Agentic commerce is a commerce model where AI-powered agents guide customers through product discovery, comparison, and purchase within a conversational interface. Instead of browsing a traditional storefront, customers describe what they need and an agent finds, recommends, and transacts on their behalf.
Multiple AI platforms are developing agentic commerce capabilities, each with its own integration protocol. While the protocols differ in technical details, they share common requirements for the underlying commerce backend. This module covers how to prepare your commercetools Project so that it is ready to integrate with any of these platforms when you choose to do so.
Specific AI provider integrations are subject to availability. commercetools does not guarantee future compatibility with any particular AI provider. This module focuses on configuring your commercetools Project to meet the common requirements shared across providers.
Project and Store configuration
Your commercetools Project must be configured with the correct localization settings and a dedicated Store for each agentic commerce channel.
Project-level settings
Verify the following settings are correctly configured in your Project:
- Currencies: add all currencies you intend to support in the agentic channel.
- Languages: add all languages for product titles, descriptions, and other localized content.
- Countries: add all countries where agentic commerce is available.
- Zones: configure shipping Zones that cover your target markets.
- Taxes: set up Tax Categories and Tax Rates for each country and currency combination you support. Ensure tax calculations produce accurate results for the markets you serve.
Dedicated Store
When creating a Store for agentic commerce, consider configuring one Store per combination of AI platform, brand, and region.
Why use a dedicated Store
In commercetools, the Store is the boundary that brings together channel-specific configuration. A dedicated Store lets you keep one agentic channel predictable without duplicating your catalog or pricing model.
Use a dedicated Store because it lets you:
- Attach Product Selections to control which Products are available in that channel.
- Apply Product Tailoring when the same Product needs different titles, descriptions, images, or attributes for that channel.
- Assign Distribution Channels and Supply Channels so price and inventory are resolved from a known Store context.
- Associate the correct Shipping Methods with that Store context.
This makes the channel behavior easier to reason about. The same Product can stay in your shared catalog, while the Store determines which data and operations apply for that agentic experience.
Store Custom Fields
Your Store must include Custom Fields that provide policy and merchant information to the agentic channel. The following fields are commonly required across AI commerce protocols.
Not every field is required by every integration. Specific integrations may require additional fields beyond those listed here.
| Field name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
sellerStoreUrl | String | The URL of your merchant storefront. |
sellerName | String | Your merchant or brand display name. |
sellerTermsOfServiceUrl | String | URL to your terms of service page. |
sellerPrivacyPolicyUrl | String | URL to your privacy policy page. |
store as the resource and add the relevant Field Definitions.Channels and Inventory
Distribution and Supply Channels determine how the agentic channel resolves prices and inventory for your products.
Distribution Channels
If you use Distribution Channels, assign one or more Distribution Channels to each agentic Store.
Use Distribution Channels when you need predictable price resolution for a specific agentic channel. Without a Distribution Channel, the channel can only rely on global Prices, which makes it harder to separate channel-specific pricing strategies.
Supply Channels
If you use Supply Channels, assign one or more Supply Channels to each agentic Store.
Use Supply Channels when the agentic channel should reflect a specific inventory pool. This avoids mixing availability across channels that share the same SKU but not the same stock allocation.
Inventory mode
None: no inventory checks during checkout. Suitable if you manage stock externally or have unlimited supply.ReserveOnOrder: inventory is reserved when an Order is created. Prevents overselling but doesn't block the Cart creation.TrackOnly: inventory is tracked but not reserved. Useful for monitoring without blocking orders.
Shipping method configuration
Shipping Methods must be configured for the markets you serve through the agentic channel. AI agents use shipping information to present delivery options and costs to customers during checkout.
Use Store-associated Shipping Methods when the agentic channel needs its own delivery options. This keeps the Shipping Methods returned for a Cart aligned with the Store context used by the channel.
Shipping Method Custom Fields
carrier Custom Field allows the agentic channel to inform customers which service handles their package.Specific integrations may require additional Custom Fields on Shipping Methods. Consult the documentation for your chosen AI platform to determine the exact fields needed.
Key takeaways
- Agentic commerce is a commerce model where AI agents guide customers through product discovery, comparison, and purchase in conversational interfaces.
- Multiple AI platforms share common requirements for the underlying commerce backend, so the preparation work you do here applies across providers.
- Your Project needs correct localization settings (currencies, languages, countries, zones, taxes) for agentic channels.
- Create a dedicated Store per agentic channel with Custom Fields for policy URLs and merchant information.
- Distribution and Supply Channels control which prices and inventory the agentic channel sees.
- Shipping Methods may require Custom Fields for delivery estimates and carrier information, depending on the AI platform.
Test your knowledge
On the next page, you will learn how to prepare your product catalog for agentic commerce, including Product Selections, Product Tailoring, and product data requirements.