Ecommerce Store

ecommerce-store — get a real store live with a working checkout

What this sub-skill is for

Standing up an e-commerce store: a product catalog, collections, inventory, a discount, and a checkout that actually completes, plus analytics. Loaded by new-project when the project is "sell products online". Shopify-first (driven by the Shopify MCP); for a fully custom build it composes with website (storefront) + api-backend (cart/checkout API). Scope is the technical storefront — getting it live and transacting. The money/marketing side (offers, ads, acquisition) is build-business's job; chain it when the user wants customers, not just a store.

Mandatory grill-questions (fold into the Definition of Ready)

• Platform: Shopify (default — via the Shopify MCP) or a custom stack (website storefront + api-backend)? Shopify unless there's a real reason to hand-roll checkout.
• Catalog: what products, how many SKUs, variants (size/colour), pricing, digital vs. physical? Where do product data + images come from?
• Payments, region & tax: which payment providers, selling into which countries, and what tax / VAT handling? (Shopify Payments availability varies by region — confirm.)
• Shipping: rates, zones, free-shipping threshold, fulfillment (self / 3PL / dropship)?
• Theme & brand: colours, logo, typography, voice — harvest a reference look if the user has one.
• Channels: web only, or also social / marketplace? Domain to use?

Project sub-agents to generate (.claude/agents/)

• catalog-builder — creates products, variants, and collections and sets inventory via the Shopify MCP (or the custom API), keeping titles/SKUs/prices consistent (delegate-by-default for catalog work). Confirms before publishing live products.
• storefront-themer — sets up the theme / brand (Shopify theme settings, or the website storefront), responsive and on-brand; pulls tokens from a harvested reference.
• listing-copywriter — writes product titles, descriptions, and metadata that are accurate and conversion-aware — benefits and real specs, no invented claims.
• analytics-reporter — wires analytics and runs ShopifyQL / run-analytics-query to report sales, orders, and product performance; never fabricates numbers.

Tools / CLIs / MCP / skills needed

• Shopify MCP (chain — primary): get-new-store-previews to spin up a store from a description (let the user browse previews and sign up through the link), then create-product, create-collection, add-to-collection, set-inventory, create-discount, run-analytics-query, get-shop-info, and graphql_query / graphql_mutation for anything without a built-in tool (metafields, pages, markets, etc.).
• web-aeo (chain) — llms.txt + schema.org Product/Offer structured data so the store is legible to AI assistants and search.
• design-harvest (chain) — pull palette/typography/layout tokens from a reference shop for the theme (patterns/tokens only, never copy assets/code).
• Design chain (2026-07-29 addition): for a custom storefront or a hand-edited Shopify theme (real HTML/CSS/Liquid, not the theme editor's presets), design-bausteine structures the build brief and slop-detect is a mandatory ship gate before the theme goes live — same order as website's SKILL.md. A storefront is client-facing by definition, so also run design-critique before publishing.
• Compose, don't duplicate: website for a custom storefront, api-backend for a custom cart/checkout, build-business for the acquisition/marketing engine.
• Global skills/agents to chain: deep-research (payment/tax/region rules, platform trade-offs), verify (walk a real checkout end-to-end), code-review (custom-storefront code), market-researcher (agent) for facts on fees / payment providers / shipping.

File / asset nudges (on top of the base set)

• STORE.md — platform, store URL/domain, payment + tax + shipping config, and the channel list. Single source of truth for how the shop is set up.
• catalog/ — product source data (titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, variants) and the collection structure, version-controlled before it's pushed live.
• assets/products/ — product imagery (own or licensed — track the license).
• POLICIES.md — returns / refunds / shipping / privacy text, drafted to the relevant consumer law, ready to paste into the store's policy pages.
• .env.template — any API keys/tokens as empty keys; real .env git-ignored (never commit Shopify or payment credentials).

Stack defaults & done-bar

Default stack: Shopify via the Shopify MCP — store from get-new-store-previews, catalog

• collections + inventory through the MCP tools, Shopify Payments + Shopify-managed checkout, a percentage discount code, analytics via ShopifyQL, schema.org from web-aeo. Swap to a website + api-backend custom build only when the grill calls for it. Done-bar (all must hold):

1. The store is live with real products in at least one collection, inventory set.
2. Checkout completes — a test order goes through end-to-end (verify), payment + shipping + tax resolving correctly for the target region.
3. At least one discount code exists and applies correctly at checkout.
4. Analytics is wired and returns real sales/traffic data (ShopifyQL or the chosen tool).
5. Product listings are accurate; returns/shipping/privacy policies are present.

Guardrails

• No fake reviews and no fake scarcity — no invented "12 people are viewing", fake countdowns, or planted testimonials. Social proof must be real.
• Consumer-law / returns compliance — a clear, lawful returns + refund + shipping + privacy policy for the selling region; don't ship a store that can't legally take an order.
• Product claims must be accurate — describe what the product actually is and does; no unverifiable health/performance/"best" claims. Flag anything the user can't substantiate.
• Never expose payment or store secrets — API keys, Shopify Admin tokens, and payment credentials live in env / the platform vault, never in the repo, listings, or chat.
• Confirm before going live / charging — publishing products, taking real payments, and creating discounts are outward-facing; confirm with the user first.
• NO emojis in store UI, product copy, or notifications. Commits under the user's own name only (Skryx-L-A) — never add Claude as a co-author. Never commit secrets / API keys.