Most “start a store” guides hand you a 33-step checklist. We’ve already done most of it.

Launching an online store the usual way means weeks of setup — the store itself, payments, tracking, email flows, security. On NEXT BASKET AI our team and AI build and run the store for you, so most of that list is off your plate. A few business basics stay yours — we’re upfront about them below — and the biggest decision is the one only you can make: what you sell.

From $29/month · 0% commission on your sales · First month $1 on BUSINESS and PRO (3-month minimum with the included build or migration)

What’s still yours (we won’t pretend otherwise)

We remove the store-building work. A few business basics stay with you — and skipping them is where new sellers get hurt:

• Your business setup — company, tax registration, and (for US sellers) filings like the ones your accountant handles. These aren’t optional, and they’re not something a store platform can do for you.
• Your numbers — validating the product, pricing on landed cost (not the factory price), and the ad budget it takes to get traffic. A store is a storefront, not customers.
• Your growth calls — which channels to test and how much to spend.

We give you the tools and the AI to make these easier — and a personal consultant on BUSINESS and PRO to talk them through. But they’re yours, and we’d rather say so now than surprise you later. For the full US launch playbook — entity, tax, sourcing, and ads step by step — see our 30-day launch playbook.

Step 1 · Pick your product (the part only you can do)

This is where your time actually matters. A quick filter that works:

• Margin first: aim for 50%+ margin on landed cost — the full cost to get the product into a US warehouse (factory price + freight + duty + fees), not the factory price alone. Price it roughly $20–50.
• Easy to ship: small and dense, not fragile, with a low return rate — bulky-but-light items quietly cost 2–5× to ship.
• Steady demand: something people buy all year, not a one-week fad — and not a market already crowded with big sellers.
• Provable: check that real people are searching for it and that a few smaller sellers already do well — a healthy sign, not a red flag.

Sourcing it: order a sample first, then reorder from a supplier — and pay through the platform’s escrow (e.g., Alibaba Trade Assurance), never a bank wire, so your money is protected if the goods don’t match. As of 2025, the old duty-free threshold for small parcels is gone, so duty may apply — verify with your customs broker and build it into your landed cost.

If you’d rather not hold stock at all, there’s a done-for-you dropshipping store — a ready-made store stocked with products from a global supplier network, with payments, carriers, marketing, and a returns warehouse included ($500 one-time + $44/month).

Only you know your market. The full sourcing playbook — landed cost, HTS codes, MOQs — is in our 30-day launch playbook. Everything after the product, we can carry.

Step 2 · Send us your materials — we build the store

Send photos and a product list in whatever form you already have it: an invoice, a packing slip, a warehouse export, or a plain written list.

• BUSINESS ($49) and PRO ($99): our team builds your fully working store — live in under 3 hours once your materials are in.
• START ($29): build it yourself, with the AI writing descriptions and SEO as you go.

You don’t set up payments, carriers, hosting, or SSL separately — they come wired in on every plan.

The risk-reversal is in writing: live in under 3 hours, or your first month is on us (BUSINESS and PRO). The first month is $1 — with a three-paid-month minimum if you use the included build or migration service (cancelling earlier means a disclosed one-time $199 setup fee).

Already selling somewhere else? On BUSINESS and PRO we migrate everything — products, photos, customers, orders — from Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, and others within 72 hours, free (a $500 value). We preserve existing URLs where possible and implement redirects, canonical tags, metadata, and migration checks designed to minimize SEO risk. Search rankings may fluctuate during any platform migration and cannot be guaranteed. Your old store keeps running until the new one is ready.

Step 3 · Review and go live

Before you flip it on, walk through the store once on your phone — that’s how most of your customers will see it.

What’s already handled for you, so it’s not on your list:

• Payments — cards and the wallets shoppers expect, ready on day one.
• Shipping & returns — carrier options and a returns process, built in.
• Security & hosting — SSL, backups, and monitoring run by us.
• Analytics & SEO basics — pages are structured to be found, with metadata written by AI.

Then do the one live test that matters: place a real order and process a refund yourself. When it feels right, go live — a soft launch to 20–30 people you know, with a discount code, is the calmest way to start.

Step 4 · Grow — with the AI doing the heavy lifting

Once you’re live, the platform keeps working:

• AI writes and improves your product descriptions, SEO metadata, and draft campaigns for Google, Meta, and TikTok — you approve before anything runs. (Ads themselves cost real money — that budget is yours to set.)
• A 24/7 AI chatbot answers shoppers about products, orders, and returns.
• Built for AI shopping (rolling out): your store is structured on the open standards of AI commerce, so your products can be surfaced by assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity — with a link back to your checkout where those assistants support it. This capability is rolling out in stages.
• A person, not a maze: on BUSINESS and PRO you get a personal consultant and human support 7 days a week — 2-hour response on urgent issues (1 hour, 24/7 on PRO).

You watch a simple weekly dashboard — revenue, ad spend, conversion, average order — and work on the one weakest number at a time. The platform runs the machine underneath; the growth calls stay yours, with the AI and your consultant to help.

The proof, not just the promise

store live on BUSINESS/PRO

Under 3h

commission on your sales

0%

tests executed in an internal platform verification (January 24, 2026; 97.8% pass rate)

16,175

backup layers across two clouds

6

monitoring

24/7

for a team + AI to build and run your store

Under $2/day

• Under 3 hours — store live on BUSINESS/PRO, backed by a written guarantee.
• 0% — commission on your sales, with no GMV caps and no renewal price hikes.
• Based on an internal platform verification completed on January 24, 2026, 16,175 tests were executed with a 97.8% overall pass rate. The test suite and results may change as the platform evolves.
• 6 backup layers across two clouds, with recovery rehearsed weekly.
• 24/7 monitoring — problems reach us before they reach your customers. A written uptime SLA is available on ENTERPRISE.
• Under $2 a day for a team and AI that build and run your store.