DorrisRunning a store with an AI agent means you describe a tool you need in plain English and the agent writes it, so you stop renting software for jobs only your own business has. In my case it is a support inbox, purchase-order tracking, invoices and spreadsheet feeds. It costs me about $145 a month to run, on the AI plan I built it on. I don't code, and I approve anything that reaches a customer.
How I keep it safe
- The agent drafts and I send. Nothing goes to a customer until I have read it and said yes.
- Nothing that changes money (a refund, a price, an invoice) happens without my OK.
Start with
- Low-risk jobs first: reorder alerts, order-status lookups and draft replies.
- Only then anything that touches customers or money, and keep your own approval on it.
What I mean by "AI agent"
Not a chat window you paste things into. An agent is a program you talk to in plain English that can read and change files on your computer, run commands and tell you what it did. I use Claude.
What I built, in the order it happened
1. A spreadsheet feed. One of my first tools pushes real Shopify and Amazon numbers into Google Sheets for inventory and sales. I was paying about $550 a month for an ERP that did this. My own version replaced it. (My own estimate, from memory.)
2. Purchase-order tracking. I built this for our supply chain manager, in under a day.
3. The tool that got me to cancel. The moment it clicked was cancelling a shoppable-video subscription that cost about $600 a month (my estimate) and replacing it with something of my own.
4. Support, warranty claims, invoices and the rest. Today one app of mine covers customer support, warranty claims, PO tracking, invoices, analytics and a pile of small automations. It reads from Shopify, Amazon and our retail sales, so the numbers sit in one place.
Why not just buy an app
A paid app is built for thousands of stores, so the change only your business needs is rarely the one it gets. With my own tool I ask for the change, and the agent makes it.
What it costs
- AI plan. About $100 a month, the plan I built it on. Plans start from $20 a month, and other people can pick what suits them.
- The app's own AI usage. Under $10 a month.
- A cloud server. About $25 a month. This keeps the tools running when your laptop is shut.
- Database and storage. About $10 a month.
- Total: about $145 a month for me. My own estimate, not a promise for your store.
Full running costs, as we currently understand them, are on what you need.
What "running it" means in practice
You use the tool. When you find a bug, you tell the agent to fix it, go back to what you were doing, then test the fix. The Dorris kit has a Something broke page with the usual problems and the text to paste for each.
Who this isn't for
- You want finished software with a phone number to call. Buy a paid app.
- Several people share one inbox all day and need assignments and rules. Read rent or own.
- You spend little on software already. If your apps cost under about $100 a month, my rule of thumb is that building your own probably isn't worth it. See what a store's app stack costs.
Where to start
Start with one tool that only reads your own data. The Dorris kit begins with a support inbox that shows each customer's order beside their email, read-only to start. Not sure it suits you? Take the one-minute quiz or ask for a teardown of your own app stack. If you want the numbers first, the app stack audit sorts what you pay for.
Tim Haines. The figures above are my own estimates, not an audit.
Want it built for you? Book a demo. Or build it yourself: the kit.