Shopify ChatGPT integration vs. Steward: what store teams should know
How Shopify's ChatGPT app compares with Steward for store teams that need per-person rights, approvals for refunds and a shared history.
Two very different “Shopify ChatGPT integrations”
When people talk about Shopify and ChatGPT, they usually mean one of two things:
- Selling through ChatGPT. Shoppers ask ChatGPT for product recommendations, and your products can appear in the answer. This is a sales channel for your customers.
- Managing your store with ChatGPT. Shopify’s ChatGPT app, launched in May 2026, lets a merchant connect their store and ask questions or make changes from ChatGPT. This is a tool for you.
This article is about the second one: using AI to run your store. Selling through ChatGPT is a separate topic and works alongside everything below.
What Shopify’s ChatGPT app does well
You install the app in ChatGPT, sign in with your Shopify account and approve the access level. ChatGPT can then look up orders, review products and inventory, create discounts and summarize sales. It is quick to set up and works well on a phone. For one merchant checking their own store, it is a solid choice.
Questions a team should ask first
As soon as several people work on a store, a few practical questions come up:
- Who is allowed to change what? The app’s access is decided when it is connected. ChatGPT cannot tell your support agent apart from your finance lead.
- Who checks a change before it happens? When writes are allowed, actions take place in the chat. ChatGPT may ask you to confirm, but there is no separate approver.
- Where does the record live? Each person’s ChatGPT history is personal. When a discount was created by mistake, the team cannot see the conversation that caused it.
- What about refunds and cancellations? These are the actions you most want a second pair of eyes on.
- What about our other systems? Many stores also run an ERP such as weclapp. The Shopify app only knows Shopify.
How Steward answers those questions
- Project roles. Viewers follow results, Contributors use configured connections and prepare changes, and Managers approve. Invited project members need no separate connection grant.
- Proposals and approvals. The default Ask for approval mode prepares changes as proposals. Approvers review every item and then approve or reject.
- Always-review actions. Refunds, payment capture, cancellations, fulfillment, publishing, deletion and customer notifications always require approval, even in Automatic mode.
- Shared projects. Questions, results, files and decisions stay with the team. Shared instructions keep everyone’s answers consistent, for example “report revenue net of VAT”.
- More than Shopify. Connect weclapp in the same workspace and ask questions across both systems, such as comparing Shopify orders with weclapp stock.
- No shared tokens. Shopify is connected once with your own app’s credentials, which are stored encrypted and never displayed or given to the AI.
Shopify’s ChatGPT app and Steward side by side
| Shopify app in ChatGPT | Steward | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | A single merchant | A team with different roles |
| Access | Chosen once per connection | Separate rights per person or team |
| Before a change | Happens in the chat once writes are allowed | Reviewed proposal by default |
| Refunds and cancellations | Depends on the access you granted | Always require approval |
| History | Personal | Shared, with approvals |
| Recurring reports | — | Scheduled tasks |
| ERP alongside Shopify | — | weclapp in the same workspace |
Example: a Monday morning in Steward
Summarize last week: revenue, orders, average order value and the five best-selling products, compared with the week before.
Which customers ordered three or more times this quarter but not in the last 30 days? Prepare a list for a win-back campaign.
Order #10511 arrived damaged. Prepare a refund of €24.90 for the broken item and a note for the customer.
The first two are reads. The third becomes a proposal that the store owner approves, because refunds always need approval in Steward.
Which one should you choose?
Use Shopify’s ChatGPT app if you are the only person working on your store. Choose Steward when your store is a team effort, when changes should be reviewed and when you want one place for questions across Shopify and your other business systems.
Get started
Read Connect Shopify, then invite colleagues with the right permissions. Also see how Steward compares with Shopify’s Claude app and Shopify MCP servers.