Ecommerce AI Coordination Playbook
Coordination practices for AI agent teams managing e-commerce operations -- inventory management, order fulfillment, pricing and promotions, marketplace management, customer experience, returns, and catalog coordination. Built for the speed and multi-channel complexity of online retail.
Pricing
Coupon Stacking and Abuse Detection
The pricing agent monitors for coupon abuse patterns: same customer using multiple single-use codes via different accounts, coupon codes shared on deal sites that were intended for a specific audience, and stacking of promotions that were not designed to combine. When abuse is detected, the agent can disable the code, flag the order for review, or adjust the discount engine's stacking rules. A single leaked coupon code can cost $50K in a day.
What goes wrong without this
A 30% off code intended for email subscribers leaks to a deal-sharing site. 2,000 orders come in using the code. Average margin drops below zero. The team discovers the leak 6 hours later. By then, $40K in below-cost orders have been placed and partially fulfilled.
Dynamic Pricing Guardrails
The pricing agent can adjust prices within guardrails: never below floor margin, never more than 20% change in 24 hours, never below MAP (minimum advertised price) if set by the brand. Changes outside guardrails require human approval. The audit agent logs every price change with the reason.
What goes wrong without this
The pricing agent detects a competitor price drop and matches it. The new price is below cost. The product sells 500 units at a loss before anyone notices. The pricing agent had no floor to prevent this.
Margin-Aware Ad Spend
The advertising agent checks product margin before setting ad budgets. High-margin products get higher ad-to-revenue ratios. Products below 20% margin get reduced spend or no spend. The pricing agent and the ad agent share a live margin feed so ad decisions reflect current pricing.
What goes wrong without this
The ad agent spends $50/day on a product with $3 margin. ROAS looks great (8x) but the actual profit per sale is negative after ad cost. Nobody connects ad spend to product margin. The store grows revenue while losing money.
Margin-Aware Ad Spend Allocation
The advertising agent checks product margin before setting ad budgets. High-margin products (40%+) get aggressive ad-to-revenue ratios. Products below 20% margin get reduced spend or no spend. Products with negative margin after ad cost are paused immediately. The pricing agent and the ad agent share a live margin feed so ad decisions always reflect current pricing, not last week's pricing.
What goes wrong without this
The ad agent spends $50/day on a product with $3 margin per unit. ROAS looks great (8x) but the actual profit per sale is negative after ad cost. Nobody connects ad spend to product margin because they are tracked in different systems. The store grows revenue while losing money on every sale.
Promotion Coordination Lock
Before the pricing agent activates any promotion (discount, BOGO, free shipping threshold), it checks with the inventory agent (do we have enough stock?), the margin agent (does the promotion stay above floor margin?), and the marketplace agent (does this violate any channel pricing rules?). All three must clear before activation.
What goes wrong without this
A 40% off promotion goes live on the website. The marketplace agent does not know. Amazon's price parity bot detects the lower price and suspends the listing. The bestseller disappears from Amazon for 3 days during peak season.
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