At a glance
- Requires WordPress 6.0+, PHP 7.4+, and an active WooCommerce 8.0+.
- Free plan: 50 shopper conversations per calendar month, every feature included.
- Installing and activating the plugin sends nothing anywhere — the first external request happens when you click Connect shop.
- Typical time from install to a live concierge: a few minutes — import time scales with catalog size, so large catalogs take longer.
Plugin guide
01Requirements & install#
Backpilot is a WordPress plugin that connects your store to the Backpilot service — the service does the heavy lifting; the plugin is the connector and the control panel.
- WordPress 6.0 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer.
- WooCommerce 8.0 or newer, installed and active.
Install it from WordPress.org (or search “Backpilot” under Plugins → Add New), then activate it. You'll find its settings under WooCommerce → Backpilot.
Activation changes nothing on your storefront and makes no external request. Until you connect, the plugin is inert.
02Connecting your store#
On the settings page, read what connecting sends, then click Connect shop. Connecting registers your store with the service by sending your site's home URL, your administrator email address, and your WordPress, WooCommerce, and plugin versions. The email address is used to tell you when your shop goes live or needs attention — nothing else.
After registration, Backpilot imports your public product catalog — names, descriptions, prices, images, categories, stock, and reviews — through the standard WooCommerce Store API. This is the same data any visitor's browser can read; no API keys are created and no private data is exported.
03Going live — the status card#
The status card at the top of the settings page always shows where your shop stands:
- Importing — the catalog import is running. Usually a few minutes; the bigger the catalog, the longer it takes.
- Active — the concierge is live on your storefront. Your shop goes live automatically once the import finishes.
- Needs attention — something stopped the automatic path (a shop we cannot reach, or a catalog that imported nothing). The card says what happened, and we get back to you within 1–2 business days.
Use “Open your storefront to see it” at the bottom of the settings to check the live launcher.
04Settings reference#
Everything lives on one page under WooCommerce → Backpilot. Appearance settings are stored on your site and take effect on the next page load of your storefront.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Status | Connection state (see above) and the Disconnect shop button. |
| Usage | Conversations used this month, the date the count resets, and a button to ask for more. |
| Launcher position | Which corner of the storefront the chat launcher floats in (bottom right by default). |
| Accent color | Background color of the launcher button, so it can match your theme. |
| Launcher label | Tooltip and accessible name of the launcher, and the title of the chat window. Leave empty for the default. |
| Show on my storefront | The visibility switch. Turning it off removes the concierge from every page immediately; your connection and settings are kept. |
05The free plan#
Every store starts on the free plan: up to 50 shopper conversations per calendar month, with every feature included. One conversation is one chat session in which a visitor sent at least one message. The count resets on the first day of each month (UTC), and the settings page always shows where you stand.
When a month's conversations are used up, the concierge stops appearing on your storefront until the count resets — your connection and settings are untouched, and it comes back on its own. Need more? The Basic plan is $49/month with 200 conversations included, then $0.25 per conversation — or tell us about your shop for custom volume terms.
06Data behavior#
The short version, in the order things happen:
- Before Connect — nothing is sent, nothing changes on your storefront.
- On Connect — registration data (site URL, admin email, versions), then the public catalog import described above.
- While connected — your site periodically asks the service whether the concierge should be shown (at most once every five minutes from the storefront), carrying only the site key issued at registration. There is no background reporting.
- When a shopper chats — the conversation runs inside a frame served by the service; what the shopper writes and the products shown are processed and stored by the service. Payment details are never involved — checkout happens on your own store.
Retention, subprocessors, and deletion rights are in the Privacy Policy.
07Troubleshooting#
The concierge doesn't appear on my storefront. Check, in order: the Show on my storefront switch is on; the status card says Active; this month's conversations aren't used up (Usage section). The storefront caches the show/hide answer for up to five minutes, so give a change a few minutes to propagate.
The status card says we can't reach your shop or the import found nothing. This usually means the Store API is blocked (a security plugin or firewall rule) or the catalog has no public products. The card says which; we also get in touch within 1–2 business days.
Is Backpilot down? Your store is unaffected either way: the concierge keeps working from its last known state or simply doesn't appear. Nothing on your site fails or slows down because of it.
Theme compatibility. The concierge is a self-contained launcher and panel floating above your pages — it doesn't touch your theme's markup, styles, or layout, and works the same on block and classic themes. The storefront loads one small asynchronous script, only on pages where the concierge is shown.
08Turning off, disconnecting, uninstalling#
Three levels, from mildest to final:
- Hide it — turn off Show on my storefront. The next page load has no trace of the concierge; everything else is kept.
- Disconnect shop — tells the service to stop serving your store immediately. The plugin stays installed; you can reconnect later.
- Delete the plugin — disconnects your shop and removes every setting the plugin stored on your site.
Catalog data and conversations already stored by the service are deleted within 90 days of disconnecting — sooner on request via [email protected].
09Getting help#
The support forum on WordPress.org, or [email protected]. For setup help or a custom integration, use the contact form — we read everything and reply within a couple of days.