BigCommerce UCP Implementation Guide - AI Commerce Ready

Why Add UCP to BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is a leading enterprise eCommerce platform with powerful APIs and headless capabilities. Adding UCP support positions your store for AI-driven commerce and enables AI agents to discover and purchase products.

Powerful APIs: BigCommerce's REST and GraphQL APIs integrate naturally with UCP
Headless Ready: Perfect for headless commerce implementations
Multi-Storefront: Support multiple storefronts with separate UCP profiles
B2B Capabilities: Expose B2B pricing and catalogs to AI agents

🏢 Enterprise Feature BigCommerce's Script Manager and WebDAV access make UCP implementation straightforward without custom app development.

Implementation Methods

Method	Difficulty	Best For
WebDAV Upload	Easy	Quick setup, static profile
Stencil Theme	Medium	Dynamic profile from store data
Custom App	Advanced	Full control, enterprise needs

Method 1: WebDAV Upload (Easiest)

Upload your UCP profile directly to BigCommerce using WebDAV.

1Generate Your UCP Profile

Generate Your UCP Profile

Create a customized UCP profile for your BigCommerce store.

Open Generator →

2Get WebDAV Credentials

In your BigCommerce admin, go to Server Settings → File Access (WebDAV)
Note your WebDAV URL, username, and password

3Connect via WebDAV

Use a WebDAV client (Cyberduck, WinSCP, or Finder on Mac):

# WebDAV URL format
https://store-XXXXX.mybigcommerce.com/dav

# Or using command line
cadaver https://store-XXXXX.mybigcommerce.com/dav

4Upload UCP Profile

Navigate to the /content/ folder
Create a folder named .well-known
Upload your ucp.json file as ucp (no extension)

💡 File Path The final path should be: /content/.well-known/ucp

5Configure Server

BigCommerce serves files from /content/ at the root. Your UCP profile will be accessible at:

https://yourstore.com/.well-known/ucp

⚠️ Content Type If your file isn't served as JSON, you may need to create a redirect or use the Stencil method below.

Method 2: Stencil Theme

For dynamic UCP profiles that pull data from your store settings.

1Set Up Stencil CLI

# Install Stencil CLI
npm install -g @bigcommerce/stencil-cli

# Clone your theme
stencil init

2Create UCP Template

Create a new template file templates/pages/custom/ucp.html:

---
layout: false
---
{
    "profile_version": "1.0",
    "merchant": {
        "name": "{{settings.store_name}}",
        "url": "{{settings.base_url}}",
        "contact": {
            "email": "{{settings.store_email}}",
            "phone": "{{settings.store_phone}}"
        }
    },
    "capabilities": ["browse", "search"],
    "policies": {
        "returns_url": "{{settings.base_url}}/returns-policy/",
        "shipping_url": "{{settings.base_url}}/shipping/",
        "privacy_url": "{{settings.base_url}}/privacy-policy/"
    },
    "service_bindings": [
        {
            "type": "REST",
            "base_url": "https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{settings.store_hash}}/v3"
        }
    ]
}

3Add Route

In config.json, add a custom route:

{
  "routes": {
    "custom": {
      ".well-known/ucp": "pages/custom/ucp"
    }
  }
}

4Deploy Theme

# Bundle and push theme
stencil bundle
stencil push

BigCommerce API Integration

BigCommerce's APIs work well with UCP. Expose your API endpoints in the UCP profile for AI agents.

Useful API Endpoints

Endpoint	Purpose
`/v3/catalog/products`	Product catalog browsing
`/v3/catalog/categories`	Category navigation
`/v3/carts`	Shopping cart management
`/v3/checkouts`	Checkout process

💡 API Tokens For AI agents to use your API, you'll need to provide appropriate authentication. Consider creating read-only tokens for product discovery.

Validate Your Implementation

Validate Your BigCommerce Store

Check your UCP implementation and AI commerce readiness.

Run Validation →

Common Issues & Solutions

Issue	Solution
404 on `/.well-known/ucp`	Check WebDAV file path or Stencil route config
Wrong content type	Use Stencil with `layout: false` for JSON response
CDN caching issues	Purge CDN cache after uploading new profile
CORS errors	BigCommerce handles CORS for content files automatically

🛍️ BigCommerce UCP Implementation