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I closed my first Shopify store after three months. Here’s how I would build it differently today, using AI.

One year ago, I launched my first Shopify store. It was a merch store for my page, Găina Bătrână. Mostly food-themed t-shirts. Very me. I genuinely loved designing them. The quality was something I was proud of: organic cotton, premium feel, resistant print.

I launched with six collections. And then reality showed up. One of the reasons I eventually closed the shop wasn’t lack of ideas. Among other operational issues, it was the lack of resources for proper photoshoots. I had a very clear vision of how the photos should look. Who should wear the t-shirts. What kind of mood they should live in.

And in my vision, it wasn’t me. I didn’t want to be my own model. My best friend stepped in. She was amazing. Her husband took incredible photos. But favors aren’t a sustainable production system. And I didn’t have the budget to professionally shoot six collections the way I imagined them.

In the two images I’m sharing, you’ll see one photo with me wearing the t-shirt and another with an AI-generated model. You might say the “me” photo isn’t bad. And it’s not. But that’s not the point. I don’t feel creative when I’m thinking about angles, poses, lighting, and how I look. For me, creativity lives in the concept.

Recently, while building AI marketing materials, I was thinking if I had this technology back then, I could have created the visual world I imagined without forcing myself into a role that drains me.

For small founders, especially in e-commerce, media production is often the most expensive and exhausting part of the business. If you’re running a Shopify store and thinking you don’t have the resources to present your product properly, maybe this is your sign. Invest in the idea. Invest in the operation system. Let AI handle part of the media layer.

Growth isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right parts yourself and delegating the rest.

What's your relationship with AI? 🙃