AI shopping agents with merchant and cart controls

# AI shopping agents with merchant and cart controls

> Shopping agents can buy on behalf of a user without becoming an unrestricted card. Conto caps cart size, restricts categories, and routes larger checkouts to approval at transaction time.

- Human URL: https://conto.finance/industries/commerce
- Raw Markdown: https://conto.finance/industries/commerce.md
- Terminal view: https://conto.finance/ai/industries/commerce

## Workflow

### 1. Agent builds the cart

The shopping agent chooses a merchant, assembles the order, and submits the purchase with category and amount context.

### 2. Conto checks merchant and spend policy

When the transaction is requested, Conto weighs it against your spend categories, cart limits, and trusted-merchant rules.

### 3. Approved purchases settle cleanly

Routine purchases at approved merchants clear. Oversized carts, off-hour activity, or unexpected categories are blocked or held.

## Controls

### Cart-size caps

Set hard boundaries on how much the shopping agent can commit in a single purchase.

### Merchant and category policy

Limit autonomous buying to the merchants and categories that make sense for the workflow.

### Time-window rules

Prevent off-hour purchasing if the workflow should only operate during certain windows.

### Approval for edge cases

Let humans review unusual carts or new merchants without slowing down standard purchases.

## Outcomes

- AI shopping flows can stay autonomous without exposing an unrestricted payment method.
- Procurement and security teams see merchant drift before it becomes spend leakage.
- Approved buying paths stay fast for end users.

## Related Solutions

- [autonomous-procurement](https://conto.finance/solutions/autonomous-procurement)
- [vendor-and-counterparty-controls](https://conto.finance/solutions/vendor-and-counterparty-controls)
- [approval-routing](https://conto.finance/solutions/approval-routing)