Mayank Patel
Nov 24, 2025
5 min read
Last updated Nov 24, 2025

For years, commerce brands have struggled to connect fragmented data and siloed systems with the growing ecosystem of AI assistants, agents, and tools. Every integration was a custom project, every connection brittle and inconsistent. MCP changes that.
In late 2024, Anthropic introduced MCP as an open-source standard, and within months, it began reshaping how AI platforms and commerce ecosystems communicate. Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and even third-party AI assistants like ChatGPT are starting to support it.
If your business depends on digital sales, personalization, or customer engagement, now is the time to prepare. In this post, we’ll break down what MCP is, why it’s such a game-changer for commerce, and what your teams need to do to be ready before it becomes an industry expectation rather than an advantage.
At its core, MCP is an open standard for connecting AI to external data and services. Think of it as a kind of universal adapter or “USB-C for AI applications” that allows AI assistants (like those powered by LLMs) to plug into different tools, databases, and apps without custom code.
In more concrete terms, MCP defines a standardized way for an AI (the client, e.g. a chatbot or AI agent) to request information or actions from an external server that knows how to talk to a particular data source or service.
The AI sends a structured query via MCP, the server (connected to your business system or data store) executes it (with proper permissions), and then returns the result in a format the AI can understand.
This two-way, real-time exchange gives AI models dynamic “live” context beyond their training data, letting them retrieve up-to-date information or perform transactions on behalf of users.
Importantly, MCP isn’t a proprietary product from one company; it was introduced as an open-source standard by Anthropic in late 2024, and has quickly gained traction across the industry.
Instead of every AI platform or commerce app creating its own bespoke integration for each data source, MCP provides a common “language” that everyone can implement. An AI agent that understands MCP can connect to any MCP-compliant data source.
Meanwhile, developers can expose new data sources by building an MCP server (or using an open-source one) and instantly make that data available to any AI that speaks the protocol.
*From a technical perspective, MCP uses a client–server architecture over standard messaging (often JSON-RPC over HTTP or sockets).
Also Read: What Makes Composable Commerce Different from Headless Commerce
So why should commerce brands care about MCP? Because it unlocks a new generation of AI experiences that were previously impractical or impossible. Until now, most AI or chatbot solutions in commerce have been siloed and limited.
A typical AI customer service bot might answer FAQ from a fixed knowledge base, but it can’t check your inventory or help with a complex order issue in real time. Likewise, an AI copywriting tool might generate product descriptions, but it doesn’t know your current pricing or stock levels.
MCP changes the game by making these systems interoperable and context-aware. In practical terms, an AI assistant can finally “see” and act on what’s happening in your business right now.
In a retail setting, this could yield: smarter product recommendations, more accurate customer service, and levels of personalization that directly drive results. Imagine an AI sales assistant that knows today’s promotions, a shopper’s past purchases, and the store’s real-time inventory; it could give highly tailored suggestions (“We have 3 of those in your size, and it’s 20% off today”) that feel as knowledgeable as a veteran sales clerk.
Your marketing AI could query your CRM for customer segments, your chatbot could pull product specs from your PIM system, and your warehouse assistant bot could check stock levels :: all through one common interface.
Shopify-enabled stores have MCP endpoints that allow AI systems (like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or the Perplexity AI search engine) to query them; a user could ask ChatGPT “Find me a red jacket in size M under $100 on AcmeStore” and the AI can directly search AcmeStore’s live catalog and respond with current results.
This creates a new kind of SEO (some call it “AIO” :: AI optimization) where ensuring your data is structured and available to AI might determine whether your products are the ones an AI shopping assistant recommends to potential customers.
Also Read: Modernize Your Ecommerce Product Listing for AI-Powered Search
Adopting MCP isn’t just a minor tech tweak; it has strategic implications for your commerce architecture. Here are a few key considerations for CTOs and digital leaders:
MCP will test how accessible and well-structured your commerce data and services are. Many retailers have lots of data locked up in legacy systems or scattered across siloed platforms.
To leverage MCP, you don’t necessarily have to overhaul everything, but you need to ensure you can expose important functions (product info, inventory, pricing, customer data, orders, etc.) through an MCP server in a reliable way.
Think of an MCP server as a specialized API endpoint for AI, it will translate AI queries into actions like database lookups or API calls under the hood.
If you already have a robust set of REST/GraphQL APIs or a headless commerce setup, you’re ahead of the game; it means you can more easily layer MCP on top of those.
If not, part of your MCP readiness might involve building or cleaning up internal APIs so that your data can be served to AI in a structured manner.
Opening up access for AI agents raises valid concerns around security, privacy, and control. MCP itself is a protocol and does not automatically enforce authentication or encryption.
Strategically, you’ll want to bake in security from day one of your MCP rollout. This means putting proper auth on your MCP endpoints (e.g. API keys or OAuth tokens for agents, so only authorized AI clients can connect) and using encryption (TLS) so that data in transit is safe.
Additionally, apply the same rigorous controls as you would for any API: rate limiting to prevent abuse, input validation to avoid injection attacks via AI requests, and scoping data access to only what’s necessary.
You also need to consider data governance. AI agents might generate or summarize data, so ensure no sensitive customer info is inadvertently exposed. For example, if an AI agent can access customer records to answer a query, you might restrict it from retrieving full personal details unless explicitly needed.
The good news is that treating MCP servers similarly to any external API integration is a sound approach. Many best practices from API security apply here. Some infrastructure providers (like Cloudflare and others) are already offering tools to help secure MCP traffic, such as libraries for OAuth integration, monitoring, etc.
MCP can encourage a more decoupled architecture. Since the AI client (which could be on a user’s device or a cloud service) is separate from your MCP server, you have flexibility in how you deploy and scale these servers.
You might run an MCP server for product data in the cloud, another for order data behind the firewall, etc., each interfacing with the relevant system. This modularity means you can scale the AI-related services (which might see bursty traffic if an AI agent suddenly gets popular) independently of your core transaction systems, by adding caching or replication for read-heavy workloads.
Also, because MCP servers can connect to multiple underlying sources, you can create composite services. For instance, a “storefront MCP server” might aggregate product info, pricing, and reviews from three different internal APIs but present a unified interface to AI.
Strategically, think about which domains of your business to expose via MCP and how to architect those endpoints for reliability. Areas like product catalog, inventory, and orders are obvious, but you might also consider content (blogs, size guides), store policies (for Q&A), or even third-party data like shipping carrier updates.
To prepare for MCP, you’ll likely need to allocate developer time and possibly upskill your team. The good news is MCP is designed to be developer-friendly. There are open SDKs and even AI models that assist in creating MCP connectors.
But you’ll want your devs to understand how to build and maintain MCP servers and how to work with AI clients. This might involve learning some new patterns (asynchronous messaging, JSON-RPC protocols, etc.) and also new testing strategies (for example, testing not just the API output but how an AI uses that output in context).
Consider identifying internal “champions” or a small task force that can experiment with MCP prototypes now. That experience will be invaluable as you scale up. Additionally, keep an eye on vendor roadmaps: if you use a commerce platform like Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, etc., find out how they are supporting MCP.
Whether it’s selecting a new e-commerce module, a CRM, or even a logistics system, ask vendors how they enable AI integration. A solution that provides an MCP interface (or at least a well-documented API that could be wrapped in an MCP server) will be easier to fi t into your ecosystem.
If you use a headless or composable approach, you might even choose specialist MCP middleware that sits between AI services and your microservices, translating as needed.
The bottom line is that aligning with the MCP trend in your vendor choices will reduce friction later. Service integrators and agencies are also ramping up expertise in this area; if you work with outside developers, ensure they are aware of MCP and can help you design for it.
The team at LinearCommerce is your best bet at that. Hit the link above.