Build an Online Shop With AI in a Weekend: 5 Prompts, Card Payments and No Platform Fee

Internet sales were 28.8% of all UK retail sales in August 2026, the Office for National Statistics reported in September, and the share has not fallen below a quarter since the pandemic. The maker, the baker and the shop with a loyal local following all know they need a shop online. What stops them is the bill: Shopify's Basic plan is £25 a month plus 2% and 25p on every card payment, Etsy takes 6.5% of each sale plus 4% and 20p for the payment plus a listing fee, and the fees keep coming after the first slow month.

There is now a third way between a platform subscription and a marketplace commission. An AI agent can build an online shop on your own domain from a description, connect it to your own Stripe, SumUp or Square account so the only fee per sale is the card rate, and run the orders, the stock and the postage labels afterwards. This guide gives the five prompts in order, the platform and marketplace prices checked on 21 October 2026, the card rates, the parcel prices, and the consumer law a UK shop must follow before the first order: the 14-day returns right, the business details to display, and the ban on drip pricing that came in on 6 April 2025.

What an online shop has to do

1. Show the products properly: photos, price including VAT, sizes or options, stock left, and delivery cost before the checkout, not at the end.
2. Take an order in under two minutes on a phone, with a basket, a guest checkout and no account to create.
3. Take the money safely through a payment provider, with the card details never touching your site.
4. Charge the right postage by weight and destination, and offer a free threshold if the margin allows it.
5. Follow the law: the business details, the returns page, the order confirmation, the headline price with every mandatory charge in it.
6. Tell you what to pack: an email per order, a morning list, a stock alert, and a postage label.

Build it in five prompts

1. The shop

2. Checkout, payments and postage

3. The legal pages

4. Orders, stock and labels

5. The launch

Five prompts, a weekend including the photos, and the agent keeps running the orders, the stock and the labels. The free plan builds and previews the shop; the Go plan at £7 a month hosts it on your own domain with 2,000 credits a month for the emails, the reports and the changes.

What the platforms and marketplaces charge

The marketplaces earn their commission when they bring you a buyer who had never heard of you. Etsy, eBay and Amazon are discovery channels and the fees are the price of being found. For the regulars, the gift buyers who saw you at a market, and anyone who arrives from your Instagram, a shop on your own domain keeps the whole margin. Many small sellers run both: the marketplace for strangers, their own shop in every parcel and on every card.

Taking the money: what each provider charges

• Stripe: 1.5% plus 20p for standard UK cards, 2.8% plus 20p for premium cards, no monthly fee, £20 per dispute. On a £30 order that is 65p.
• Square: 1.4% plus 25p for UK cards online, 2.5% plus 25p for non-UK cards, from the fee schedule dated 15 October 2026. On £30, 67p.
• SumUp: a flat 2.5% on payment links and online checkout, no fixed fee, no monthly fee. On £30, 75p.
• PayPal: 2.9% plus 30p for standard commercial transactions in GBP, from the fee page dated 1 October 2026. On £30, £1.17.

Compare that with the platforms: the same £30 order on Shopify Basic costs 85p in card fees plus the share of the £25 monthly fee, and on Etsy it costs £1.95 in transaction fee plus £1.40 in payment fees plus the listing fee, before any Offsite Ads charge.

Delivery: what a parcel costs

Royal Mail's prices rose on 5 October 2026. A small parcel up to 2 kg bought online through Click and Drop is £4.40 second class and £5.70 first class, against £4.60 and £5.90 at the counter. Evri starts at £2.62 for a ParcelShop drop-off up to 2 kg and £4.04 for a home collection up to 1 kg. InPost lockers start at £1.99 for a small parcel. The agent in prompt 2 charges the customer the service you choose and prints the labels in prompt 4.

Two rules shape the delivery page. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must be delivered within 30 days unless you agreed a different time with the customer, so state your estimate. And under the drip-pricing ban in force since 6 April 2025, any charge the customer cannot avoid must be in the headline price; delivery can be shown separately only where it is optional or genuinely cannot be known in advance, and it must be flagged early.

The law for selling online in the UK

• The 14-day cancellation right. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 a consumer can cancel an online order for any reason up to 14 days after the goods arrive, then has 14 days to send them back. You refund within 14 days of getting the goods back, or of proof of posting if earlier. The customer pays the return postage only if you told them so before they bought. Exempt: goods made to the customer's specification or clearly personalised, goods that perish quickly, sealed hygiene items once unsealed, sealed audio, video or software once unsealed, and goods mixed inseparably with others after delivery.
• Pre-contract information. Before the order the shop must show the main characteristics of the goods, your identity, address, phone and email, the total price including taxes and delivery, the payment and delivery arrangements, the cancellation right and who pays return costs, the legal guarantee, and how complaints are handled. Prompt 3 builds every item into the pages.
• Faulty goods. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives a 30-day right to reject faulty goods for a full refund, counted from the day after delivery.
• Business details. The E-Commerce Regulations 2002 require your name, geographic address, email, any trade register number and your VAT number if you are registered. A limited company must also show its registered number, registered office and place of registration.
• Reviews and prices. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force since 6 April 2025, bans fake reviews outright and bans drip pricing, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover. The CMA's guidance on unfair commercial practices was updated on 18 November 2025. Prompt 5 is written to that rule: no made-up reviews, no fake countdowns.

Marketplace or your own shop?

Start where the buyers are, then move the regulars. A new candle maker with no following sells the first fifty orders on Etsy because Etsy has the searchers; the sixth order from the same customer should come through your own shop, where it costs 65p in card fees instead of about £3.50 in marketplace fees. Put the shop address in every parcel, on the Google Business Profile, in the Instagram bio and on the market stall. Baymard Institute's running average, last updated 22 September 2025, puts basket abandonment at 70.22% across 50 studies, which is why prompt 5 includes the two-hour basket email and prompt 2 shows the postage before the checkout.

For the product photos, the AI product photo guide covers studio-quality shots without a studio.

How an AI agent differs from a shop builder

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse will all write your product descriptions and your returns page. Jobbit builds and runs the shop:

• It builds the shop and hosts it on your own domain, phone first, in your colours.
• It takes the payments through your own Stripe, SumUp or Square account, so the only fee per sale is the card rate.
• It writes the legal pages to the UK rules and links them where the law says they must be.
• It runs the orders: the confirmation to the customer, the morning packing list, the labels, the stock alerts.
• It sends the basket email and the Monday report on a schedule.
• It changes anything in a sentence: a new product, a Christmas delivery cut-off, a free-postage threshold.

A weekend plan

• Saturday morning. Photograph the products in daylight on a plain background. Write a sentence about each. Run prompt 1.
• Saturday afternoon. Open a Stripe, SumUp or Square account. Run prompt 2. Buy something from your own shop and refund it.
• Sunday morning. Run prompt 3. Read the returns page as a customer would.
• Sunday afternoon. Run prompt 4. Place two test orders and check the packing list and the labels. Run prompt 5.
• Monday. Point the domain at the shop, post the link, send the email, pack the first order.

Read next

• Build a website with AI in an afternoon: the site the shop sits inside.
• AI product photo generator: the photos that sell.
• How to connect a domain to your website: pointing your domain at the shop.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI build an online shop?

Yes. Give an agent on Jobbit your products, prices, photos and postage rules, and it builds a shop on your own domain with a basket, a guest checkout, card payments through your own Stripe, SumUp or Square account, the UK legal pages, order emails and a morning packing list. The free plan builds and previews it; hosting on your domain is £7 a month on Go.

What is the cheapest way to sell online in the UK?

For a handful of products, a shop on your own domain where you pay only the card rate: Stripe is 1.5% plus 20p and Square is 1.4% plus 25p on UK cards. Marketplaces cost more per sale but bring buyers: Etsy takes 6.5% plus 4% and 20p plus a listing fee, eBay business sellers pay 10.9% to 12.9%, Amazon Professional is £25 a month plus VAT and referral fees of mostly 8% to 15%.

Do I need Shopify to sell online?

No. Shopify Basic is £25 a month plus 2% and 25p per card payment, and 2% extra if you use a different payment provider, which suits a shop with hundreds of orders a month. For a smaller shop an agent-built site with your own payment account costs £7 a month to host and nothing per sale beyond the card rate.

What must an online shop show legally in the UK?

Your business name, geographic address, email, any trade register number and your VAT number if registered; a limited company also shows its company number, registered office and place of registration. Before the order: the total price including taxes and delivery, the main characteristics, delivery arrangements, the 14-day cancellation right and who pays return postage, and how complaints are handled. Since 6 April 2025 every mandatory charge must be in the headline price and fake reviews are banned.

Do customers have the right to return online orders?

Yes, for any reason within 14 days of receiving the goods, with 14 more days to send them back and a refund within 14 days of their return. Exceptions include personalised goods, perishables and sealed hygiene items once opened. Faulty goods can be rejected for a full refund within 30 days under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

How much does it cost to post a small parcel?

From 5 October 2026 Royal Mail charges £4.40 second class and £5.70 first class online for a small parcel up to 2 kg, or £4.60 and £5.90 at the counter. Evri ParcelShop drop-off starts at £2.62 and InPost lockers at £1.99. State a delivery estimate on the page: the default under UK law is 30 days.

Can the agent run the shop after it is built?

Yes. It emails every order, sends the packing list at 7:30 am, creates the labels, texts you when stock runs low, sends the basket reminder two hours after a customer leaves, and delivers the Monday report. Ask Jobbit for any change in a sentence, from a new product to a Christmas cut-off date.