Good news: you already know most of it

If you already have a website (the first step on this path), the steps for an online shop are almost the same: content first, AI makes the first version, you publish, connect the domain, check it on a phone.

Three things differ:

  1. Products — they need describing and organising.
  2. Payments — something has to take the money safely.
  3. The law — online selling has rules a business-card website doesn’t.

This lesson is only about those three things. Everything they share is covered in the lesson Build a new website in 1 hour.

What you need to start

  1. A website or a plan for one — from the lesson Build a new website in 1 hour.
  2. An AI chat — ideally one that can create files and control a browser.
  3. A payments account — Stripe or Paysera, registered in the company’s name.
  4. A list of 5–15 products with prices, photos and real specifications.

The simplest approach is to sign in everywhere with the same Google account (“Sign in with Google”). But a shop means more accounts — hosting, domain, payments, accounting — so:

  • MFA is a must — your money will hang off that account too. How — in the lesson Passwords and MFA without the pain.
  • A company account, not a personal one. The payment provider will ask for company details anyway, so do it properly from the start.

A ready-made prompt: start with this

This is the website lesson’s prompt, extended with what’s different about a shop. Copy it, fill in the square brackets and paste it into an AI chat:

You are my online shop builder. I have the products; you have the tools and the time.

CONTEXT
- Company and what it does: [in one sentence]
- What I sell: [physical goods / digital goods / services]
- Products: [5–15 products: name, price incl. VAT, short notes]
- Delivery: [methods and prices, e.g. parcel locker 2.99 €, courier 4.99 €]
- Returns: [how to return, who pays for the return]
- Payments: [Stripe / Paysera]

PROCESS — very important
0. TOOLS. First tell me what you can do yourself: create files, control a browser,
   connect to GitHub or Cloudflare. Say straight away what you can't.
1. ASK. Ask me the missing questions, one at a time.
2. PLAN. Show me the pages (home, products, delivery and payment, returns,
   privacy, contact) and how payment will work. Ask whether it works for me.
3. DO. Build only once I agree.

GOAL — a working shop where a test payment goes through end to end
- The job is finished when I've bought a product in test mode: from the product
  page to the payment confirmation, and I can see the payment in the payment
  provider's report.
- DON'T switch on live mode. That's a separate step I'll confirm myself.
- If you need my sign-in — tell me what to click, wait and CONTINUE.

PAYMENTS
- If Stripe: use Payment Links or the buy button, which need no secret key on
  the website.
- If Paysera: it needs a server-side part with the project password. Tell me this
  straight away and suggest how to do it safely, before you build.
- Never ask for secret keys or passwords, and never put them in the site's code.

LAW
- Prepare draft pages: seller details, delivery and payment, returns (the 14-day
  right of withdrawal), privacy policy. Mark each one "DRAFT — check".

RULES
- INVENT NOTHING: no prices, no specifications, no delivery times.
  If a fact is missing — ask me.
- Prices are shown incl. VAT, and the delivery price is visible before payment.
- Talk to me in English; write the shop in [English / Lithuanian / both].

AT THE END
Tell me: the address, how to test a purchase, what you built and separately —
WHAT YOU DID NOT CHECK.

What the AI doesn’t get

The payments service is your money. So the line here is stricter than anywhere else:

  • You sign in to Stripe or Paysera yourself. An agent can guide you through the steps, but you click the buttons in your payments account.
  • Secret keys never go into the chat — neither a Stripe secret key nor Paysera’s project password. They allow someone to control your payments.
  • The best setup is one that needs no secret key on the website at all. Stripe Payment Links and the buy button use only the publishable key, which is designed to be visible.

More on what not to give an AI — How to start using AI at work (safely).

What we won’t build ourselves

One important decision straight away: we don’t write the checkout and payments ourselves.

Accepting card details on your own website means PCI DSS compliance — a cost and a responsibility a small business shouldn’t even consider.

So we use a ready-made solution: at the payment step the shopper goes to the payment provider’s page (or its secure field), and comes back to you with a confirmation. You never see the card number — and that’s a good thing.

Products: fewer, but done properly

The most common beginner’s mistake is listing 200 products and waiting for a miracle. Start with 5–15 products, but for each one have:

  • A name people actually search for (not “Model A-12”, but “Wool blanket 200×200”).
  • A price incl. VAT and a clearly shown delivery price.
  • 2–3 photos in normal light. A phone photo is better than the manufacturer’s image that everyone uses.
  • A description that answers “is this right for me?” — sizes, material, who it’s for.

🤖 AI route recommended

AI writes descriptions from your notes

“Here are my notes on 8 products. For each one, write a name people search for and a description that answers ‘is this right for me?’. In the same style. Don't change dimensions, materials or prices — if something's missing, ask.”

Your job: check the specifications. Dimensions and materials must be real — the seller is responsible for them, not the AI.

✋ Manual route

One table

  1. In a spreadsheet, one row per product: name, price incl. VAT, weight or size.
  2. Next to it — the file names of 2–3 photos.
  3. Write the description by answering “is this right for me?”, not in the manufacturer's language.

Payments: Paysera, Stripe or both

In Lithuania the real choice is between two — and often both are used.

Paysera — Lithuanian; its biggest advantage is bank links (Swedbank, SEB, Luminor). Many Lithuanian shoppers pay exactly that way and don’t use a card. But Paysera payment requests are signed with a project password, and Paysera notifies your server about the payment. So it needs a server-side part where the password is kept — it can’t live in a plain static page. That’s a job for an IT specialist or for a platform that supports Paysera.

Stripe — international, strong for cards, subscriptions and selling abroad. Its Payment Links work without programming: you create a link in your payments account, and the shopper pays on Stripe’s page. The link can be placed as a button on your website, and it can ask for a delivery address and add a delivery charge. For a static website it’s the simplest route.

A practical tip: start with one — the one your shoppers pay with. You’ll add the second when there’s a need. Fees change, so check them with the provider; the usual model is a percentage of the amount plus a few cents per transaction.

🤖 AI route recommended

AI guides, you click

“Guide me through creating Stripe payment links in test mode for each product. I click the buttons, you tell me which. When I've copied the links, put them into the ‘Buy’ buttons on the product pages.”

Your job: sign in to Stripe yourself and copy the links. The AI won't need a secret key.

✋ Manual route

Stripe without AI

  1. In your Stripe account, switch on test mode (test mode or sandbox).
  2. In Payment Links, create a link for each product.
  3. Copy the link and put it in the product page's “Buy” button. For an embedded button — choose Buy button on the link.

A test purchase — then real money

Always make the first purchase yourself, in test mode, from start to finish: product page → payment page → confirmation → email to the buyer → the payment visible in your payments report. In Stripe’s test mode you use the test card 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future date and any code.

Half the problems show up right here: too long a path to payment, an unexpected delivery charge, the buyer’s email landing in spam.

You switch on live mode yourself — as a separate step. The payments service will ask you to confirm the company’s details. Test payment links don’t work in live mode, so you create them again in live mode and replace them on the website. After that — one small real purchase, which you then refund.

The law: it’s not a detail

Distance selling in Lithuania and the EU has requirements. The most important, briefly:

  • The 14-day right of withdrawal. A consumer can return a product without giving a reason. Your terms can’t remove that. There are narrow exceptions (made-to-order goods, perishable products).
  • Terms of sale — delivery, returns, guarantee.
  • A privacy policy — you collect names, addresses, phone numbers. Mandatory.
  • Cookie consent, if you use analytics or advertising tracking.
  • Clear company details and contacts — the shopper must see who they’re contracting with.
  • The price incl. VAT and the delivery price before payment, no surprises at the last step.

Selling to other EU countries? Then OSS (the EU’s one-stop-shop VAT scheme) applies — worth talking to your accountant before, not after.

🤖 AI route recommended

AI prepares the drafts

The prompt already includes it: the AI prepares draft pages for company details, delivery and payment, returns and privacy, marked “DRAFT — check”.

Your job: check every page against the checklist and, if in doubt, show it to a lawyer or accountant.

✋ Manual route

A checklist

  1. Company details: company name, code, VAT code (if any), address, email, phone.
  2. Delivery and payment: methods, prices, timeframes.
  3. Returns: the 14-day right of withdrawal, how to return, who pays for the return, how quickly the money is refunded.
  4. Privacy policy: what data you collect, for whom and how long you keep it.

This is not legal advice. The list helps you not forget anything, but requirements change. Before launching the shop, check them with a lawyer or accountant.

What to do in the first week after launch

  1. Buy from yourself — and ask a friend to do it from their phone.
  2. Check the emails the buyer receives: are they clear, are they landing in spam?
  3. Add reviews as soon as you get the first ones.
  4. Watch where people drop out. Usually — when they see the delivery charge at the last step. Show it earlier.

Need help with payments or the legal part? pagalba@itbroliai.lt

Check yourself

Five questions on what you’ve just read. At the end you’ll get a certificate with your score.