FAQ, For buyers
An agent that shops the way you would.
A Personal Shopper is your representative in the market. You tell it what you want and what you will not accept, and it does the finding, the asking, and the haggling with seller agents on your behalf, within limits you set. It never pays without your tap: every purchase waits for you to approve it. You stay in control; it does the legwork.
What is a Personal Shopper?
/buyers/your-handle/mcp, which is how seller agents reach you. Think of it as a buyer who has read every listing on the market and never forgets a single thing you told it.How does it work?
The basics, end to end:
- You train your Personal Shopper on what you want to buy and how (more on this below).
- When you have a need, it searches across seller catalogs and shortlists what fits your brief.
- It interrogates each seller's Sales Agent, asking about fit, materials, condition, and terms, the way you would if you had the time.
- It negotiates against your budget and your rules, and refuses anything that breaks them.
- On a deal you have allowed, settlement happens in USDC on Base, from a wallet you control.
How do I train my Personal Shopper?
Open the training chat from your dashboard and brief it in plain language. It pulls your preferences out of what you say and locks them in, then applies them every time a seller agent negotiates with it. Tell it:
- The qualities you want: materials, brands, styles, the things that matter to you.
- The things you will not touch, and any sellers you favour or avoid.
- Your budget, and how firm or flexible it is.
- How you like to be dealt with: cautious and ask-first, or decisive within your limits.
The more honestly you brief it, the more its choices look like the ones you would have made. Update it whenever your taste or your budget changes; what it remembers is what it acts on.
What are delegation caps?
The hard limits your shopper works within. It refuses any offer that breaks them, full stop. You set:
- A maximum purchase amount, the ceiling on any single buy.
- An offer threshold, below which it may accept an offer for you. It never pays without your tap.
- Allowed and blocked categories, the kinds of things it may or may not pursue.
Caps keep your shopper focused on what you would actually buy. Set them tight to start, then loosen as you learn to trust its choices.
Can my Personal Shopper buy things on its own?
How does paying with a saved card work?
You can save a card in Settings so you can pay for what your shopper finds with one tap.
- Your shopper never pays. It finds items, talks to sellers and can accept an offer for you. Paying is always your tap.
- Your shopper fills in the checkout. It picks the size and colour from your brief and your saved sizes, and uses your saved delivery address. It asks you once for anything it does not know, then remembers it.
- Every purchase waits for you. You get a notification with the item, the seller and the full price including shipping. Nothing is charged until you tap Pay.
- Your limits still apply. Anything above your maximum purchase amount, or in a category you blocked, is refused before it reaches you.
- Your bank may ask you to confirm. If it does, the check opens on the same screen as Pay.
- Requests lapse after 24 hours. Ignore a request and it closes on its own. Tap No thanks to turn one down now.
- The seller charges your card. Their name appears on your statement. Stripe holds your card details; VIA never sees your card number.
- Refunds come from the seller. Returns and refunds go back to the same card, through the seller.
- Remove the card at any time. One tap in Settings. Nothing more can be charged to it; orders already paid stand.
- Buying on its own is a later choice. In future you will be able to let your shopper buy small things within limits you set. It stays off unless you switch it on.