AI Shopping Assistant Not Just a Chat Bot

The idea89 service is an AI shopping assistant built and operated by 4K Technologies Ltd, a UK Limited company. It turns an online storefront into a conversational shopping experience: shoppers ask questions in plain language ("something waterproof under £100", "do you have a smaller one of these in blue?") and receive accurate, on-brand product recommendations drawn from a live, stock-aware index of the merchant's catalogue. The service is EU-hosted, never trains its models on customer data, and redacts personally identifiable information from prompts before any model call. Subscribers manage their account, billing, and conversation analytics in a hosted merchant dashboard at app.idea89.com.

This extension for Magento 2 is the official integration that connects a Magento Open Source, Adobe Commerce on-prem, or Adobe Commerce Cloud storefront to the idea89 service. After installation, the merchant pastes an API key from the idea89 dashboard into a single admin field, and a brand-themable chat widget appears on every storefront page — mobile-responsive, asynchronous, and free of theme overrides. Products, variants, prices, stock levels, reviews, categories, CMS pages, and active cart price rules synchronise automatically. The chat widget can field product discovery questions, surface relevant promotions, track an order without leaving the page, and locate the nearest physical showroom. A typical use case: a homeware retailer with 2,000 SKUs installs the extension, completes a five-minute admin configuration, and from that point on every storefront visitor has a knowledgeable shop assistant available, around the clock, that recommends only in-stock products and never breaks the merchant's brand voice.

Live demo

A public, fully-configured demo storefront is available at d89.idea89.com — no sign-up, no install, no card required. Open the chat bubble in the corner of any page and try a vague natural-language query ("something warm for a small child", "any waterproof options under £50", "what is your return policy?") to see the assistant return real product cards with prices, swatches, and one-tap add-to-cart buttons. The demo also exposes in-chat order tracking and the Pro-tier store-locator card against demo data, so every feature in this listing can be walked through end-to-end before the first subscription month is paid.

Account & Pricing

A separate idea89 account is required to use this extension. The account is not created during the extension installation — sign-up happens separately at app.idea89.com before the API key is pasted into the Magento admin.

The extension itself is free and open-source (OSL-3.0). The idea89 service it connects to is a paid subscription, billed monthly or annually by 4K Technologies Ltd via Stripe. A 14-day free trial is available with no credit card required; paid plans start at £49 / month and include Starter, Growth, and Pro tiers. Full pricing is published at idea89.com/pricing.

For account-setup help, billing questions, or pricing enquiries, contact support@idea89.com.

Features

• AI shopping assistant chat widget — floating chat on every storefront page, mobile-responsive, brand-themable, asynchronous so it never blocks page load.
• Real-time catalogue sync — products, variants, prices, stock levels, reviews, categories, and CMS pages all sync automatically. Stock-aware so the assistant never recommends sold-out items.
• Brand voice configuration — set the assistant's display name, store context, and brand colour from a single admin panel. It answers like a member of the merchant's team.
• Promotion-aware — active cart price rules are synced so the assistant can surface relevant discounts in the moment.
• In-chat order tracking on every plan — "where is my order?" surfaces a compact order card right inside the chat. Last three orders for logged-in customers, order-number + email lookup for guests, eleven carriers auto-detected.
• Store Locator on the Pro plan — physical showroom finder with map, postcode search, opening hours, photos, and travel times. Available both in chat and on a dedicated storefront page with a configurable URL slug.
• Built-in analytics — track conversation volume, conversion rates, top queries, zero-result searches, and revenue attributed to chat from the merchant dashboard.
• GDPR-ready — EU-hosted, no customer data used for AI training, PII redaction before model calls.
• Encrypted API key storage — the merchant's API key is stored using the built-in Encrypted backend model (OBSCURE config type) in Magento.
• CSP-friendly — the module dynamically whitelists the idea89 API and widget hosts via etc/csp_whitelist.xml, so it works with strict-mode Content Security Policy out of the box.
• Coding-standards verified — maintained green against Magento2, MEQP1, and MEQP2 coding-standard rulesets in continuous integration.

How it works

1. Install the module via Composer.
2. Enter the API key from the idea89 dashboard in Stores → Configuration → IDEA89.
3. The chat widget appears on the storefront immediately.
4. The catalogue syncs automatically — the assistant is ready to sell.

The merchant's catalogue is indexed on the idea89 hosted AI service with embeddings for semantic search. When a shopper asks a question, the assistant searches products, checks stock, and responds with relevant recommendations — complete with product cards, prices, swatches, and one-tap add-to-cart buttons.

The chat widget on the storefront

The assistant appears as a floating bubble in the corner of every storefront page (position configurable — bottom-right or bottom-left). Click to open. It runs as a self-contained Web Component on the page — no theme overrides, no extra static content deployed to the Magento instance, and no impact on page-speed scores.

What shoppers can do

• Ask for a product type ("show me some lighting", "I need something for a small kitchen") — the assistant returns a horizontal scroll of product cards with images, prices, swatches, and add-to-cart buttons.
• Expand the widget into a larger panel for browsing-style use — the product grid switches to three columns.
• Ask "what is your return policy?" — the assistant answers using synced CMS pages.
• Ask about a promotion — the assistant surfaces the relevant active cart price rule.
• Track an order without leaving the page.
• Find the nearest physical store.

In-chat order tracking (included on every plan)

When a shopper asks "where is my order?" or any clear variant, a compact order card lands right inside the chat.

• Logged-in customers see their last three orders (configurable, 1–10) immediately. Status pill, order number, total, date. Tap any row for a detail view with shipping method, items, a Track parcel button (when a carrier tracking link exists), and a Contact support CTA.
• Guests use a two-field form (order number + email) to fetch the same detail view. If the order is not found, or the email does not match, the same generic message displays in both cases — order numbers cannot be enumerated.
• Privacy by design — order data is fetched directly by the shopper's browser from the merchant's storefront, same-origin. It never travels through idea89 servers or any AI model. The chat only emits a marker that triggers the lookup.
• Eleven carriers auto-detected — Royal Mail, DHL, DPD, UPS, FedEx, USPS, Hermes/Evri, Yodel, ParcelForce, GLS, TNT. Tracking links open in a new tab; no merchant configuration needed.
• Guest rate-limiting — ten lookups per hour per IP, reset on a successful match.

Five admin fields cover the tracking surface: Enable Order Tracking, Contact Support URL, Contact Support Button Label, Max Recent Orders Shown, and Show Carrier Tracking Button. All are per-store-view scoped. Online-only retailer? Set Enable Order Tracking = No on that store view and the card never surfaces.

Store Locator (Pro plan)

Physical showrooms get their own page at /store-finder (URL slug configurable — showrooms, branches, find-a-shop, anything) with an interactive map, opening hours, photos, and travel-time directions. The chat assistant also surfaces the three nearest stores in a compact card when a shopper asks.

Twelve admin fields cover page behaviour and content: Enable Store Finder Page, URL Path (any slug, with a collision validator that fails the save with a clear error if it conflicts with an existing CMS page, product, category, or module route), Page Layout (fullwidth edge-to-edge map or boxed max-width card), SEO Page Title and Meta Description, Hero Eyebrow / Title / Subhead, and Help Section Heading / Body / CTA Label / CTA URL for the help block underneath the map.

The locator also lives as a CMS widget — drop the Store Locator widget into any CMS page or static block from the widget picker. Locations themselves are managed in the idea89 dashboard with CSV / JSON import-export, or via the merchant API.

Plan gating is transparent. Below Pro, the storefront page returns 404, the CMS widget renders empty, and the chat assistant's locator tool returns a tier message instead of a card — no silent failures.

Privacy & security

• EU-hosted — the idea89 service runs on EU infrastructure; data residency matches GDPR expectations.
• No training on merchant data — customer conversations are never used to train the underlying AI model.
• PII redaction before model calls — names, emails, addresses, and phone numbers are stripped from prompts.
• Order data stays on the merchant origin — the order-tracking feature flows browser ↔ storefront same-origin only, never through idea89 servers or the AI model.
• Encrypted API key storage — using the built-in Encrypted backend model (OBSCURE config type).
• CSP-friendly — dynamic whitelisting of the idea89 API and widget hosts via etc/csp_whitelist.xml.
• Coding-standards verified — maintained green against Magento2, MEQP1, and MEQP2 coding-standard rulesets in continuous integration.
• Security disclosure policy — see SECURITY.md in the package; reports go to support@idea89.com.

Analytics & merchant dashboard

Every conversation is recorded with timestamps, query text, model used, tokens, and (when applicable) the products surfaced and the items added to cart. The merchant dashboard at app.idea89.com shows:

• Conversation volume over time, with 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day filters.
• Cart-add events attributed to chat — the assistant's contribution to conversion.
• Top product clicks and zero-result queries (so the merchant can spot missing inventory or naming gaps).
• Per-store breakdown for merchants running multiple storefronts on one account.

Compatibility

Platform versionPHP supported2.4.68.1, 8.22.4.78.1, 8.2, 8.32.4.88.2, 8.3, 8.42.4.98.4, 8.5 (8.3 upgrade-only, per Adobe)

Works on Magento Open Source, Adobe Commerce on-prem, and Adobe Commerce Cloud. The module supports the union of all PHP versions any currently-supported platform release accepts, so any merchant on 2.4.6 or above can install it.

Installation

composer require idea89/magento2-assistant

bin/magento module:enable Idea89_Assistant

bin/magento setup:upgrade

bin/magento cache:flush

That's it — no layout XML changes, no theme overrides, no frontend build step. On production-mode stores, follow up with bin/magento setup:di:compile and bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f.

What's new in v1.1.3 (30 May 2026)

• Compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.9 (released 15 May 2026), including the new PHP 8.5 runtime.
• Composer constraint widened to ~8.1.0||~8.2.0||~8.3.0||~8.4.0||~8.5.0 so the module installs cleanly on every currently-supported platform release.
• v1.1.2 (30 May 2026) — always-visible idea89 brand strip across the top of the configuration page. Shows the running version, with quick links to documentation, support, and the merchant dashboard. No static-content deploy needed.
• v1.1.1 (29 May 2026) — in-chat order tracking on every plan. Logged-in and guest lookups, eleven carriers auto-detected, same-origin privacy model.
• v1.1.0 (28 May 2026) — Store Locator on the Pro plan. Standalone page, chat tool, and CMS widget. Twelve admin fields, configurable URL slug with collision validation, three-layer plan gating.

About 4K Technologies Ltd

The idea89 service is built and operated by 4K Technologies Ltd, a UK Limited company. Hosting is in the EU. Support is direct from the engineering team — no ticket queues, no offshore tier-1. Email support@idea89.com reaches a human within one business day, usually sooner.

Resources

• Product site — idea89.com.
• Merchant dashboard — app.idea89.com, 14-day free trial, no card required.
• Release notes — idea89.com/releases.
• Source code — github.com/idea89hq/magento-module (OSL-3.0).
• Packagist — packagist.org/packages/idea89/magento2-assistant.
• Email support — support@idea89.com.