AI in ecommerce:manage a bigger catalogue,without selling mistakes

In ecommerce, AI helps most with four jobs: writing and translating product copy, editing and extending product images, answering customer questions, and preparing your catalogue so that AI assistants can find it. Shop platforms such as Shopware and Shopify have their own AI features for this, alongside general tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, DeepL and Adobe Firefly. You remain responsible for every claim in your store, so a person should check before anything goes live.

Nikolai Schöbel and Jeremias Burger

Co-founders of Scalableloops GmbH. Nikolai Schöbel leads online marketing and AI strategy, Jeremias Burger the AI architecture. Both build AI systems and train teams on them in their own agency work.

How do you write product descriptions with AI?

Both major shop platforms include a text generator. Shopware lists features for its AI Copilot that include creating product descriptions, summarising product reviews and automatically tagging images in the media library with keywords. According to Shopify, Shopify Magic takes details such as the product title and keywords and suggests a description. Shopify states plainly that you are responsible for the accuracy of everything you publish, even when AI wrote it.

The output is only as good as the input. AI does not know your product. When details are missing, it fills the gaps with plausible sounding features that may not exist. So supply the facts and let the AI do the wording.

An example prompt: “Write a product description for our store. Audience: hobby gardeners with no technical background. Use only these details: material, dimensions, weight, what is in the box, care instructions. Do not add any other features, certifications or test results. Structure: one sentence on the benefit, then three short paragraphs, then a list of technical specifications.”

For larger catalogues, a fixed template with the same sections in the same order pays off. The store stays consistent, and checking is faster because every text follows the same pattern. The same applies to translation: DeepL or an AI assistant produces a draft, and someone fluent in the target language checks measurements, size charts and mandatory legal text. For the basics of writing with AI, see AI for writing.

How can AI support customer service in your store?

Store questions repeat: where is my order, does size M fit, how do returns work. An AI chat can answer them around the clock, provided it works from your actual shipping, returns and product information. Alternatively, an AI assistant drafts replies to customer emails, which your team checks and sends.

Article 50 of the EU AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026. A chat that talks to customers must make clear and unambiguous, at the latest at the first interaction, that an AI is answering, unless this is already obvious to a reasonable person. A line in your terms and conditions does not do the job. The notice belongs in the first message. Our article on AI disclosure for chatbots shows how.

A greeting could read: “Hi, you are chatting with our AI assistant. I can help with orders, shipping and returns. If you would rather talk to a member of our team, just type ‘human’.”

Decide what the chat must never settle on its own: goodwill gestures, refunds, discounts and anything that amounts to a promise to the customer. If the chat processes order or customer data through a cloud service, you need a data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR.

Do you need your own plugin for AI in your store?

Often, what your shop platform offers is enough, supplemented by an AI assistant for individual tasks. A dedicated plugin becomes interesting when AI needs to work inside your processes: generating copy for whole categories to your specifications, taking attributes from supplier data or checking service answers against your inventory system.

Whether you buy a ready-made plugin or have one developed depends on how far your requirements differ from the standard. We weigh up the options in Shopware plugin: buy or build.

What applies to data protection and AI literacy in your store?

As soon as customer data goes into an AI tool, such as orders, addresses or email threads, the usual GDPR rules apply. Use business accounts, put a data processing agreement in place under Article 28 GDPR and share only the data the task needs. Product copy and images usually need no personal data at all.

Article 4 of the EU AI Act has applied since 2 February 2025, including to stores whose teams use AI for copy or translation. Since 27 July 2026 it applies as amended by the Digital Omnibus, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744: you must take measures that support the development of AI literacy, but you do not have to guarantee a particular level for each person. No certificate is required. Details are in our article on the AI literacy obligation under Article 4.