AI customer service for online stores: what Sondercase does in your store
Almost every support tool now says “AI”. For an online store, what matters is whether the case is done afterwards. Sondercase is built around that. The AI reads the request, looks up the real data, decides under your rules and prepares the store action for your approval. The reply to the customer, fully automatic if you want, is only the last step.
Sondercase is built exclusively for post-purchase support: order status, returns, warranty and defect claims, cancellations, address changes, and product and policy questions. It works with Shopify and WooCommerce, inside your existing support inbox and across WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.
If you first want to compare AI support tools in general (chatbots, draft tools and resolution systems), read our guide to AI customer service. This page shows how Sondercase answers the questions raised there.
What the AI does with a customer request
An everyday example from a fashion store. On Monday morning this email arrives:
Hi, I’d like to send back the jacket from order #20931, it’s too big for me. How do I do that? Best, Jonas Weber
Here is how Sondercase handles it:
- Classify. The AI recognises a return for a specific order and matches the message to the customer account and order #20931.
- Pull live data. Items, price and payment status come from your store, the delivery date comes from tracking: the jacket was delivered nine days ago.
- Decide. The return is within the EU withdrawal period and your return policy. Sondercase prepares a return case and a reply explaining to Jonas how to send the jacket back through the returns portal with a return label, along with a confidence score and its reasoning.
- Approve and act. You release the prepared return case. It is opened and Jonas gets a reply with everything he needs. The refund follows as a separate step, again under your rules.
- Escalate when something is off. Had the return window passed, or the order not been clearly identifiable, Sondercase would not guess. It would hand you the case with full context.
The case is closed, not just answered. More on the returns flow: automate returns.
How Sondercase prevents hallucinations in customer service
A language model on its own knows nothing about your orders. An AI that quotes a delivery date without reading the tracking is guessing. Sondercase therefore stacks four safeguards:
- Live data, not model memory. Order status, shipment history and customer history are read live from your store and the carrier for each case. Answers about an order are based on that data.
- Confidence score and reasoning. Every proposal shows how certain Sondercase is and why, so you see at a glance what a decision rests on.
- Escalation, not guessing. Uncertain cases go to a human with the order, the history and a suggested next step, instead of an invented answer going to the customer.
- Your release before every store action. Refunds, cancellations, address changes and returns run only when you release them. Replies go out automatically once you switch that on for a category; at the start you test in draft mode.
On top of that come your rules for every store action. Statutory consumer rights, such as the EU right of withdrawal and the statutory warranty, are treated as a floor.
What the AI decides and what stays with you
Standard cases with clear data, such as order status or questions about delivery times and return conditions, are answered by Sondercase fully automatically if you want, usually after a short test in draft mode. Store actions are prepared so that your approval takes one click. Judgement calls stay with you: unusual warranty questions, goodwill decisions, upset customers. Sondercase prepares these cases completely, so you only decide and never have to look anything up.
Which category’s replies go out automatically, and when, is entirely your call; store actions always wait for you. A workable order is laid out in automate customer service.
Channels, languages and tone
Most ecommerce requests arrive by email. Sondercase connects your existing support inbox and brings in WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Every channel is included in every plan. The AI replies in the language the customer writes in and in your brand’s tone. Sondercase is available in German and English and is built for the DACH market.
AI customer service and GDPR
Customer requests contain personal data. Pasting them into a consumer chat window is a data protection problem. Sondercase is built for the European framework from the start:
- EU-first processing wherever a provider allows it.
- Third-country transfers covered, for example for the AI model, by EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the Data Privacy Framework.
- DPA concluded automatically at onboarding.
- Full transparency: every subprocessor is named in the privacy policy.
Sondercase is a company based in Dresden, Germany, built by people who run their own online stores.
Which stores Sondercase AI customer service fits
Sondercase fits best for stores where post-purchase support has started to eat too much time:
- Shopify or WooCommerce stores whose requests mostly arrive by email, alongside WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook.
- Small teams that do not want to pay more for every additional person in support. Team members are included in every plan.
- Stores in the DACH region looking for a provider with a German-language product, German consumer law built in and a company based in Germany.
Prices are fixed per plan: Starter costs €39 per month, Growth €89 and Scale €199, each less when billed yearly. Every feature is included in every plan; only the volume differs. There are no per-seat fees and no per-resolution fees.
Try Sondercase on your own store
Sondercase answers with real data, fully automatically if you want, prepares store actions for your approval, and hands a case to a human when it is unsure. You start in draft mode, then switch to automatic one category at a time.
The quickest way to judge it is the live demo: enter your store domain, Sondercase analyses your store and resolves a real support case live, using only public store data and without signup. Then try it free for 14 days, no credit card required.