iHerb

iHerb × 42a · scenario guide

What this demo does, and how to run it

Nineteen scenarios across five acts. For each one: the sentence to say, what happens underneath, what to look for, and which tools ran. Everything below works against iHerb’s real catalog — there is no scripted path and no mock data.

1,138real products, real prices
44,278products in the search index
267brands
89with iHerb’s own review summary
43tools on the connector

Before you start — two minutes

  1. Add the connector: https://iherb-advisor.demos.42a.ai/mcp?token=iherb_user_demo in ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor. The token IS the shopper — any name gives that person their own cart, wishlist, standing orders and history, and iherb_user_demo is the seeded customer, Dana.
  2. The store is already connected. This deployment ships pointed at iherb.com, so widgets render and flows resolve on the very first call — there is nothing to configure first.
  3. Prefer a browser? /preview is the on-site advisor standalone, and /playground runs any tool for real and shows the JSON beside the widget.
  4. Watch it happen: /journeys is the customer-facing view of every conversation, /dashboard is the operator console.
01

Finding the right thing

The hard part of a supplement catalog is that shoppers describe a PROBLEM and the shelf is labelled with a MOLECULE. Nothing in this catalog is called “trouble sleeping”.

“I keep waking up at 3am and nothing I have tried works
What happens
The search layer expands the symptom into the ingredients that address it — melatonin, magnesium glycinate, valerian, L-theanine — and ranks real products for each. The phrase itself appears in no product name in the catalog.
What you see
A product grid of three or four different mechanisms, not four melatonins. Each card carries its price per serving and how long one pack lasts.
Why iHerb wants it
The query that used to return nothing is the query with the highest intent in the whole log.
search_productsbuild_regimen
“Which of these is actually better value?
What happens
Ranks by price per SERVING, not by sticker price, and says how much the best option saves per dose. A 240-count at $23.99 is 10¢ a day; a 60-count at $9.99 is 17¢.
What you see
The same products re-ordered, a “best value” marker, and a line reading e.g. “14¢ per serving cheaper than the most expensive option here”.
Why iHerb wants it
iHerb’s own listing prints the price and the count and leaves the division to the shopper. Doing it for them moves the basket up a size.
compare_value
“Is the Doctor’s Best magnesium any good? What do people complain about?
What happens
Reads iHerb’s own summary of its own customer reviews, live from iherb.com at the moment of the call — including the drawbacks.
What you see
A summary in iHerb’s words, with the criticism intact (“the tablets are large, which some find difficult to swallow”). It is labelled as a review summary, not as a product description.
Why iHerb wants it
The objection a shopper does not raise is the one that becomes a return.
what_customers_say
“I am vegan and I cannot take anything with gelatin
What happens
Records the constraint. From here on, everything containing it is excluded from recommendations and regimens OUTRIGHT — before ranking, so nothing popular can slip past it.
What you see
A confirmation naming what will be excluded, and every later result respecting it.
Why iHerb wants it
A recommendation that ignores a stated allergy is not a bad recommendation, it is a liability.
set_preferencesshop_by_diet
“What is on special today?
What happens
Returns everything discounted, deepest cut first — and labels WHICH of iHerb’s four programmes each one is: a struck price, a Special, Trial Pricing or Clearance.
What you see
A grid where every card carries a badge naming the offer. Nothing without one is claimed to be on offer.
Why iHerb wants it
Clearance and short-dated stock move when someone knows they exist.
list_deals
02

Building the basket

From a list of products to a basket iHerb would actually ship.

“Add the magnesium and the melatonin
What happens
Adds both to the cart at iHerb's real prices, and reports the gap to free shipping ($30 in the US, $5.99 below it) plus the Loyalty Credit the order will earn.
What you see
The cart widget: line prices, a free-shipping progress bar, and “this order earns $X in Loyalty Credit”.
add_to_cartview_cart
“How much more do I need for free shipping?
What happens
Answers with the gap, and suggests products priced JUST OVER it that the shopper plausibly wants — rather than the cheapest filler in the catalog.
What you see
The gap, and three or four suggestions. If the gap is large, the assistant says plainly that spending $18 to save $5.99 only makes sense if you want the product.
Why iHerb wants it
The threshold is the single most-quoted number on iHerb, and closing the gap is the cheapest AOV there is.
fill_free_shippingestimate_shipping
“I am in Israel, not the US
What happens
Re-quotes shipping for that destination. iHerb ships to 180+ countries and the free-shipping threshold is not the same in each — $30 in the US, $60 to most others.
What you see
The threshold, the gap and the delivery window for that country.
Why iHerb wants it
Most of iHerb’s volume is not American, and quoting the US number at everyone is wrong for most of the customers who ask.
estimate_shipping
“Check out
What happens
Hands the basket to iherb.com. It NEVER charges — no order is placed and no payment is taken.
What you see
A branded handoff page carrying every line, its real iHerb product link and the real total. The page says plainly that this basket lives with the assistant, not in the iHerb cart, because iHerb exposes no way to write into it.
checkout
03

The programmes that make iHerb money

Four things iHerb runs that a chat can sell better than a product page can, because each of them is an argument rather than a button.

“I take one a day — set that up so I do not run out
What happens
Puts the product on Autoship & Save at 5% off every shipment, at an interval computed FROM THE PACK: 240 tablets at one a day is eight months, so it ships every 12 weeks rather than every 4.
What you see
The schedule, the per-shipment price, and what the standing order saves over a year.
Why iHerb wants it
A subscription is the whole LTV argument. Offering an interval that ships eight bottles nobody needs is how you lose it in month two.
setup_autoshiplist_autoship
“How much credit do I have?
What happens
Reports the unspent Loyalty Credit balance, what the current cart will earn (5% of every order), and the shopper’s own referral code.
What you see
The balance, the earn on this basket, and the annual saving from any standing orders.
Why iHerb wants it
Credit only retains anyone if they know they have it. It is never spent without being asked.
check_rewardsapply_loyalty_credit
“I have never ordered from you before
What happens
Offers the one-time Rewards welcome set — the four things almost everyone is actually short of, at a members-only discount.
What you see
A bundle widget with the starter set and the combined price. No free gift is claimed, because iHerb does not give one.
Why iHerb wants it
The first order is the only one that decides whether there is a second.
claim_welcome_offer
“Is there a cheaper version of this?
What happens
Surfaces iHerb’s own labels — California Gold Nutrition and the rest — which are typically cheaper per serving than the national brand of the same thing.
What you see
iHerb Brands products, said plainly to BE iHerb’s own.
Why iHerb wants it
Own-label carries the margin that pays for the free shipping. The honest framing is also the persuasive one.
list_iherb_brandscompare_value
04

Coming back

Supplements are a repeat purchase. Running out is the normal failure mode, and it is arithmetic.

“Am I running low on anything?
What happens
Works out from each pack’s serving count and the date it was bought roughly what should have run out by now.
What you see
“Your magnesium ran out about a week ago” — not a list of past orders. Anything due is offered on Autoship so it does not happen again.
Why iHerb wants it
The reorder nobody remembers to place is the revenue nobody counts as lost.
reordersetup_autoship
“Send this to my partner so they can order it
What happens
Mints a shareable regimen list with a public link. Whoever opens it can shop it.
What you see
A branded, read-only page with the products and a real link. It carries no personal details.
create_gift_listadd_to_gift_listview_gift_list
“(then open the on-site advisor at /preview)
What happens
The site recognises the shopper from the ChatGPT conversation and opens where it left off — same identity, same thread, across channels.
What you see
A greeting that refers to what was actually discussed, and the same products again. The Journeys page shows both channels as one journey.
Why iHerb wants it
A shopper who researched in ChatGPT and arrives as a stranger is a conversion iHerb paid for and then dropped.
/assist/welcome/assist/history
05

The operator’s side

Everything above is configurable from the console at /dashboard, and none of it is code. This is the half that makes it a product rather than a chatbot.

“Promote the LactoBif probiotics with 20% off
What happens
Sets a personalised promotion that rides on EVERY product search as a banner, and counts its impressions and the adds it drove.
What you see
The banner on the next search, and its CTR on the console’s Promotions page.
Why iHerb wants it
Merchandising the assistant is the merchandising surface nobody has yet.
merchant_set_bannermerchant_get_banner
“(open /dashboard → Search)
What happens
Six weights, a push list, a hide list and a live preview that shows WHY each result ranked where it did — plus the log of what shoppers searched for, including everything that returned nothing.
What you see
The zero-result list. It is a to-do list written by customers: every line is someone who wanted something and was told there is nothing.
Why iHerb wants it
Assortment gaps and demand signals, for free, from traffic you already have.
/dashboard/search/dashboard/searches
“(open /dashboard → Journeys)
What happens
Shows every conversation as a journey: what the customer asked in their own words, which tools ran for them, and what came back.
What you see
One card per chat, a turn per goal, the calls underneath each turn. This is why every tool takes a required `shopping_goal`.
/journeys/dashboard/data
“(open /dashboard/flows-app)
What happens
The flow editor. Flows are the execution model, not a config layer: the graph IS the behaviour, and a store node is the only way a flow touches commerce.
What you see
Edit a flow, publish it, and the next tool call takes the new path. /playground runs any tool for real and shows the JSON beside the widget.
/dashboard/flows-app/playground

A 42a demo, not affiliated with iHerb. Every product, price, photo, rating, review count and review summary is read from iherb.com itself — what iHerb does not publish is left out rather than invented. The cart and orders run in a sandbox: nothing here ever charges anyone. This is general product information and not medical advice.
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