Say hello to the all-in-one solution for WooCommerce
Infobip and Neuralab are giving WooCommerce merchants a boost by bringing an all-in-one omnichannel and marketing solution directly into the platform for a seamless, customer-first experience!
Most messaging platforms used by WooCommerce merchants follow a familiar path: They first started as emailing and newsletter senders, gradually adding an omnichannel tool to their belt, and only in recent years started to offer CDP-like solutions.
But here’s the twist – Infobip’s and Neuralab’s new WooCommerce integration is flipping the script.
Instead of following the traditional messaging first, data second formula, it brings Infobip’s full communications platform and CDP power right into WooCommerce store, giving merchants the best of both worlds from the start!
What are the key features of this solution?
Kresimir Koncic, owner of Neuralab and Infobip’s partner in developing this solution, reveals that the first release of this plugin covers the “bear necessities” allowing merchants to utilize four main modules:
1. Communicate with customers via SMS, automatically (e.g., order updates) or manually (e.g., issues with product or order)
2. Use Infobip’s email servers to boost email deliverability, ensuring better UX, anti-spam compliance, and legal obligations
3. Integrate Infobip Live Chat into their store (currently manual setup, with automation coming in future versions)
4. Export WooCommerce customer data to Infobip’s “People” CDP and use it for various marketing automations
This partnership began at the first local WooCommerce meetup, hosted by Infobip. It brought the teams together, sparking ideas on integrating Infobip with WordPress and WooCommerce.
The concept for the official plugin came shortly after the event.
“There’s some background: Neuralab has a longstanding partnership with Mailchimp, implementing all of their marketing automation tools for our SMB merchants.
However, we increasingly needed a more robust and feature-packed platform, which is why we turned to Infobip’s enterprise-ready solution. Don’t get me wrong, Mailchimp is a fantastic service with a great team, but it caters to a different market.“
Merchants’ developers are the main decision-makers
After becoming an official Infobip partner, they spent a year planning and designing the product.
Omnichannel eCommerce is a huge field, so there were numerous workshops and back-and-forths before any code was written. While this is typical for most engineering projects, the constantly evolving landscape of new communication channels and UX patterns made the process longer than usual.
For example, the emergence of RCS on iPhones came just after they’d already built the SMS channel gateway, highlighting the challenge of predicting what WooCommerce merchants truly need.
“A major challenge was deciding what to build from Infobip’s extensive range of apps, products, and services. It took time to determine the most important features for the initial product. Navigating Infobip’s knowledge management portals was another hurdle, as we had to invest a lot of time to find relevant information and get our teams up to speed.
Collaboration was also tricky, as Neuralab mainly uses Google and Slack, while Infobip leans towards Microsoft and Office tools. In a typical stakeholder-builder relationship, communication is straightforward, but as a joint engineering team, we spent a lot of time just figuring out where to communicate and which channels to use.“
The team also faced challenges with the constantly changing Infobip API landscape and documentation and how to integrate various tools into WooCommerce user flows.
However, these technical and communication issues were secondary to the bigger problem of positioning.
Initially, the product was designed with merchants as the main users. But as development progressed, it became clear that merchants’ developers would be the key decision-makers. This realization led to a shift in UX and interface design, resulting in a fully modular plugin where developers can toggle features on and off.
The CDP serves as the core foundation
Turning back to the product, Končić reveals why it is important for WooCommerce stores to adopt an omnichannel approach:
“The days when merchants could rely solely on email are over. Today’s customers are spread across multiple platforms – live chat, email, WhatsApp, Telegram, and even AI-powered conversations. To stay relevant, merchants need to adapt to these varied customer journeys.”
Despite the buzz around hyper-personalization, only about 10% of merchants utilize SMS as a channel, even though customers prefer it for order updates. On top of that – hyper-personalization is all the craze in web circles, and it all seems like that old teenage joke – “Everyone talks about it, nobody knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it too”.
The solution? Omnichannel, data-driven marketing automation.
“Our approach gives developers and merchants powerful, data-first tools to experiment with omnichannel strategies. By integrating WooCommerce datasets with Infobip’s CDP, we provide a seamless flow of user interactions, allowing merchants to create highly personalized customer experiences using tools like ‘Moments’ and ‘Answers.’ Unlike other solutions, we treat the CDP as the core foundation, continuously adding new features and marketing capabilities.“
AI, humans, and the future of customer support
As AI becomes more common in customer support, how does this platform strike a balance between automated responses and human interaction?
Kresimir explains that they are well aware of the advantages and challenges AI brings, especially in customer support. He emphasizes that their goal is to find a balance – leveraging modern technology, but never at the expense of the customer experience.
“To be honest, merchants always had issues with the cost of their human agent operators and this is the main reason why you will not see 24/7 live chat widgets in your average eCommerce store. This is understandable, but it’s also a missed opportunity – it’s essential to recognize customer support as an experience enhancer and revenue driver rather than a pure cost.“
Fast forward to the current AI hype, and merchants and developers are eager to deploy Gen AI agents like a Star Trek computer. In reality, there are still complex technical and legal hurdles in integrating AI into automated chats.
“People forget that LLM hallucinations aren’t going away – they’re an inherent vice in all neural net systems. Additionally, the robustness and completeness of data sources leave much to be desired. That’s why merchants should use GenAI where it excels: in open-ended conversations and creative ideation.
For example, when a customer asks, “What kind of socks go with these brown shoes?” AI shines in cross-selling and engaging dialogue. But for specific inquiries about refunds, discount policies, or shipping, traditional IF/ELSE bots or, better yet, human operators, should still be the norm.“
Users sometimes rely on GenAI chatbots because they seem reliable and authoritative. However, this trust can be deceptive. This behavior mirrors a phenomenon called ‘Gell-Mann Amnesia.’ When users encounter mistakes made by AI on topics they know well, they may recognize its hallucinations. Yet paradoxically, they continue to trust the same AI when it provides information on topics they know little about, assuming accuracy despite clear evidence of its fallibility.
It’s time to move beyond the myth of ‘AI magic,’ and the Infobip and Neuralab team aims to combine the strengths of AI and human interaction to ensure WooCommerce users receive top-notch customer service.
Looking for more details about this plugin? Visit our GitHub page!
