Commerce connect EaStateCartRepository requirement for automation plans

Question

In the commerce connect documentation it mentions use of the EaStateCartRepository and EaStateSqlBasedCartRepository for local persistence. But there is little information regarding if this is required should you wish to store user carts in Marketing Automation. If you wish to use Marketing Automation to store an abandoned cart for example, is the EaStateCartRepository still a requirement? Or is the logic to add a cart to an automation plan handled internally in the pipeline processors?

My initial understanding is that you still need the EaStateCartRepository and must add the relevant automation plan source to this repository for a cart to be added to an engagement plan in Marketing Automation, is this correct? If so, it seems that the EaStateCartRepository will ALWAYS be required, even though the documentation states to not use this repository in production.

Answer 1

I don't know all the details/history on EaStateCartRepository. But it looks the EaStateCartRepository is not enabled as the default settings from Sitecore Commerce 10.2 (Commerce Connect is part of it). At the same time, the abandoned cart engagement plan is still working. So I'd guess this storing a copy of the cart locally (with the corresponding config changes) are not mandatory for MA to work.