The Question Every Store Owner Should Ask
Before choosing a support solution, put a number on it: what does 1,000 monthly inquiries cost under each model?
Option 1: Do It Yourself
At ~5 minutes per inquiry, 1,000 inquiries = 83 hours monthly. If your time is worth $25/hour, that's over $2,000 — plus you only answer during working hours, so international customers wait (or leave).
Option 2: Human Agents / Outsourcing
At $8–15/hour with ~83 hours of workload: $650–1,250 per month, plus recruiting, training and QA overhead. True 24/7 coverage triples that. And every resignation resets the training curve.
Option 3: AI Chatbot
Subscription pricing: free tier (100 conversations/month), Pro at ~$19/month for 2,000 conversations. Per 1,000 inquiries: roughly $10. That's 1/50th to 1/100th of human cost.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions
- Response latency: Pre-sale conversion drops sharply after the first 5 minutes. AI replies in 3 seconds; humans don't.
- Concurrency: During a sale, inquiries spike 10×. AI scales instantly; humans can't.
- Consistency: AI answers from one knowledge base — same answer every time, no fatigue.
Where Humans Still Win
Complaints, negotiations and complex disputes need a human touch. The optimal structure is hybrid: AI handles the 70–80% of repetitive questions and escalates the rest with full conversation context.
Bottom Line
For a small store, AI-first support isn't a luxury — it's the cheapest conversion-rate investment available. Start with the free tier and measure your own numbers.