Shopify Model Context Protocol (MCP)

"Shopify have just launched their MCP implementation. Should you care?"

Mike Day - Founder ProStore®

What is it?

Shopify’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a new AI driven online assistant. It represents a fundamental shift from a simple chatbot to more of a conversational tool and is designed to act like an expert sales associate for shoppers.

Initial thoughts?

We actually really like it and we applaud Shopify for being the first to embed this new technical standard (MCP) into their platform. It’s an open standard though so others will no doubt launch their own implementations of it before long.

Pros

In theory this could be great for guiding people towards a sale. The AI can provide genuinely helpful, human-like shopping advice because the MCP has “taught” it the deep details of the retailer’s product catalogue.

For example, a shopper could say “I need a gift for my friend who loves outdoor cooking.” The AI Assistant (using MCP product knowledge) could then reply “That’s a great idea! For outdoor cooking, our Cast Iron Skillet is a best-seller. It’s perfect for open-fire cooking. We also have a new Portable Grill Set if their focus is more on portability. Do they prefer cooking over a fire or with a more contained grill?”.

Cons

Shopify MCP won’t work unless you buy… wait for it… another app. Suitable apps are very thin on the ground at the moment, but more should be appearing on the Shopify app store soon.

Data quality and depth are critical as the quality of the AI’s output is directly and completely dependent on the quality of the input data (in this case the retailer’s individual products). If a customer asks “Is this jacket machine washable?” and that information isn’t in the description or specifications, the AI can’t invent the answer so will have to respond with “I don’t know,” which is a terrible customer experience. Also, if one product has a detailed size chart and another doesn’t, the AI will be able to help one customer but not another, creating an unreliable experience.

Our verdict

The Shopify AI assistant is certainly pioneering, but it’s only as good as the data it has access to. Unfortunately, many retailer’s current product listings are going to fall well short in terms of required depth so will all need rebuilding, which is a mammoth task. The principle of “garbage in, garbage out” has never been more relevant. If a retailer’s product data is sketchy, incomplete, or inaccurate, any AI tool using the MCP will simply amplify the problems.

Then there’s the issue of customer adoption. Are people actually going to use it? Many shoppers had bad experiences with older chat bots so still avoid them today. Others love the things and use them extensively. Either way, if Shopify merchants don’t pull their fingers out and give AI a ton of rich data to digest for each of their products, the AI conversation will be poor for the customer and they will lose faith / interest fast.

People see Shopify as more of a marketplace these days and forget that each merchant is actually doing their own thing. We can see a situation arising where someone tries to have a decent AI / MCP conversation on a store with bad data, has a poor experience, and therefore writes off AI / MCP entirely. If they’d tried it on a store with rich in-depth data things might have gone very differently.

To us, this is just another example of Shopify only providing part of the solution, and then leaving the retailer to fill in all of the gaps. By that we mean multiple MCP apps to choose from, even more cost, even more complexity etc… plus some potentially huge projects to straighten out entire product catalogues so that AI actually has something to say. Most Shopify retailers will hear of AI / MCP, get totally seduced by the hype of a new “AI thingy” because they want to sound cutting edge, but will then try and adopt it on the cheap and make a complete hash of it.

So, to summarise, we think the AI / MCP concept is great and we really like the work that Shopify has put into it, and their speed to market. However, as with all Shopify sites, the most important part (the execution) is going to be handed over to the least appropriately skilled person to finish off… the merchant.

By the way, the MCP apps currently available look pretty complicated. Make sure you set aside a good chunk of budget for getting this all working as you’re definitely going to need some techies!

Is MCP going to be available in ProStore®? Yes, but we want the dust to settle first and see if the uptake is as good as some predict. If it adds to the customer experience then it’s 100% going in, but we’re not fully convinced… yet.