Arabic chatbot for ecommerce
An Arabic chatbot that shops: Gulf dialects, Arabizi and your real catalog
Most Arabic chatbots answer questions. A shopping assistant has to understand how people really ask for products, find them in your catalog, and fill the basket. Here is what that takes, and 20 messages to test any vendor with.
In short
An Arabic chatbot for ecommerce is an assistant that talks with shoppers in Arabic, searches the store's catalog and builds their basket. To work in a Gulf store it has to read dialects (Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, Lebanese), Arabizi and Arabic mixed with English, find the right product at the shopper's branch, and reply in the shopper's own script.
Hephon Commerce is one such assistant, for supermarkets and grocery retailers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in the retailer's app, on WhatsApp and by phone. The 20 test messages below work on any vendor's chatbot, ours included.
Updated
What is an Arabic chatbot for ecommerce?
It is a chatbot that sells. A shopper writes "عندكم حليب المراعي؟" or "3andkom 7aleeb almarai?" and gets the product, at their branch's price, with a button to add it to the basket. A support bot that answers opening hours and order status in Arabic is useful, but it is a different product. The test is simple: can it take a shopper from a sentence in their dialect to a confirmed basket?
That needs three things a generic chatbot lacks: the retailer's live catalog with prices and stock per branch, a search that understands Arabic as it is typed, and rules that hold whatever the shopper writes, such as never showing alcohol in a halal store.
Why most Arabic chatbots fail in a store.
- Dialects, not textbook Arabic
- Shoppers write وش عندكم, شو عندكم or شو في. A bot trained on formal Arabic misses what they ask for.
- Arabizi and mixed languages
- “3andkom diapers size 4?” is one message in two languages and two scripts. It has to be read as one request.
- Products, not FAQs
- Most Arabic chatbots answer opening hours. A shopper wants the right milk, at their branch's price, in the basket.
- Brands spelled every way
- Almarai, المراعي and almar3i are the same brand. Search has to find it whichever way it is typed.
- Halal, enforced
- In a halal store, alcohol and pork must never appear, whatever the wording. That belongs on the server, not in a prompt.
- Replies that sound local
- Fixed phrases approved by native speakers for each dialect keep the tone right, instead of a translation that sounds foreign.
Where generic Arabic bots break, in practice
Most failures come from one assumption: that Arabic is one language with one way of writing it. Shoppers in Riyadh, Dubai and Beirut ask for the same milk with different words. Brand names arrive in Arabic script, in English, and in Arabizi with numbers. Product names in the catalog are often English while the request is Arabic. A search that matches only exact words, or a model that was only shown formal Arabic, returns nothing, or worse, the wrong product.
The second failure is answering in the wrong script. A shopper who writes Arabizi does not want a reply in Arabic script, and one who writes Arabic does not want English. Models easily drift into English after the first product name. Hephon Commerce weighs each message as a whole and keeps the conversation's language when a message has no clear one.
A generic Arabic chatbot next to an Arabic shopping assistant.
| Generic Arabic chatbot | Arabic shopping assistant (Hephon Commerce) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it answers | Fixed questions: opening hours, delivery areas, order status | “Do you have…”, “cheapest…”, “something similar”, “kabsa for ten” |
| Dialect | Formal Arabic, or one dialect from training data | Saudi, Gulf and Lebanese as people write them, with an approved phrasebook per dialect |
| Arabizi and mixed messages | Often treated as English, or not understood | Read as Arabic; the reply follows the shopper's script |
| Products | A link to the store, or a product it guessed | Hybrid keyword and meaning search over the live catalog, each result checked against the message |
| Prices and stock | The website's price, if any | The shopper's branch, in the retailer's currency |
| Halal rules | An instruction in the prompt | Products removed on the server before the assistant sees them |
| Ordering | Hands off to the website | Fills the basket and checkout; orders only on the shopper's confirm |
Dialects it speaks.
Saudi and Gulf Arabic lead. Each store picks the dialect its assistant speaks.
| Dialect | Chat | Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabic | Yes | Yes |
| Gulf Arabic (Emirati, Kuwaiti, Qatari, Bahraini, Omani) | Yes | Yes |
| Lebanese Arabic | Yes | Yes |
| Modern Standard Arabic | Yes | No |
| Arabizi (Arabic in Latin letters) | Yes | No |
| Dialect | I want | What do you have? | Now | What the assistant does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi (Najdi, Hijazi) | أبي / أبغى | وش عندكم / إيش عندكم | الحين / دحين | Saudi phrasebook replies; a Saudi voice on calls |
| Emirati | أبا / أبي | شو عندكم | الحين | Gulf phrasebook replies; a Gulf Arabic voice |
| Kuwaiti | أبي | شنو عندكم | الحين | Read as Gulf Arabic; Gulf phrasebook and voice |
| Lebanese | بدي | شو عندكن / شو في | هلق | Lebanese phrasebook; a Lebanese speech engine on calls |
| Egyptian | عايز | عندكم إيه | دلوقتي | Read in chat; no Egyptian phrasebook or voice today |
What is Arabizi, and why does it matter?
Arabizi is Arabic written in Latin letters, with numbers for the sounds Latin has no letter for: 3 for ع, 7 for ح, 2 for ء, 5 for خ. "7aleeb" is milk, "3andkom" is "do you have", "abgha" is "I want". Many shoppers in the Gulf and Lebanon type it on their phones every day, and spell the same word several ways. An Arabic chatbot that treats Arabizi as broken English cannot serve them. Hephon Commerce reads it as Arabic, searches with it, and answers in Arabizi when that is how the shopper wrote.
Can it handle voice notes?
Yes. Many Gulf shoppers would rather speak than type, so on WhatsApp they send voice notes. Hephon Commerce transcribes each note and answers it like a typed message, with the same search, basket and rules. Gulf Arabic is heard and spoken with ElevenLabs voices, a Saudi voice among them, and Lebanese Arabic through a Lebanese speech engine. By voice it also speaks more than 30 other languages.
Does it reply in the shopper's script?
Yes, and this is where many bots slip. The reply follows the message: Arabic script to Arabic script, Arabizi to Arabizi, English to English. The fixed lines it uses, such as confirmations and suggested replies, come from a phrasebook of approved phrases per dialect that your team can edit.
One chat, three scripts.
Kuwaiti Arabic, then Arabizi, then English: the reply follows each message.
- Shopper:
شنو عندكم حليب بدون لاكتوز؟
What lactose-free milk do you have? (Kuwaiti)
- Assistant:
هذا المتوفر عندنا من الحليب بدون لاكتوز:
Here is the lactose-free milk we have:
Searched the catalog; only lactose-free milk passed the check.
- Shopper:
fi minh 7ajm akbar?
Is there a bigger size? (Arabizi)
- Assistant:
Eh, hatha el 7ajm el akbar min nafs el no3:
Yes, here is the bigger size of the same kind:
Replied in Arabizi because the shopper switched to Arabizi.
- Shopper:
Perfect, add 2 please
- Assistant:
Added 2 to your basket. Anything else?
Replied in English; the basket is in sync with the app's cart.
How do you test an Arabic chatbot before buying?
Do not judge it on a demo the vendor drives. Ask for a trial on your own catalog and send it the messages your shoppers send. The 20 below cover dialects, Arabizi, mixed languages, real shopping tasks and the hard cases where bots fail. Under each message is what a good shopping assistant should do.
Score each one pass or fail on four points: did it understand the request, did it show the right products and only those, did it reply in the shopper's script, and did it avoid inventing anything. Then repeat the follow-ups ("something similar", "cheaper", "add all") in the same chat, since memory across turns is where many bots break.
20 messages to test any Arabic chatbot.
Send them to any vendor's assistant, on your own catalog. Each one shows what a good shopping assistant should do.
Dialects
أبغى حليب كامل الدسم
Saudi: I want full-fat milk.
Full-fat fresh milk first; not skimmed milk, not milk powder.
أبا خبز حق الريوق
Emirati: I want bread for breakfast.
Breakfast breads, with the reply in Arabic.
بدي لبنة وزيت زيتون
Lebanese: I want labneh and olive oil.
Two products, one row each.
هل يتوفر لديكم أرز بسمتي؟
Formal Arabic: do you have basmati rice?
Basmati rice, answered in clear Arabic.
وش عندكم من الشاي؟
Saudi: what teas do you have?
A range of tea; not kettles or tea cups.
عطني أرخص زيت طبخ
Give me the cheapest cooking oil.
Cooking oils only, cheapest first.
Arabizi
3andkom 7aleeb almarai?
Do you have Almarai milk?
Read as Arabic, finds Almarai milk, answers in Arabizi.
bade shi lal fotour
Lebanese: I want something for breakfast.
Breakfast ideas from the catalog, not a refusal.
abgha mai sghir 12 7abba
I want small water bottles, a pack of 12.
A 12-pack of small bottles.
fi 3andkon chips bala gluten?
Do you have gluten-free chips?
Only gluten-free chips, or an honest no.
Mixed languages
عندكم diapers size 4؟
Arabic and English in one message.
Size 4 diapers.
Need 2 كيلو دجاج و rice
Two scripts, two products.
Chicken in packs that make 2 kg, and rice.
Pepsi ولا Coca-Cola أرخص؟
Which is cheaper, Pepsi or Coca-Cola?
Both prices from the shopper's branch, compared.
Real shopping
كبسة لعشرة أشخاص
Kabsa for ten people.
The ingredients, each with the pack that covers the amount.
سناكات لستة أشخاص بأقل من ١٠٠ ريال
Snacks for six, under 100 riyals in total.
A list whose total fits the budget.
فيه شي مشابه بس بدون سكر؟
Anything similar but sugar-free? (a follow-up)
Remembers the last product and finds its sugar-free kind.
أبغى هدية لطفل عمره ست سنين
I want a gift for a six-year-old.
Toys or gifts, not food: search must not assume groceries.
Hard cases
بيبسى دايت
Diet Pepsi, spelled with ى instead of ي.
Still finds Diet Pepsi.
عندكم بيرة؟
Do you have beer? (in a halal store)
Says it is not sold, and never shows it.
وين طلبي؟
Where is my order?
Checks the order or hands over to the team; never invents a delivery time.
How we test our own assistant
Before any change to the prompt, the model or the search goes live, Hephon Commerce runs a test suite generated from the retailer's own catalog. It covers every department, retrieval, the basket, language and script, safety and WhatsApp. New languages are tested before they ship, in the dialect the store uses. You can also try the public demo store, Hephon Market, with about 15,000 products.
When Hephon Commerce is not the right fit
- You need an Arabic support bot for questions and tickets, not a shopping assistant. A customer-service platform fits better.
- You sell mainly to Egyptian or Maghrebi shoppers. Our dialect work is Gulf and Lebanese first.
- You have no online catalog. The assistant needs your products, prices and stock.
Arabic chatbots, answered.
See it on your own catalog.
We set up a demo with your products, your branches and your shoppers' languages.
