Connect an AI Assistant
Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any MCP-compatible assistant to your store. Ask about sales and orders, let it build and edit your store, or have it fulfil orders and answer customers.
You can connect an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini to your store and work with it in plain language. Depending on what you allow, it can:
- Read your store: answer questions like "how did sales do this week?" or "which products are running low?"
- Build and edit your store: set up a whole store from a description of your business, add and edit products, photos, and variants, and change your design, pages, policies, and settings.
- Handle orders and messages: mark orders shipped or ready for pickup, and read and reply to customer messages.
The connection uses MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other services. Your assistant signs in with your E2C Store account, so you never paste a password or API key into it.
Only the store owner can open Settings → AI integration and manage connected apps. If you manage more than one store, the assistant connects to the store you have open when you click Allow.
Connecting your assistant
It takes about two minutes.
Copy your server URL
Go to Settings → AI integration. Under Connect an assistant, click Copy next to your server URL:
https://e2c.store/mcpAdd E2C Store to your assistant
- Go to Claude → Add custom connector.
- Enter E2C Store as the name and paste the server URL.
- Leave the other settings as they are: Authentication on Always required, OAuth client on No client ID - register one automatically, and Additional request headers empty. Claude detects all of this automatically.
- Click Add. Claude will prompt you to sign in.
You'll need Developer Mode turned on in your ChatGPT settings first. No paid subscription is required.
- Go to chatgpt.com/plugins and click + to add a new plugin.
- Enter a name (description is optional) and paste the server URL under Connection.
- Set Authentication to OAuth, tick I understand, and click Create. ChatGPT will prompt you to sign in.
- Use it from a regular chat.
- Go to gemini.google.com/spark/apps and scroll to Custom apps for Spark.
- Click Add custom app, paste the server URL as the custom app link, and follow the on-screen steps. You'll be prompted to sign in.
Gemini only uses the connection from Spark Tasks, not a regular Gemini chat.
Other assistants that support MCP connectors with OAuth sign-in can connect the same way, using the same server URL.
Sign in and choose what it can do
Sign in with your E2C Store account. You'll see Allow [app] to access your store?, with the name of the app that's asking and the website you'll be sent back to. Only allow apps you trust.
Choose what the assistant can do besides reading your store:
| Checkbox | Default | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Also let it build and edit your store | Ticked | Products, categories, photos, variants, design, homepage, hero banner, logo, pages, policies, and store settings |
| Also let it handle orders and customer messages | Not ticked | Marking orders shipped, ready for pickup, or complete; reading and replying to customer messages |
Leave both unticked for read-only access. Then click Allow (or Deny to cancel).
Try it out
Ask your assistant something like "how did sales do this week?" The app now appears under Connected apps on the AI integration page, with the date it connected and when it was last used.
Ready-made commands
Two shortcuts come with the connection. Assistants that support them, like Claude, list them as commands or prompts you can pick instead of typing.
- Build my store: describe your business and the assistant sets up the whole store: design, pages, policies, categories, and products. It asks for what it still needs, shows you a preview, and only builds once you say go. Needs build and edit access.
- Store check-up: the assistant reviews your setup, stock, traffic, reviews, and messages, and suggests the three most useful things to fix or improve this week, offering to do the ones it can.
What every connection can read
Read access is always on. Reading never changes anything in your store, and these are the same numbers you see on your dashboard.
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Store setup status | Your store's name, web address, currency, and settings; how many products and categories you have; which setup steps are done; and what to do next. Assistants usually start here. |
| Sales summary | Order counts, total sales, refunds, and net revenue for the last 1–365 days (default 7). |
| Revenue trend | Daily revenue and order count for the last 1–90 days (default 30), in your primary currency. |
| Recent orders | Up to 50 of your most recent orders (order number, date, total, status, and buyer name), optionally filtered by status. |
| Order details | Everything about one order by its order number: items, the buyer's name, email, phone, and address, shipping and tracking, payment method, status, and any order note. |
| Order status breakdown | How many orders are in each status, such as Confirmed, Shipped, and Delivered. |
| Top selling products | Your best sellers by revenue over the last 1–365 days (default 30), with units sold. |
| Store traffic | Sessions, unique visitors, page views, and the product view → cart → checkout → order funnel for the last 1–90 days. |
| Low stock | Products at or below a stock level you choose (default 5). |
| Product search & details | Find products by name or code, or get full detail on one product, service, or event: price, stock, status, category, description, keywords, shipping, colour and size variants, and photos. |
| Categories | Every category with its code, name, visibility, and how many listings it holds. |
| Recent reviews | Up to 50 of your latest product reviews, for all products or one. |
| Unread messages | Who has sent you unread messages and when (up to 5), plus your total unread count. The message text needs order access. |
| Store design | Your current Design Studio theme, homepage sections, hero banner, About and Contact pages, social links, policies, and logo. |
What it can change with build and edit access
With Also let it build and edit your store ticked, the assistant can also:
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Build a whole store | Sets up or updates settings, theme, homepage sections, hero banner, About and Contact pages, social links, policies, categories, and products (with variants) in one go. See How building a store works. |
| Products | Create physical products, and edit physical and digital products: name, price, sale ("compare at") price, stock, description, keywords, category, shipping, and visibility. |
| Colour and size variants | Set up to 3 options (such as Size and Colour) with up to 6 values each. Each combination can have its own stock and price. |
| Photos | Add up to 6 photos to a product, service, or event from image links (JPG, PNG, or WebP, up to 10 MB each). E2C downloads and stores them; the first photo is the one shown on product cards. |
| Categories | Create categories (up to 25), rename them, change their code, and show or hide them. |
| Design | Change colours, fonts, shapes, header, footer, built-in homepage sections, page banners, and component styles in Design Studio. Changes go live right away. |
| Homepage sections | Add custom sections after the hero: text, call to action, image and text, and banner. |
| Hero banner | Design a custom hero banner for your homepage, including its images. |
| Logo | Set your store logo from an image link. Your browser-tab icon is made from it. |
| Pages and policies | Your About Us and Contact Us pages, footer social links, and your shipping & returns and terms policies. |
| Store settings | Your bio, phone number, website, business address, shipping countries, and local pickup. |
A product the assistant creates on its own goes live (active) straight away, so it needs at least one shipping option (including Standard Shipping) or local pickup. Products created while building a whole store are saved hidden instead, so you can add photos and check them before they go live.
What it can do with order access
With Also let it handle orders and customer messages ticked, the assistant can also:
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Mark an order shipped | Adds or updates the carrier and tracking number and sets the order to Shipped. Your buyer gets the usual shipping email from your store. |
| Mark an order ready for pickup | Sets the order to Ready for Pickup and emails your buyer the pickup details. |
| Complete an order | Closes an order that was shipped, picked up, or delivered. No email is sent. |
| Read customer messages | Messages from your Contact page, newest first, with the full text and any reply you've sent. It can show unanswered (the default), unread, or all messages. Reading doesn't mark them as read. |
| Reply to customers | Sends a reply as your store. The reply is saved on the message and emailed to the customer, and the message is marked as read. |
Because these send emails to your buyers, assistants are told to confirm the exact order or message, and the wording, with you before they act.
How building a store works
When you ask your assistant to set up your store (or use Build my store), it follows the same steps every time:
It checks your store and asks questions
It looks at what's already set up, then asks for what it still needs: what you sell, a few products and prices, where you ship, whether you offer pickup, and your style and colours. It's told to ask rather than invent facts, and to mark anything it had to assume as a placeholder.
It shows you a preview
It drafts the whole plan and runs it as a preview. Everything is checked, nothing is saved, and the assistant shows you what will change.
It builds once you agree
After you say go, it applies the same plan. If one part fails, the rest still runs and the assistant tells you what didn't work. Running the plan again is safe: categories and products are matched by name, so they're updated instead of duplicated.
It adds photos and finishes up
If you give it image links, it adds product photos and your logo. New products are saved hidden; once they have photos and you're happy, ask it to make them active. It finishes by telling you what's left for you to do in the dashboard.
What only you can do
Whatever you allow, an assistant can never:
- Delete anything. To hide a product or category, it sets it to inactive.
- Change payments or payouts, your store name, web address, or currency.
- Refund or cancel orders.
- Create events, services, or digital products, or upload digital files.
- Manage collaborators, API keys, your custom domain, or Google Shopping.
These stay in your dashboard.
Keeping track of changes
Every change a connected app makes is recorded in your audit history under the app's name, so you can see what changed and who did it. Allowing, denying, and disconnecting apps are recorded there too.
Disconnecting an app
Disconnect
Under Connected apps, click Disconnect next to the app and confirm.
Removing the connector from inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini usually disconnects it on E2C Store too, so you don't have to do both.
Changing what an app can do
You choose an app's access when you click Allow, and it can't be changed on an existing connection. To change it, disconnect the app in Settings → AI integration, then connect again and tick or untick the checkboxes.
If an assistant tries something it doesn't have access to, it gets a message telling it to do exactly this, and it'll usually pass that on to you.