How to sell products on a website you built with AI
AI site builders are superb at the website part and quietly terrible at the selling part. Ask Lovable or Bolt for a checkout and you get something that looks finished and is not. Here is what to do instead, in the order that avoids pain.
Do not let the builder write the checkout
It will produce a form, a Stripe call and a success page. It will not produce webhook verification, idempotency, stock control, an orders table you can trust, or protection against someone editing the price in the browser. Payment code is the one place where "mostly working" costs real money.
Use a shop that installs by prompt
AddTheShop exists for exactly this. Sign up, then paste one prompt into the tool that built your site:
> Add the shop from addtheshop.com to this site. Read https://addtheshop.com/docs/agent.md first. My store key is pk_ats_YOUR_STORE_KEY. Put the product grid on a /shop page and add a cart button to the header.
The AI reads our guide, adds a script tag and a div, and matches your design. Products, cart and Stripe checkout appear.
Connect Stripe before you announce
Click Connect Stripe in your dashboard and finish Stripe's form. Until then the shop shows products but says it is not taking payments. Takes about five minutes.
Add products the lazy way
Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to AddTheShop (add https://addtheshop.com/mcp as a connector, sign in, Allow) and dictate: "Add a blue speckle mug at 24 euro, stock 12, this image." Or type them in the dashboard.
Test with a real card
Buy the cheapest thing, check the order email and the dashboard, then refund yourself in Stripe. Now you know the whole path works.
What to avoid
- Stripe secret keys in your project. You never need one with AddTheShop.
- "Buy" buttons that open a Payment Link per product when you have more than three products. Buyers want a basket.
- Letting the AI invent a cart in localStorage that never talks to a server. It will break on the first sale.