Human handoff is how an AgenticCart storefront hands a shopper to a real person when the AI should step aside. The shopper leaves their email in a short contact form, you get notified, and you reply by email straight from the dashboard's Inbox. The AI sells; it does not trap people - and for shoppers, knowing a human is reachable is precisely what makes an AI storefront trustworthy.
When the contact form appears
The storefront offers the form in four situations - three automatic, one manual:
- The shopper asks for a person. "Can I talk to someone?" in any supported language opens the form instead of a deflection.
- The assistant cannot answer. When a question is beyond the catalog and store knowledge, the storefront offers the human route rather than guessing.
- A purchase is blocked. If a shopper wants to buy but checkout cannot complete, losing them silently is the worst outcome - the form catches exactly that moment.
- The shopper opens it themselves. The contact option is always reachable in the storefront, without needing a trigger.
What the shopper sees
- A short form: email (required), an optional name, and their message - prefilled with context from the conversation where it helps.
- The form renders in the shopper's language (24 languages), including the consent line.
- A consent line stating that the store may contact them about their enquiry. The exact wording and time of consent are stored with the request - not just a checkbox flag - so consent stays verifiable later.
What you receive, and how you reply
- A notification email with the shopper's message, email, and the reason the handoff was triggered. It goes to the address you set under "Send contact requests to" in the storefront studio - or to your account email if you have not set one.
- The conversation lands in your Inbox (dashboard), marked as waiting, with the shopper's name and country. The full chat history sits right there, so you see what the shopper already asked before writing a reply.
- You reply from the Inbox. The reply editor supports bold, italics, lists and links; your answer reaches the shopper as an email branded with your store's name, and the shopper can answer it directly - their reply goes to your address, not through AgenticCart.
- Handled requests leave the waiting list automatically once you have replied; conversations can also be archived and restored.
Turning it on
- Open the storefront studio for the agent and enable Human handoff.
- Optionally set "Send contact requests to" if notifications should go somewhere other than your account email - a shared support address, for example.
- That is all. The triggers, languages and consent handling work without further configuration.
Good practice
- Reply from the Inbox, not from memory: the conversation context is attached there, and the reply is recorded with the conversation.
- Only contact shoppers about their enquiry. The consent covers the enquiry - it is not a newsletter opt-in, and the notification email says so.
- Watch the waiting counter. A handoff is a shopper at their most convertible moment - they asked for you by name. Speed matters more here than anywhere else in the funnel.
Next steps
See customizing your agent for the other storefront studio controls, and hosted chat for where the storefront lives. If you have not enabled the storefront yet, start with the quickstart.