Shopify Magic offers suggestions; you still set up theme, copy each product, design the cart, write the welcome email, hire the customer agent. LOAM generates all of that from five answers — brand identity, catalogue, storefront pages, lifecycle emails, customer agent — before you write a word.
A typical Shopify Basic store at $29/mo runs ~$80–200/mo in apps (reviews, email, upsells, subscriptions, customer accounts, inventory). LOAM is free during beta and the planned paid tier folds those features into the platform — no app tax.
Every Shopify store shares the same multi-tenant database, queried by shop_id. LOAM provisions each merchant their own Postgres database — no shared namespace, no cross-tenant query risk, full export anytime.
LOAM ships every store with MCP, llms.txt, OpenAPI 3.1, and an agent-skills index — so ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and your own agents can discover, browse, and buy without you doing a thing. Shopify is just starting to wire this in.
LOAM issues Stripe Connect Express accounts in the merchant's name; payouts go direct to the merchant's bank. Shopify Payments requires Shopify Payments (their managed gateway), and using anything else means a per-transaction surcharge of 0.5–2%.
LOAM extends Medusa v2 — open source, real TypeScript, no proprietary Liquid templating. When you outgrow the no-code abstraction, you can read and extend the engine. Shopify's customisation ceiling is the app boundary plus a sandboxed scripting layer.
We'd rather you pick the right tool than churn out of LOAM in three months.
Shopify Fulfillment Network and Shopify POS are mature, integrated, and a real reason to stay on Shopify if you run a multi-channel retail business. LOAM is online-first; we'll meet you there when your DTC heart outweighs the physical store.
If your business depends on a niche Shopify app (industry-specific compliance, niche subscriptions, specialised integrations), LOAM may not have a built-in equivalent yet. Worth checking the integration list before switching.
Wholesalers, partners, and some retail buyers ask 'are you on Shopify?' the way they used to ask 'are you on Magento?' — it's shorthand for 'are you a real shop.' LOAM is new and that brand parity will take time.
| Feature | LOAM | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
AI-generated brand + storefront Shopify Magic suggests; LOAM generates the full store. | ✓ | — |
Built-in AI customer agent Shopify Inbox + Shopify Magic — partial; LOAM ships Kiln natively. | ✓ | Partial |
Native MCP / llms.txt / OpenAPI | ✓ | — |
Per-tenant database isolation Shopify uses shared shop_id namespacing. | ✓ | — |
Stripe Connect in merchant's name Shopify routes through Shopify Payments by default. | ✓ | Partial |
Custom domains incl. multi-domain | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in lifecycle email programme | ✓ | Partial |
Real-time inventory across locations | ✓ | ✓ |
Physical retail POS | — | ✓ |
Native fulfillment network Shopify Fulfillment Network — US-focused, real. | — | ✓ |
Third-party app ecosystem LOAM ships natively what most apps add to Shopify. | Partial | ✓ |
Theme customisation without code | ✓ | ✓ |
Open inspectable engine Medusa v2; full TypeScript extension. | ✓ | — |
Transaction fee on third-party payments | 0% | 0.5–2% |
Platform pricing (entry tier) | Free in beta | $29/mo Basic |
LOAM is a real commerce platform built on Medusa v2 — the same engine serious DTC brands pick when they outgrow Shopify Plus. Cart, checkout, fulfillment, orders, refunds, inventory, multi-location stock, returns: all native, not bolt-on. The AI generation sits on top of those primitives, not in place of them.
Yes — there's a guided import for catalogues, customers, and order history. Stripe Connect Express onboarding takes a few minutes; LOAM re-issues a standalone Stripe account in your name so your payouts continue to your existing bank. Plan ~1–2 days of testing before you swap DNS.
Most Shopify apps duplicate things LOAM ships natively — AI copy, reviews, lifecycle email, customer accounts, multi-store, inventory automation. Before migrating, list your top 3 apps; we'll tell you whether LOAM covers them out of the box or whether you'd lose that capability. If you depend on a niche compliance app, LOAM may not be the right move yet.
Compare total cost, not platform fee. A typical Shopify Basic store runs $29 + $80–200/mo in apps + 0.5–2% on third-party payment transactions. LOAM is free during beta with those features built in, and the planned paid tier folds them into one subscription rather than per-feature charges.
Your data, your customers, and your Stripe account stay yours. Per-tenant database means your store data is exportable in standard SQL. Your Stripe Connect account belongs to your business, not LOAM — your customer relationship and payouts continue regardless of our status.
Yes. Multi-currency, multi-region tax rules, regional shipping zones, and locale-specific languages are wired in. Stripe Tax handles the compliance heavy lifting where enabled; LOAM handles routing and display.
No credit card. No setup fee. Stripe Connect onboards in your name; payouts stay yours.