Introducing Companion: Ask Your Store, Get an Answer

Companion: Your store, but smarter

Running an online store means answering a hundred small questions a day. What’s the current free shipping rule? How did last weekend's promo do? Which order still needs to go out? How do I set my tax zones?

No matter the question, the answer almost certainly lives in your control panel. But having the information itself isn’t the tough part. It’s making that information accessible.

Meet Companion: the AI assistant built into the BigCommerce platform that answers your queries in the context of your store, navigates you to the right place in the control panel, and guides you through your task to an answer.

Online stores are rife with data, yet so much of it is inaccessible. We built Companion for this exact predicament. With Companion, you can ask a question in plain language. From there, Companion answers in the context of your store. Ask where something lives and it takes you there instead of describing the route. Ask how to do a task and it stays with you until it’s done.

Convenience shouldn’t be kept behind a wall, so Companion comes included with your BigCommerce store at no additional cost, in free trials and paid plans alike. And there’s nothing to install. Log in, look for Companion in your control panel, and start asking.

Now, let’s take a closer look at why we built it, and what it means for your business.

Why a built-in assistant, and why now

Every business is inundated with tasks big and small. And, as luck would have it, most store owners are already reaching for AI. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that 58% of small businesses now use generative AI, up from 40% a year earlier. 

While the habit of using AI is growing, the context is a critical, missing piece in the equation. For example, a general tool can explain what a shipping zone is, but it can’t see your specific shipping zones, open the right page, or tell you how many packages your store sent out last Tuesday. So while a general tool might provide support, it’s still requiring context shifting on your part.

Companion closes that gap by living where the work happens. It knows which page you’re on, what you can do there, and what your store looks like. The end result is you get responses and assistance that align with your business, as opposed to the generic advice a pre-AI tool would deliver. And because it operates within the same window, it doesn’t require all the context shifting and hopping around most general tools do.

Before Companion: A Tuesday at Peony Row

Meet Peony Row, a small home goods shop run by its founder, Dana. Dana moved the store to BigCommerce over the summer and knows her business inside and out. But, the control panel is still new territory, meaning she can’t fully benefit from the knowledge it contains.

On a typical Tuesday, a customer emails to ask whether orders over $75 ship free. Dana’s fairly sure that rule exists, but confirming it means opening three menus, backing out of two, and finally searching the Help Centre. What should be a 30-second question, turns into a time-consuming detour.

Next, Dana wants to know whether last weekend's Fall Refresh promotion moved anything. That means building a report, which feels like a real undertaking, so the task slides to “later.” Then an order needs to be marked shipped, which is another trip through the menus. None of these tasks is hard. Yet, with their powers combined, they could easily consume her entire morning.

After Companion: The same Tuesday

With Companion open in the side panel, Dana types, “Take me to my shipping settings.” Companion opens the page. The conversation carries over, so Dana follows up: “Do I have a free shipping rule for orders over $75?” The answer comes back in the context of Peony Row's actual settings, and Dana gets a clear reply, which she can pass along to the customer.

Next, she asks “How did the Fall Refresh promo perform compared to last week?” Companion turns the store's existing analytics into an on-demand chart with the period-over-period comparison already in it. No report to build, no export to wrangle. Dana reads the answer and moves on.

Finally: “Update order 4127 to shipped.” Companion shows exactly what will change and waits for Dana to approve before anything is applied. 

Same tasks, same Tuesday, and Dana never left the control panel or stopped to hunt. What previously took up her entire morning, is now a quick series of exchanges within the same screen.

What Companion does today

Your business needs support today. So, rather than focus on hypotheticals, let’s look specifically at what Companion can do today, not in the future. 

It takes you there. 

Ask where something lives and Companion navigates you to the right area of the control panel, then keeps the conversation going once you arrive, so you can act right away. No shifting screens, just immediate access to whatever it is you’re looking for.

It knows your store. 

Companion understands which page you’re on and what’s capable from that page. Then, it answers in the context of your store and the page itself. Guidance fits your business and your current task, unlike some generic version of it.

It guides you to done.

For everyday work across catalogue, orders, promotions, shipping, and payments, Companion walks you through step-by-step,  allowing you to get unstuck and reach value faster.

It answers in plain language. 

Ask how your store is performing and Companion shows your data as charts, with comparisons across time periods, using the analytics you already have. No jargon, just plain language that’s grounded in BigCommerce’s own documentation and your store’s actual data.

It fits how you work.

Companion sits in a persistent, unobtrusive panel beside your work, staying out of the way until you need it. Help is always a sentence away, without interrupting anything you’re doing.

Companion: Keeping you in control

Companion is here to help you, not take over. While it guides you and helps you act in a more efficient manner, it’s not running your store on its own.

Before Companion changes anything, such as an order status, it previews the change, waits for your approval, and re-checks the order in case something shifted while you made a decision. It also works within the signed-in user's permissions, so it can only see and change what your account can.

For a solo founder like Dana, that means the confidence to try things. For a growing team, it means a new hire can ask “where do I” questions on day one and get help that’s tailored to exactly what they’re allowed to do.

Part of a bigger shift

Companion is the piece of BigCommerce's agentic commerce work that you’ll use every day. We first shared it at Commerce Live earlier this year, alongside capabilities for getting your products discovered on AI shopping surfaces, conversational storefront experiences, and MCP tools for developers. Those help your store reach and sell. Companion helps you run it.

Companion is also still growing. New capabilities ship regularly, and you can ask Companion itself what’s new if you ever have any questions. We’ll keep describing what it can do today in plain terms, and we’ll keep you posted as that list gets longer.

Real-world Companion use cases

Companion isn’t a hypothetical, but something with real-world use cases right out of the gate. Not sure where to start with Companion?

Here are a few prompts to try:

• “Take me to my shipping settings.”

• “How do I set up my tax zones?”

• “How is my store performing this month?”

• “Update this order to fulfilled.”

• “What's new in Companion?”

Keep in mind that this is only a handful of the ways Companion can help you streamline workflows, gain insights, and take more off your crowded plate.

The final word

Your control panel contains a wealth of data and information. With Companion, you can easily access all of it, when you need it most. Best of all, it’s easy to access and start utilising right away.

If you’re already on BigCommerce, simply log in and look for Companion in your control panel. If you’re not already on BigCommerce and curious what Companion would look like, operating within your store, request a demo today.

Or, start a free trial and check it out for yourself. Companion is included from day one. See what it’s like to ask your store anything, and get the answers you’re looking for with Companion.