Common questions, honestly answered.

LOAM is an AI-native commerce platform. Merchants answer five short questions about what they sell; LOAM generates the brand identity, the product catalogue, the storefront pages, and the lifecycle email programme — then sets up Stripe Connect for payments. The Shopify alternative built for AI-shoppable retail.

From the first question to a live storefront on a temporary URL, most merchants take five to ten minutes. Refining brand and catalogue to your satisfaction can take an evening; bringing your own domain is a single form.

No. If you can describe what you sell in plain English, you can launch on LOAM. Everything the platform generates — copy, palette, product layouts, email templates — is editable on the same screen where it appears.

Yes, during beta. LOAM charges no platform fee, no per-product fee, and no transaction fee while we're in beta. Stripe's standard processing fees still apply because Stripe handles your payments; those go to Stripe.

Later in 2026. Merchants who join during beta will have advance notice and grandfathered pricing on whichever plan tier matches their volume at launch.

Shopify's Basic plan starts at $29/month plus 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. On top of that most stores pay for several apps to cover what LOAM ships natively (AI brand, customer agent, theme system, multi-store). LOAM is free during beta; when paid plans launch the goal is one all-inclusive subscription rather than a base fee plus app tax.

Shopify Magic and similar tools assist you while you build a store. LOAM generates the store itself — brand identity, catalogue copy, storefront layout, and customer agent — from your answers, before you write a word. You refine instead of start from scratch.

Yes. Every piece of generated content — logo lockup, palette, product copy, hero copy, email sequences — is editable from the admin. AI generates the first draft; you own the final product.

LOAM is built on Anthropic's Claude API for language tasks and uses purpose-trained models for image and palette generation. Per CLAUDE.md the brand generator uses Opus with prompt caching for cost efficiency on the platform's side; nothing of yours is shared across tenants.

Yes. Your store runs in its own Postgres database (not a shared shop_id namespace), your Stripe Connect account is in your name, and you can export your full catalogue, customers, and orders at any time. We host; you own.

Yes. We have a guided import for catalogues, customers, and orders from Shopify and most other commerce platforms. See the migration post on the blog or email hello@loam.st to schedule.

You walk out with everything. Stripe Connect means your customer relationships and payouts continue at Stripe regardless of LOAM's status. Your data is exportable and your domain stays yours. We will give meaningful notice and migration support if our circumstances ever change.

Yes — every store on LOAM exposes machine-readable surfaces from day one: MCP, llms.txt, OpenAPI 3.1, and a Cloudflare agent-skills index. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and your own agents can discover, browse, and transact with stores on LOAM natively.

Yes. Bring your domain whenever you're ready; LOAM handles DNS, TLS, and HSTS. Multi-domain stores are first-class — useful for international and B2B fronts.

Stripe Connect (Express) is the default and handles 47 countries. We're working on additional regional processors as merchant demand surfaces; let us know what you need.

LOAM is operated by Fernway Group Ltd., a UK-registered company. Email hello@loam.st to reach us — small team, fast replies.

Day-to-day: the help center at help.loam.st. For account or billing questions: hello@loam.st. For uptime: status.loam.st.