Handle e-commerce support on Telegram with Gemini and Google Sheets

Description

Telegram E-Commerce Customer Support Bot with AI Agent & Google Sheets

An AI-powered Telegram bot that automates customer support for e-commerce stores — handling order tracking, order cancellations, and support ticket creation, all without human intervention.

Built with a Gemini AI Agent + Simple Memory, the bot understands natural language, remembers the conversation context per user, and reads/writes directly to your Google Sheets — no database or backend required.

How It Works

A customer messages the Telegram bot or taps a menu button
The AI Agent (powered by Google Gemini) reads the message and decides what to do
Simple Memory** keeps track of the full conversation per user, so the bot never forgets context mid-flow
The agent calls one of three Google Sheets tools depending on intent:
Read Orders Sheet — looks up order details by Order ID or email
Update Order Status — sets an order's status to Cancelled after confirmation
Create Support Ticket — appends a new ticket row to the support sheet with auto-categorisation
The response is sent back to the user via Telegram

How to Use

Step 1 — Create a Telegram Bot
Open @BotFather on Telegram, run /newbot, and copy your bot token. Add it as a Telegram credential in n8n.

Step 2 — Set Up Google Sheets

Create a Google Spreadsheet with two sheets (tabs):

Sheet 1 — Sheet1 (Orders):
| order_id | customer_name | email | product | Status | date |

Sheet 2 — Sheet1 (Support Tickets — separate spreadsheet):
| ticket_id | name | order_id | query | summary | category | status | created_at | telegram_id |

Step 3 — Add Credentials in n8n
Telegram Bot** — paste your BotFather token
Google Sheets OAuth2** — connect your Google account
Google Gemini (PaLM API)** — add your API key from Google AI Studio

Step 4 — Update Sheet IDs
In the three Google Sheets tool nodes, replace the documentId values with your actual spreadsheet IDs (found in the Google Sheets URL).

Step 5 — Activate & Register Webhook
Activate the workflow in n8n. If running locally, use ngrok to expose your n8n port over HTTPS, then register the webhook:
https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/setWebhook?url=https://<YOUR_NGROK_URL>/webhook/telegram-ecom-bot

Step 6 — Test
Open your bot in Telegram and send /start. You should see the welcome message with three menu buttons.

Requirements

n8n (self-hosted or cloud)
Telegram Bot (via BotFather — free)
Google account with access to Google Sheets
Google Gemini API key (free tier available at aistudio.google.com)

Customising This Workflow

Change the LLM** — swap Google Gemini for OpenAI GPT-4o or any other n8n-supported model by replacing the Google Gemini Chat Model node
Add more menu options** — extend the /start welcome node with additional inline keyboard buttons and update the system prompt to handle new intents
Add manager notifications** — connect a Telegram or email node after the Create Support Ticket tool to notify your team when a new ticket is raised
Use a database instead of Sheets** — replace the Google Sheets tool nodes with PostgreSQL or MySQL nodes for higher-volume production use
Change cancellation rules** — edit the system prompt to block cancellations for different statuses (e.g. block Ready in addition to Shipped)
Add order lookup by phone number** — extend the orders sheet with a phone column and update the system prompt accordingly