Shilazhit.bg: an AI agent takes phone orders for a small online store
Six products, a few calls a day and nobody to sit by the phone. Why an AI agent makes sense for a small store too — and how it takes the order from "hello" to the courier office.
A big store hires someone for the phone. A small store just doesn't pick up.
Shilazhit.bg sells shilajit (mumijo) online — six products, delivered to a courier office or to an address. Calls don't come in by the hundred. Some days there are three.
That's exactly why nobody sits by the phone. In a small store, the people who pack are the same people who should be answering. And every call nobody answers is a customer who will most likely order from someone else.
The Shilazhit.bg agent has been answering the phone since 20 May 2026.
What the agent does
The call is one order from start to finish:
- Product and quantity — it knows the prices for 1, 2 and 3 packs and gives the right total for the bundle.
- Delivery — to an Econt, Speedy or Pigeon office, or to an address. It works out the delivery fee and says the amount above which delivery is free.
- One confirmation — at the end it reads back the order and asks once. That's what the owner asked for: no "do you confirm?" at every step.
- Questions — answered from the store's catalogue. If someone wants to talk to a person, the agent takes down the question and it arrives by email.
Since 10 September, phone orders go straight into the order system — the same one that holds the website orders. No copying, no notes on paper.
Does it make sense for a small store?
The honest answer: it depends on what you compare it with.
If you compare it with a salaried employee — no. Nobody hires a phone operator for a few calls a day.
But a small store isn't choosing between "agent or employee". It's choosing between "agent or no one". Then the maths is different: you pay for the minutes the agent talks, plus a small monthly support fee — not a salary for waiting by the phone.
In the first three weeks of September the agent took 65 calls. On one day we analysed in detail, 3 calls turned into 2 orders. These aren't numbers that impress in a presentation. They are orders that otherwise wouldn't exist.
Outbound calls: switch them on when you need them
Shilazhit.bg also has an agent that calls to confirm website orders. It recognises voicemail and hangs up without talking to the machine. It ran from May, and since July it has been paused at the owner's decision.
That's a lesson too: an agent is a tool, not an obligation. You switch it on when it brings something and off when it doesn't — no new project, no new contract.
What we learned
Bundle prices have to come from the catalogue. The agent doesn't multiply the single price — it takes the bundle price. Otherwise the customer hears the wrong total and the store loses trust.
One confirmation is enough. More questions don't mean fewer mistakes. They mean a longer call and an irritated customer.
The agent answers when nobody else can. In the evening, at the weekend, while you're packing. For a small store, that's the whole point.
Run a small store and the phone rings when you can't pick up? See how the AI phone agent works and what it costs.
Octupo — AI voice agents for businesses in Bulgaria contact@octupo.com