You can now connect the Claude or ChatGPT you already use, or another MCP app, to your Emporiqa account. From that chat you can create a store, set it up (its colours, greeting, starter questions, tone and the website allowed to show it), try it, and only then connect your shop's catalog. Later, the same chat tells you how each store is doing. It sets your store up before it goes live, and once shoppers can see the chat, changes are yours on the dashboard.
Why connect an assistant at all
A lot of store owners keep a chat with Claude or ChatGPT open most of the day, for product descriptions, supplier emails and the odd spreadsheet formula. Setting up the AI chat for your store used to mean switching to another dashboard and finding the right page.
With the connector, you ask in the chat you already have open. It works through MCP, the open standard these assistants use to connect to other apps. You don't need to know more about it than the address.
How to connect it
The connector address is https://emporiqa.com/mcp.
In Claude:
- Open Settings, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector.
- Paste https://emporiqa.com/mcp.
- Sign in to Emporiqa when asked. A page lists what the assistant will and will not be able to do. Press Allow.
- In a chat, open the tools menu and switch Emporiqa on.
In ChatGPT, or another app that supports MCP connectors with sign-in, add a custom connector (MCP) with the same address. The steps above are the ones checked in Claude. Menus in other apps move around, so look in that app's own help for where custom connectors live.
Apps that show ready-made prompts also get two from the connector: “Set up my shop” and “How are my stores doing?”. You can just as well ask in your own words.
The full steps, and what to do if the assistant does not see Emporiqa, are in the Claude and ChatGPT guide.
What you can ask it
- Create a store. A new store is free to start, with no card.
- Set it up. Your brand colours and where the button sits, the header title, a greeting and starter questions in each language your shoppers write in, the tone, add to cart, and the website allowed to show the chat. Then it offers the extras as a short checklist: a welcome popup for new visitors, a goodbye popup for visitors about to leave, voice (it costs a little more per voice conversation, so it asks first), ratings after a chat, photos from shoppers, suggested replies and the countries you sell to. It proposes the wording and saves once you agree. A greeting has to tell shoppers they are talking to an AI, so every greeting it suggests does.
- A link to try the chat. You try your store's chat as a shopper would. Until your catalog is in, it has nothing to answer from, so the answers get good once the shop is connected.
- Install steps for your shop. The last step, and the exact steps for your platform. On WooCommerce, Shopware, Drupal and Sylius they start from a direct link into your shop's admin. On WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento and Shopware the connection is one click. Drupal Commerce, Sylius and custom shops (connected through webhooks) get their own steps. The full guides are in the documentation.
- Where each store stands. In plain words: not connected yet, linked but nothing has arrived, catalog arriving, live, or paused for billing and why.
- How it is doing. Conversations, cart adds, orders and revenue from the chat and handoffs to your team, for today and the last 7 days, plus credit left and what you have spent against your monthly limit. When your shop's mailbox is connected, it also says how many customer emails wait for a reply and how many need a person: counts only, never the emails.
- A link for any change once the chat is live. A direct link to the exact dashboard page where you make it.
What it looks like
Here is the kind of exchange you can expect. The assistant writes its own reply from what Emporiqa sends it, so the wording varies.
You: How are my stores?
Assistant: You have two. Northfield Outdoor is live on your WooCommerce shop, with 163 conversations this month. Your signup credit is used up and you are well within your monthly limit. Northfield Trade is linked to your PrestaShop shop, but nothing has arrived from it yet, so the chat is not live there. Want the steps to send the catalog?
You: Let's set up Northfield Trade. Dark green, #2f5d50. Our trade customers write in English, keep it businesslike.
Assistant: Here is what I would save: dark green buttons and header, the title "Northfield Trade", the greeting "Hello, I'm the AI assistant for Northfield Trade. Ask me about stock, trade prices or delivery times.", the starter questions "Can I order this in bulk?", "What are your delivery times?" and "How do I open a trade account?", a professional tone, add to cart on, and only northfieldtrade.com may show the chat. Shall I save it?
You: Yes.
Assistant: Saved. A few extras, tick the ones you want: a welcome popup for new visitors, a goodbye popup when someone is about to leave, voice (extra per conversation where the shopper speaks), ratings after a chat, photos from customers, suggested replies, and answering only visitors in the countries you sell to.
You: The welcome popup and ratings. We only sell in the UK and Ireland.
Assistant: Done. Try it as a customer would: [link to try your chat]. It answers from your catalog, which has not arrived yet, so the last step is to send it from your PrestaShop admin. Want the steps?
You: Later. Make the greeting on Northfield Outdoor friendlier.
Assistant: Northfield Outdoor is live, so shoppers would see a new greeting straight away, and that change is yours to make on the dashboard. Two friendlier options that still say it is an AI: "Hi! I'm Northfield's AI assistant. Looking for something for your next trip?" or "Hey there, I'm the AI assistant here. Ask me anything about our gear." Open this page, paste the one you like and save: [link to your greeting settings].
That last answer is on purpose.
Why it stops once the chat is live
This was the main design decision, and the one I would most like store owners to know about.
An AI assistant reads a lot of text that did not come from you: web pages, emails, documents you paste in. Some of that text is written to steer an assistant into doing something you never asked for. A line hidden on a web page could tell it to rewrite your greeting, change your tone, or add a site that may show your chat.
Before your chat is live, nothing it sets reaches a shopper. You see every setting it proposes, you try the chat yourself, and every change goes through the same checks as the dashboard: the greeting must say it is an AI, and the texts are plain text, with no HTML. Each setup is recorded in your store's activity log with the app's name.
Once the chat has appeared on your shop, those settings reach your shoppers the moment they change. So from then on they stay where you change them yourself, in the dashboard, where you see the result. The assistant can still help you write a new greeting or new starter questions. You paste the wording in.
Setup help, yes. Remote control of a live chat, no.
What it never sees or touches
- Your conversations, or anything about your shoppers.
- Billing changes, deleting anything, your team, or sign-in.
- Your connection secret.
You can disconnect it at any time from Profile, under Connected apps. Changing your password disconnects every connected app at once.
What Emporiqa costs
Every store is free to start. After that you pay per conversation, up to a monthly limit you set. If you connect your shop's mailbox, each AI-drafted customer email reply you send is charged too. The details are on the pricing page.
To try it, create a free Emporiqa account, add https://emporiqa.com/mcp as a connector in your assistant, and say “Set up my shop”. The platform guides for WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento, Shopware, Drupal Commerce, Sylius and custom shops cover the same steps the assistant gives you.
