do before you sign anything.
What terms come with every Shopify agent project?
Five terms, written into the scope you sign. They cover what you see before signing, how the price is set, who owns the code, and what happens after launch.
Demo on your data before you sign
Working software on a copy of your own orders, emails or catalogue, so you judge the agent on your store rather than on a slide.
Fixed price per phase
Each phase is scoped, priced and signed on its own. You can stop after any phase and keep what has been built.
You own the code from day one
The repository, prompts, workflow definitions and documentation sit in your accounts. AI and hosting can run in your own accounts at cost, with no markup from us.
Defects fixed inside the build price
For a cover period agreed before work starts, anything we built that does not work as scoped is fixed at no extra charge.
Support is optional, with no monthly minimum
Ask us to keep managing the servers, AI and integrations, or run it yourselves. Each change is quoted and approved before work begins.
What a Shopify AI agent costs to build in Australia
Flowtivity’s March 2026 Australian guide puts multi-system workflow automation at $20,000 to $50,000 or more. Web Video Digital’s August 2026 guide puts a simple single-task agent at $15,000 to $35,000 and most small-to-medium projects at $30,000 to $80,000. All figures are AUD. Neither source says whether GST is included, so treat them as a guide and ask any quote to state its GST basis.
FactoryJet quotes a fixed price in writing for each phase after the demo, with the GST basis stated on the quote. A store that starts with one agent across Shopify and Xero is a different job from one that needs a NetSuite reconciliation and three marketplaces, which is why we do not publish a rate card.
- Systems the agent reads and writesReach
- How messy the inputs areHandling
- Product and customer data qualityClean-up
- Approval and logging rulesControl
- Support after launchOptional
- Demo on your dataBefore you sign
How does the Privacy Act shape a Shopify AI agent?
The OAIC’s guidance on commercially available AI says privacy obligations reach any personal information entered into an AI system, and any generated output that includes it. An order carries a name, a delivery address, a phone number and often a note from the customer. Where the Privacy Act 1988 covers your business, every one of those fields is in scope.
So each agent receives only the fields its job needs. A reorder agent sees SKUs and quantities, never customer names. Models run under business terms, because the OAIC recommends, as best practice, against entering personal information into publicly available AI tools. It also says AI should not be treated as set and forget, which is why every agent has logs someone reads.
From 10 December 2026, the OAIC’s APP 1 guidelines add privacy policy requirements for decisions made using computer programs. If an agent helps decline a refund or hold an order as suspected fraud, we document what it decides so your adviser can describe it. Legal sign-off stays with your adviser; we supply the documentation they need.
Sources: OAIC, privacy and commercially available AI products; OAIC, APP guidelines chapter 1.
Have a brief or RFP? Send it and we will quote from it
Serious projects usually arrive with a written brief, and that is the fastest way to a fixed price. After you send your name and work email, the form lets you attach a PDF or Word file up to 5 MB, kept private. No brief yet? Answer the five points opposite in an email and that will do.
The founder reads every brief and replies within 24 hours with a proposed first job and a date for the demo on your data.
- The job. What happens, how often, and who does it today.
- The systems. Shopify plan, Xero or MYOB, Cin7, Unleashed or an ERP, couriers and marketplaces.
- The limits. What the agent must never do, and who approves the rest.
- The measure. How you count the job now: hours, orders per day, errors per month.
- The timing. When you need it live, and any busy season to avoid, such as Black Friday or Christmas.
What Shopify work sits behind these agents?
FactoryJet has served more than 500 businesses since 2014. Our Shopify work includes DTF Virginia, a store in the United States. The agents on this page grow out of that same work: orders, stock, wholesale buyers and the accounting behind them.
Ask on the call and we will show you live Shopify work and a demo of an agent running against your own data, which is the better test of whether we suit your store.
Shopify AI agent questions Australian store owners ask
Replies within 24 hours.
Q01Does Shopify have an AI agent?
Shopify has Sidekick, an AI assistant inside the admin. Shopify’s help centre says it works with your store’s data and presents changes for your review before applying them. It helps a person who is logged in and asking. A custom AI agent is different: it watches your inbox, orders and back-office systems on its own, follows written rules, and asks a person before anything that matters.
Q02Can you use AI in Shopify?
You can, in three ways. Shopify’s own tools, Sidekick and the AI text features in the admin, help staff write and edit. Apps from the Shopify App Store add AI for search, support or reviews. A custom app built on Shopify’s Admin API can run an AI agent that does an operations job across Shopify and your other systems.
Q03What is the difference between a Shopify chatbot and an AI agent?
A chatbot answers questions in a chat window when someone types. An AI agent does a job. It reads an email, an order or a payout report, decides what it means against your written rules, and then tags, drafts or flags something in Shopify or your back office. Many agents never talk to a customer at all.
Q04Can agentic AI shopping assistants buy from my Shopify store?
Shopify is building for it. Its agentic commerce docs describe AI agents that search products across Shopify merchants through a Global Catalog, build a cart, and then usually send the buyer to the merchant’s storefront to pay. This uses the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). That is a separate job from the operations agents on this page. Complete product data helps either way, which is where the catalogue agent fits.
Q05What is a Shopify AI agent for an Australian store?
A Shopify AI agent is software that reads something messy, such as a stockist’s emailed PDF or a return request with photos, decides what it means using a language model, and then acts in Shopify within limits you set. It might tag an order, build a draft order or prepare a return. It logs every action and passes anything outside its rules to a person.
Q06How is Shopify Flow different from an AI agent?
Shopify Flow is free on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, according to Shopify. It runs fixed rules: when this happens and this condition is true, do that. It suits tagging orders or alerting on low stock. It cannot read a free-text email or a scanned PO and work out what the sender meant. Flow can keep the fixed steps while an agent handles only the judgement.
Q07Which jobs should an Australian Shopify store give an AI agent first?
Pick a job that happens many times a week, has written rules, and touches two systems. Three good first candidates: order exceptions before the courier cut-off, stockist purchase orders that arrive by email, or the daily check that Shopify payouts match Xero or MYOB. Start with one, measure it, then add the next.
Q08Should I buy a Shopify app or have a custom AI agent built?
Buy an app when the job is the same for every store, such as product reviews or a standard chat widget, and the app’s rules match yours. Have an agent built when the job depends on your own systems and policies: your trade price lists, your Cin7 or Unleashed stock, your returns rules, your chart of accounts in Xero. A custom agent’s code sits in your accounts, while an app stays with its maker.
Q09Do I need Shopify Plus for a custom AI agent?
No. Any paid Shopify plan can run a custom app with an AI agent in it. Plus matters mainly for its higher API allowance. Shopify’s documentation lists 100 points a second for GraphQL Admin API calls on the Standard plan, 200 on Advanced and 1,000 on Plus. That changes how fast an agent clears a large backlog.
Q10Which Shopify plans include Shopify B2B for stockist orders?
Shopify’s help centre says Shopify B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans. The B2B features you get vary by plan, so we check yours against the job during scoping. A stockist order agent can build drafts on any of them.
Q11Can an AI agent handle customer support tickets for a Shopify store?
Yes, though that is a separate service with its own page. A support agent reads tickets in Gorgias, Zendesk or your helpdesk, finds the order in Shopify, checks Australia Post, StarTrack or Sendle tracking, and drafts a reply with the facts filled in. This page covers the operations jobs behind the store; see AI customer service for the support side.
Q12Can an AI agent work with the Shopify and Xero integration we already have?
It works beside it and should not replace it. Your existing connector, whether Xero’s own Shopify integration, A2X or another app, keeps posting sales and payouts. The agent checks the result each day: payouts that do not match a bank line, refunds missing a credit note, Afterpay or Zip settlements booked to the wrong account. It drafts the correction for your bookkeeper to approve.
Q13Does it work with MYOB Business or MYOB Acumatica?
It can connect to both through their APIs. The agent reads Shopify orders and payouts, compares them with invoices and receipts in MYOB, and flags the gaps. For wholesale, it can check that a stockist’s draft order uses the price level set against that customer. Posting anything to MYOB waits for a person’s approval.
Q14Can it connect Shopify to Cin7, Unleashed or Cin7 Core (formerly DEAR)?
It connects to each through its API. Inventory systems like Cin7 Omni, Cin7 Core and Unleashed usually own stock and purchasing, while Shopify owns the storefront. We confirm which system is the source of truth for each field before building. Then the agent reads stock and open purchase orders from the inventory system, compares them with Shopify sales, and drafts reorder lists or flags stock that has drifted between the two.
Q15Can a Shopify AI agent work with NetSuite or Odoo?
It connects to both through their APIs. Where NetSuite or Odoo runs behind Shopify, a connector moves orders across, and records can still go missing: a refund that never posted, an order stuck on a mapping error, a customer created twice. The agent compares both sides on a schedule, explains each gap in plain English and drafts the fix. It stays read-only on the ERP until you approve.
Q16Can an AI agent turn emailed stockist orders into Shopify orders?
It can, as draft orders. Shopify describes a draft order as one your staff create on a customer’s behalf for phone, email or in-person sales, which becomes a regular order once it is paid. The agent reads the PDF or email, matches the stockist and their trade prices, and builds the draft. Your wholesale team checks it and sends the invoice.
Q17Does it work with Amazon.com.au, eBay, Kogan or THE ICONIC orders?
It works through whatever connector already brings those orders into Shopify or your inventory system. The agent does not replace the connector. It watches for orders that fall through the gaps, such as a listing mapped to the wrong SKU or a marketplace cancellation that never reached Shopify, and puts each one in front of a person with the order details attached.
Q18How much does a Shopify AI agent cost to build in Australia?
Two published Australian guides give a market range, not our prices. Flowtivity (March 2026) puts multi-system workflow automation at $20,000 to $50,000 or more. Web Video Digital (August 2026) puts a simple single-task agent at $15,000 to $35,000. Both quote AUD without stating GST. We quote each phase as a fixed price after scoping.
Flowtivity, Australian AI agent pricing (March 2026) ↗ Web Video Digital, custom AI agent cost (August 2026) ↗
Q19What does it cost to run and support the agent after launch?
We quote the build, and any support you choose, as fixed prices in writing after scoping. AI and hosting can run in your own accounts at cost, with no markup from us. Support is optional and has no monthly minimum: you can run the agent yourselves, or we can keep managing the servers, AI, integrations and maintenance, with each change quoted and approved first.
Q20How long does a Shopify AI agent project take?
A focused agent doing one job across Shopify and one other system usually takes a few weeks from the first look at your orders to a supervised pilot. Older ERPs, product data that needs tidying, or a job shared by several teams all add time. You get a written timeline after the demo, when we have seen what your data actually looks like.
Q21Do you show a demo before we sign?
Yes. Before any contract, we build a working version against a copy of your own orders, emails or catalogue, or against sample data if you prefer, and walk you through what it drafted and what it sent to a person. You see the misses as well as the hits. The demo is how you judge whether the job is worth building, and it is how we scope the fixed price.
Q22Can an AI agent safely make changes in our Shopify store?
The custom app we install on your store can only reach what its Shopify access scopes allow, and we choose those scopes per job, so a returns agent never gets access to product prices. Agents start by tagging and drafting rather than changing live records, and refunds, discounts and price changes go to a person. Every action is logged. Shopify also warns that a webhook can arrive more than once, so each agent skips duplicates.
Q23Does the Privacy Act apply to an AI agent handling customer orders?
Yes, for any business the Privacy Act 1988 covers. The OAIC states that privacy obligations attach to personal information entered into an AI system, and to generated output that includes it. Order data carries names, addresses and phone numbers, so we pass the agent only the fields each job needs and use business AI terms, not consumer chatbots, which the OAIC advises against for personal information.
Q24Does the December 2026 Privacy Act change affect Shopify order agents?
It can. The OAIC’s APP 1 guidelines say that from 10 December 2026 your privacy policy must include new information about decisions made using computer programs and personal information. If an agent helps decide something that could significantly affect a customer, such as declining a refund or flagging an order as fraud, it belongs in the policy. Each agent comes with a plain record of the decisions it makes, ready for your adviser.
Q25Who owns a Shopify agent you build for us in Australia?
Your business does, from day one. The code sits in a repository in your name, along with the prompts, rules, test cases and documentation. The custom app is installed on your Shopify store under your account, and AI and hosting can run in your own accounts at cost. If you later bring the work in-house or move to another provider, nothing has to be rebuilt.
See what an agent would do with last week’s orders
Send your name and work email, and your brief if you have one. The founder replies within 24 hours to book a short call about the job and a demo on your own data. No spam, no obligation.