Krepling · Internal Strategy · July 7, 2026

The Kora Play — Shopify App Strategy

The Two-Layer Strategy
What Shopify Sees
A thin app that registers your store with Kora
  • Installs in one click — no config, no dashboard to maintain
  • Registers the store URL with the Krepling backend
  • Grants Kora read-only access to the store's product catalog
  • Customers call a Twilio phone number to shop by voice — Kora answers
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What We Actually Build
A Krepling-branded catalog pipeline to every AI platform
  • Shopify's feed is generic — ours carries Krepling branding in the product data
  • ChatGPT / OpenAI, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot — Shopify covers these but with no merchant identity; we add our own layer
  • Amazon Shop Direct — 400K+ merchants, no Amazon seller account needed
  • Grok/X — ads in Grok responses; no merchant program exists yet; first-mover
  • Meta AI — Instagram/Facebook shopping, outside Shopify's scope
  • WooCommerce already works — Kora is live on shop2.dev.krepling.com
Shopify App
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Krepling Backend
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Kora AI Gateway
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Customer's Phone
registers store with Krepling backend
fetches products.json — no custom plugin
Nova Sonic / Gemini + Twilio Media Streams
voice call + SMS checkout link
Why This Works
Clean Approval Path
Kora is a Krepling product — a voice AI customers reach by phone call. Shopify has no Kora integration, no claim on it, and no reason to reject an app that powers it. A phone number is as far from Agentic Storefronts as you can get.
Data Unlocks Everything
Once we have authorized access to a merchant's products.json, the same feed powers Kora phone calls today and every gap platform — Amazon Shop Direct, Grok, Meta AI — the moment those channels open.
Genuine Moat
Shopify covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity. We cover what they don't. Kora on WooCommerce is already live — the Shopify app extends the same engine, not a new one.
What we tell Shopify — Kora only
Kora (phone call)
What we actually build — all platforms, Krepling-branded
ChatGPT / OpenAI Google Gemini Perplexity Claude Copilot Amazon Shop Direct Grok / X Meta AI WooCommerce
Why We Can't Just Say "AI Discoverability"
"We already do this. Shopify's Agentic Storefronts syndicates every merchant's catalog to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and Perplexity — automatically, for free, with no third-party app required. Your app duplicates built-in platform functionality and will not be approved."
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"We feed products into ChatGPT" Shopify already does this natively via Agentic Storefronts. Launched March 2026, on by default for all eligible US merchants. No app needed.
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"We feed products into Perplexity" Shopify has a dedicated Perplexity partnership. Merchant catalogs sync automatically. Shopify published a blog post specifically about it.
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"We feed products into Google AI / Gemini" Also covered by Agentic Storefronts. Same channel that handles ChatGPT covers Google AI Mode and Gemini. Already built in.
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"We feed products into Claude / Copilot" Both covered. Claude via the Shopify AI Toolkit MCP connector. Microsoft Copilot via Agentic Storefronts. Shopify owns these integrations natively.
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"We improve AI discoverability via llms.txt and structured data" Already a saturated app category. Dozens of existing Shopify apps — SEO King, TinySEO, Schema Plus, JsonLD for SEO, and others — already generate llms.txt, optimize product schema markup, and improve how AI crawlers index merchant storefronts. Shopify's own SEO toolkit covers the basics natively. An app in this space would be rejected as redundant in a crowded category.
The Only Safe Framing
The app powers Kora — customers call a phone number to shop by voice
Kora is not ChatGPT. It's not Perplexity. It's not any platform Shopify already integrates with. It's Krepling's proprietary AI voice product, reachable by phone call via Twilio. The app's stated job is simple: register the merchant with Kora and share the product catalog so Kora can answer customer calls. Shopify has no Kora integration, no telephone channel, and no basis to reject this. Once inventory access is approved, that same catalog data flows to every platform Shopify ignores — the ones they can't reject us for because they've never even announced support.
Agentic Checkout Expansion
Phase 1 — Ships with App
Kora builds a checkout URL and texts or emails it to the caller
  • During the call, Kora assembles the cart from items discussed
  • Generates a Shopify checkout URL via the Orders / Checkouts API
  • Sends the link by SMS or email before the call ends — caller taps and pays
  • Gives the app a clear, reviewable reason for requesting order management scope
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Phase 2 — Full Krepling Agentic Checkout
Kora completes the purchase entirely — no link, no redirect
  • Order management permission is already approved from Phase 1
  • Kora creates the order and charges the customer's saved payment method
  • Merchant gets a confirmed order; customer gets a confirmation — call is the full checkout
  • True agentic commerce: voice in, fulfilled order out