How Commerce7 wineries can deploy a recommendation experience in under a week

For most winery marketing teams, "adding a new feature to the store" conjures images of developer sprints, staging environments, and weeks of back-and-forth before anything is live. Deploying a personalised recommendation experience doesn't have to work that way.

This article walks through what's actually involved in connecting Sommelis to a Commerce7 store — from the initial API integration to brand configuration and going live with real customers.

Step 1: Commerce7 API access

Sommelis connects to your Commerce7 store through the standard Commerce7 REST API. You'll need to create a Private App in your Commerce7 dashboard and share the credentials with us. This is a five-minute task that your team can handle without any development work.

Once connected, Sommelis pulls your live product catalogue — titles, descriptions, pricing, inventory availability, and any custom attributes you've configured. This sync happens automatically going forward; you don't need to push updates.

Step 2: catalogue enrichment

Commerce7 product data is optimised for a sales catalogue, not necessarily for a recommendation engine. During onboarding, we review your products and apply a layer of wine-specific metadata: flavour profile classification, occasion tags, food pairing associations, and gift suitability indicators.

For most wine catalogues (under 100 SKUs), this takes one to two business days. For larger ranges, we may spread it across three days. This is handled by the Sommelis team — you review and approve, but you don't do the data work.

Step 3: brand configuration

Sommelis inherits your brand identity. We configure:

• Colour palette — primary and accent colours from your brand guide
• Typography — matching your storefront font stack
• Sommelier tone — from formal and precise to conversational and warm
• Welcome messaging — the opening line your virtual sommelier uses to greet visitors
• Recommendation card layout — how your wine information is presented

We share a preview for your sign-off before anything goes near your live site.

Step 4: deployment

Putting Sommelis live on your Commerce7 storefront is a one-line change. We provide a script tag that you (or your developer) paste into your storefront template. It loads asynchronously and has no impact on your page's existing performance characteristics.

No database changes. No backend work. No Commerce7 app submission process. It's a frontend embed — as simple as adding a live chat widget or an analytics pixel.

Step 5: QA and go-live

Before going live, we run a structured QA process: testing all recommendation pathways, verifying that out-of-stock products are correctly excluded, confirming cart integration works end-to-end, and reviewing the experience on mobile and desktop.

Most wineries are live within five business days of sharing their Commerce7 credentials. For partners who have worked with us before, it can be as fast as three days.

What comes after

Once live, Sommelis runs without ongoing maintenance. Catalogue updates sync automatically. You have access to a simple dashboard showing recommendation volume, acceptance rates, and attributed revenue.

We also include a 30-day check-in call as part of onboarding — reviewing the early data and making any adjustments to the recommendation logic based on what we observe.