How to add an AI chatbot to WooCommerce
On WooCommerce, a chat widget is installed through The parent theme's footer.php, or a code-snippets plugin. Changes are live immediately; there is no build or publish step. Custom code is gated: No plan gate — WooCommerce is self-hosted, so you control the code.
Where it goes
The parent theme's footer.php, or a code-snippets plugin
Availability: No plan gate — WooCommerce is self-hosted, so you control the code.
Adding the chatbot to WooCommerce
- 1
In WordPress admin, install a snippets plugin such as WPCode, or open Appearance → Theme File Editor.
- 2
If using the theme editor, select your child theme and open footer.php.
- 3
Paste the snippet immediately before wp_footer() or the closing </body> tag.
- 4
Update the file, then load your storefront to confirm the launcher appears.
- 5
Changes are live immediately; there is no build or publish step.
The snippet you paste
<script src="https://rubyrep.com/rubyrep.js" data-rubyrep="rr_your_public_key" defer></script>Your own key replaces rr_your_public_key — you get it after training RubyRep on your site.
Worth knowing on WooCommerce
Edit a child theme, never the parent — a parent theme update overwrites your changes.
Caching plugins such as WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache will serve the old page until you purge.
Script-combining and deferral features in optimisation plugins can break third-party widgets; exclude the snippet if the launcher stops appearing.
WooCommerce questions
- Where does the code go on WooCommerce?
- The parent theme's footer.php, or a code-snippets plugin. Changes are live immediately; there is no build or publish step.
- Do I need a paid WooCommerce plan?
- No plan gate — WooCommerce is self-hosted, so you control the code.
- Will a WooCommerce update remove it?
- Edit a child theme, never the parent — a parent theme update overwrites your changes.
- Does it slow WooCommerce down?
- No measurable effect. The snippet is deferred, so it loads after your page has rendered, and the chat interface itself is only fetched when a visitor opens it.
Related
term
What is a website chatbot?
The term covers two very different things. Older chatbots follow scripts and break the moment a visitor phrases something unexpectedly. Modern ones retrieve from a business's own content and generate an answer, which handles arbitrary phrasing.
term
What is AI customer service?
AI customer service means answering customer questions with a language model rather than a person. The useful implementations are grounded in a specific business's own content; the poor ones let a general model improvise, which produces confident answers that are wrong.
guide
How to add an AI chatbot to your website
Adding an AI chatbot takes minutes. Making it answer correctly takes preparation. This covers what to check before you install anything, how installation actually works, and the three failure modes that make businesses take chatbots back down.
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Mark up your existing FAQ answers so search engines and AI assistants can quote them directly. The code is the same everywhere; where you paste it is not. This covers 35 platforms, 19 of which gate custom code behind a paid plan.
how-to
How to add live chat on any website platform
Put a real-time conversation route on every page of your site. The code is the same everywhere; where you paste it is not. This covers 35 platforms, 19 of which gate custom code behind a paid plan.
Get your snippet.
Enter your WooCommerce site and RubyRep reads it, builds your representative, and hands you the exact line to paste.
Using something else? See all platforms.