AI Side Hustles
Business Model

AI Tools for Online Sellers

Founders who sell AI tools to people who run online stores: an AI store builder, a Shopify marketing app, an Amazon product research tool and an AI product photo app. Two of the founders worked in ecommerce before building their tool. Figures below are computed from the cases listed on this page and are what each source reports, not typical results.

AI software for Amazon, Shopify and direct-to-consumer sellers.

Launch Fast social preview showing its Amazon product research dashboard.
Social preview image from tryprofit.ai, the official site.
Screenshot of the blendnow.com homepage.
Startup Cost in Our Cases
None of these cases disclose a startup cost
Time to First Revenue in Our Cases
Within 30 days in the one case that says
Published Cases
4 Published
Independently Documented
0 of 4

Strengths Seen in Our Cases

  • Sellers pay for tools that bring more sales
  • Founders with ecommerce experience know the problem well
  • App stores such as Shopify's help sellers find tools

Known Risks

  • Marketplaces and platforms can add the same feature
  • Sellers cancel when their own sales slow down
  • Platform rule changes can break a tool
Gallery

Images and videos from AI Tools for Online Sellers cases

Launch Fast social preview showing its Amazon product research dashboard.Image: Launch Fast
Launch Fast (Hasaam Bhatti)
Social preview image from tryprofit.ai, the official site.Image: tryprofit.ai
Profit AI (Jack, @jackdoesecom)
Screenshot of the blendnow.com homepage.Image: blendnow.com
Blend (Vaibhav Prakash, Jamsheed Kamardeen and Vishwanath Kollapudi)
Dropmagic logo, a silver 3D letter D on a black background.Image: Dropmagic
Dropmagic (Loic Berthelot)

How the model works

General guidance

Founders build AI tools that help online sellers build stores, research products, market or create product photos.

Two of the documented founders worked in ecommerce before building their tool.

Tools are listed on platform app stores or sold directly.

How it earns

General guidance

Monthly subscriptions, sometimes priced by usage.

Platform app stores may take a share of revenue.

General guidance is our editorial summary and contains no figures. Every number on this page comes from a linked case.

Reported results

What the cases report, and how well it is backed up

Figures are as reported by each source, for different periods and metrics. They are not typical results. How we label evidence.

Case Studies

AI Tools for Online Sellers Cases

4 case studies
Launch Fast social preview showing its Amazon product research dashboard.
Image: Launch Fast
June 2, 2026
1 source

An Amazon seller with no coding background built a research tool in 48 hours with AI and grew it to $30K MRR

Launch Fast (Hasaam Bhatti)

Hasaam Bhatti worked a corporate job and ran two Amazon brands on the side when he found the AI code editor Cursor. With no computer science degree and no coding experience, he built a tool for the product research he had been doing by hand in spreadsheets. He offered a sellers coaching community he belonged to a 48 hour build in exchange for a partnership. He says Launch Fast hit $10K MRR on day 30, $21.8K by day 90 and $30K MRR a few months later.

Read original source
Reported figure
$30K MRR(recurring revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Social preview image from tryprofit.ai, the official site.
Image: tryprofit.ai
June 24, 2026
1 source

An ecommerce consultant who could not code built a Shopify marketing app with Claude that has made $147,000 since launch

Profit AI (Jack, @jackdoesecom)

Jack spent years consulting for agencies and ecommerce brands and kept seeing clients lost in messy spreadsheets. He turned his own spreadsheet into an app for Shopify stores. In the interview he says it has made $147,000 in total since launch and now brings in about $30,000 a month, even though he is not technical.

Read original source
Reported figure
$147,000 total since launch(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Screenshot of the blendnow.com homepage.
Image: blendnow.com
September 24, 2023
1 source

An AI product photo app for online sellers reports $100,000 a month

Blend (Vaibhav Prakash, Jamsheed Kamardeen and Vishwanath Kollapudi)

Three founders in Bangalore started Blend in March 2021 to solve photography for direct-to-consumer sellers. Users upload a product photo and the app creates visuals for marketplaces, social media and ads.

Read original source
Reported figure
$100K/mo(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:none named in the source
Inspect Case
Dropmagic logo, a silver 3D letter D on a black background.
Image: Dropmagic
October 6, 2026
2 sources

A French founder built an AI store builder for first-time online sellers and says it reached $120K in monthly recurring revenue

Dropmagic (Loic Berthelot)

Loic Berthelot is a French founder who says he launched more than ten software products, most of which failed, before three worked. One was Minea, a product research tool for online sellers that he says peaked at $750K MRR. His latest, Dropmagic, creates online stores for e-commerce beginners with AI. In November 2025 he told Starter Story it had passed $45K MRR in its first four months, and in October 2026 he posted on X that he had scaled it to $120K MRR.

Read original source
Reported figure
$120K MRR(revenue)
Evidence levelSelf-Reported
Tools:
Inspect Case
Startup costs

What the cases say they spent

None of the sources in this category disclose a startup cost.

Risks

Challenges reported in these cases

Tools

Tools for AI Tools for Online Sellers

Claude logo and wordmark on a cream background.Official image

Claude

AI Assistant

Anthropic's AI assistant. Documented cases use it to write long video scripts, draft newsletter summaries, and run client offers on a single monthly subscription.

Free plan: Yes. Free plan for chat on web, desktop, and mobile.

Pricing: Free plan. Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually. Max starts at $100/month. Team seats start at $20/seat/month billed annually.

Checked October 17, 2026

Used in 46 documented casesView Profile
Google Gemini logo and wordmark on a white background.Official image

Google Gemini

AI Assistant

Google's AI assistant. One documented print-on-demand seller uses it to check trending phrases because it can search Google in real time.

Free plan: Yes. Free with a Google Account.

Pricing: Free with a Google Account. Paid individual plans listed at $4.99/month, $19.99/month, and from $99.99/month. Business plans from $21 per seat per month.

Checked October 17, 2026

Used in 9 documented casesView Profile

Cursor

AI Coding

AI code editor with an agent that writes and edits code. Several documented founders say they built their apps with it, often with little or no prior coding.

Free plan: Yes. Free plan with limited agent and chat requests.

Pricing: Free $0/month with limited AI usage. Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month, Super $100/month, Ultra $200/month, Teams from $30 per user per month. Third-party model usage is billed separately at API list price. Plans are sold together with X and Grok features.

Checked October 20, 2026

Used in 26 documented casesView Profile

Shopify

Ecommerce Platform

Online store platform. Documented sellers use it to run print and art stores, and one consultant built a Shopify app with AI coding tools.

Free plan: No free plan; a short trial is offered.

Pricing: Basic $29/month billed yearly ($39 monthly), Grow $79/month, Advanced $299/month, Plus from $2,300/month. Card rates from 2.9% + 30 cents on Basic. Trial: 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months.

Checked October 20, 2026

Used in 3 documented casesView Profile
Dark Claude Code Docs preview card reading Getting started, Overview, and a line describing Claude Code as an agentic coding tool.Official image

Claude Code

AI Coding Agent

Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands from the terminal or an IDE. Documented founders say they used it to build mobile apps, a data API and a store builder, and to run daily content and client routines. This is separate from chatting with Claude itself.

Free plan: No. The official comparison lists Claude Code on Pro and Max, not on Free.

Pricing: Included in the paid Claude plans, not the Free plan. Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month with annual billing; Max starts at $100/month with higher usage.

Checked October 27, 2026

Used in 12 documented casesView Profile
Supabase logo with the lines Build in a weekend, Scale to millions, on a dark background.Official image

Supabase

App Backend

A hosted Postgres database and app backend with sign-in, storage and APIs. Documented founders who built with AI coding tools list it in the stack behind an AI lifting app, an AI video clipping app and an AI store builder.

Free plan: Yes. Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity, with a limit of 2 active projects.

Pricing: Free plan at $0 with 500 MB of database and 50,000 monthly active users. Pro is from $25/month and Team from $599/month; usage above plan limits is billed extra.

Checked October 27, 2026

Used in 3 documented casesView Profile
FAQ

AI Tools for Online Sellers: common questions

How much do people make with AI Tools for Online Sellers and AI?

Across the 3 of our 4 sourced cases that report a monthly figure, amounts range from $30,000 to $120,000 a month, with a median of $100,000. These are what each source reports, not typical results.

How much does it cost to start?

None of these cases disclose a startup cost. 0 of 4 cases disclose a startup cost.

How long until the first dollar?

Within 30 days in the one case that says. This comes from what our cases report.

Which AI tools do these cases use most?

Cursor (2 cases), Claude (2 cases), Shopify (1 case), Google Gemini (1 case), Claude Code (1 case). Only tools named in the sources are counted.

How reliable are these income figures?

0 of 4 cases are independently documented, meaning a news outlet says it reviewed records. 4 are self-reported. Every case links its source.

What are the main risks?

Marketplaces and platforms can add the same feature. Sellers cancel when their own sales slow down. Platform rule changes can break a tool.

How many of these cases say when they made their first dollar?

1 of 4 cases state a time to first revenue. For example: Launch Fast (Hasaam Bhatti): "Within 30 days (the founder says it reached $10K MRR on day 30)". The rest do not say, so treat any single timeline as one example, not a norm.

What went wrong or held these cases back?

4 of 4 cases list limitations or risks drawn from their sources. Examples: Launch Fast (Hasaam Bhatti): The revenue figures are self-reported; Profit AI (Jack, @jackdoesecom): Self-reported figures with no records reviewed; Blend (Vaibhav Prakash, Jamsheed Kamardeen and Vishwanath Kollapudi): Self-reported. Each case page lists them in full.

Do I have to report this income to the IRS if I never get a 1099-K?

Yes. The IRS says that whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, you must report all income from selling goods or services on your tax return. Payment apps and online marketplaces must send a 1099-K when payments for goods or services total over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions, but they may send one for lower amounts. Source: IRS, "Understanding your Form 1099-K" (irs.gov/businesses/understanding-your-form-1099-k), checked 2026-10-20. General information, not tax advice.

Do I owe self-employment tax on side hustle income in the US?

According to the IRS, you must pay self-employment tax and file Schedule SE if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more. The rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare), and you may need to pay estimated taxes quarterly. Source: IRS, "Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)" (irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employment-tax-social-security-and-medicare-taxes), checked 2026-10-20. General information, not tax advice.

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Playbook

Step-by-step playbook for this model