Install & the setup guide

After you install the app, a 5-step setup guide opens. It takes you from an empty install to live widgets. Most stores finish in less than one hour.

Before you start

Install PersonalizerAI from the Shopify App Store. When you open the app for the first time, the setup guide starts on its own. The guide saves your progress after every step, so you can leave and return at any time.

• Click Back to return to the previous step.
• Click Skip for now at the top of any step to exit the guide. A Resume setup button then waits on the Home screen.
• Every choice in the guide can change later in the app. Nothing is final.
• If you get stuck, click Book free onboarding help under any step.

Step 1 — Get started

This step syncs your catalog and asks you to agree to how PersonalizerAI learns from your store. The app syncs your products into its search and recommendation engine. Small catalogs finish in about one minute. Larger catalogs take a few minutes.

1. Click Start catalog sync, if the sync has not started on its own.
2. Read What you're agreeing to. PersonalizerAI trains recommendation models for your store only, on your catalog, orders, and storefront browsing.
3. When the sync finishes, click Agree and get started.

If your store has no products, the guide stops here. Add products in your Shopify admin, then click Re-sync. If the sync fails, click Retry sync.

Change later: Data sync settings in the PersonalizerAI dashboard.

Step 1 — sync your catalog and agree to how the app learns from it.

Step 2 — Style

This step decides which theme receives your widgets and how they look. If your store has one obvious theme, the guide selects it and shows Styling for with the theme's name. Click Change to pick a different theme, for example a draft theme for testing.

The app reads the colors and corner radius in your theme's settings and matches the widgets to them. A preview shows a "You may also like" row on a product page, with your own products, prices, and font. Switch between Desktop and Mobile to check both.

1. Wait until the message "Theme matched!" appears.
2. Check the preview.
3. Optional: click Let me customize to adjust colors, type, and layout.
4. Click Looks good — continue.

If the app can't read enough of your theme's settings, it offers preset styles instead. Pick a preset, or try detection again.

Change later: the Design tab on the Widgets screen. See Style your widgets.

Step 2 — the app matches the widget style to your theme and shows it on your own products.

Step 3 — Search

This step decides which search features are on and which filters shoppers see. The app detects the filters from your catalog. You can also try search on your own catalog.

1. Type a query in the preview box, or click one of the suggested searches under Try. Results update as you type, as they do for shoppers.
2. Press Enter to see the full search a shopper gets when they submit.
3. Review the switches under Search features. AI query understanding and Semantic search start on the Starter plan and say so. You can still switch them on — the setting is saved and starts working the day your plan includes it.
4. Review the filters under Search filters.
5. Click Save and continue.

If you do not want to set up search now, click Continue without search. Nothing is saved in that case.

Step 3 — try search on your catalog and choose the search features.

Step 4 — Add to your theme

This step does two things, in order. First it switches PersonalizerAI on in your theme. Then you place widgets on your key pages.

1. Under Turn on PersonalizerAI in your theme, click Turn on in theme editor. The theme editor opens with PersonalizerAI ready under App embeds.
2. In the theme editor, click Save, top right, then return to the guide. The card shows PersonalizerAI is on in this theme.
3. Under Place widgets on your pages, click Place in theme editor on a page: Product page, Homepage, or Cart page. A small drawing shows where the widget goes.
4. In the theme editor, position the widget and click Save.
5. Return to the guide and wait until the badge shows Placed.
6. Repeat for the other pages, then click Continue.

The app checks each step against the saved theme. If a badge shows Not detected, check that you clicked Save in the theme editor. To continue you need PersonalizerAI switched on and at least one widget placed. To skip placing widgets, click I'll place widgets later — but the app must still be switched on in your theme before you can launch.

Change later: the Widgets screen.

Step 4 — switch the app on in your theme and place a widget on each key page.

Step 5 — Go live

This step reviews your setup and marks it complete. It shows your plan and a Pre-launch checklist. Launching does not switch your storefront on or off: what you set up in Steps 2 to 4 shows to shoppers as soon as PersonalizerAI is switched on in your published theme, even before you launch.

• Your plan. Every new store starts on the Free plan — no credit card is required. If you switched on anything your plan does not run, the step names it under "What the Free plan doesn't run", with the plan it starts on. Click Change plan to upgrade. Staying on Free is a normal choice.
• Required to go live. Model training terms accepted, catalog synced, conversion tracking active, a plan selected, and the storefront embed enabled. Launch PersonalizerAI stays off until all of these are done.
• Recommended. Theme selected, widget styles, search, widgets placed, and models enabled. These help, but they do not block launch.

1. Fix any required item that shows an action button.
2. Click Launch PersonalizerAI.
3. When You're live! appears, use the Next steps cards to preview your store, place more widgets, or add search synonyms.

Not ready yet? Click I'll launch later.

See Launch checklist & app health for what each checklist item means, and Choose a plan to compare plans.

Step 5 — your plan, the pre-launch checklist, and the launch button.