As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly choose an ecommerce platform for your UK business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a document and record your products, sales channels, expected growth, countries served, VAT needs, payment methods, delivery process, integrations, team skills, budget, launch date and non-negotiable features.
   2. Collect the current official documentation and pricing pages for the platforms you are considering, including payment, VAT, shipping, integrations, data export and contract information.
   3. Paste the business details and platform names into the prompt, then add the official URLs below the relevant platform names.
   4. Ask the chatbot to produce the comparison, recommendation, trade-offs, questions and trial checklist without filling unknowns with estimates.
   5. Open every cited official page and compare its current wording with the claims in the table, replacing unsupported claims with unknown.
   6. Test the recommended platform and second choice with a sample product, checkout, delivery rule, refund, tax setting and required integration, then record any missing workflow.
   7. Send the shortlist, verified comparison and open questions to the person responsible for finance, operations or technical delivery before signing a contract.

   Prompt

   Act as a procurement researcher, not the final decision-maker. Help me choose an ecommerce platform for a UK business.
   
   Business details:
   - Business type and products: [describe]
   - Current sales channels: [describe]
   - Expected order volume and growth: [describe without guessing]
   - Required countries, currencies and VAT treatment: [describe]
   - Required payment methods: [list]
   - Required delivery, fulfilment and returns workflows: [describe]
   - Required integrations, including accounting, stock, email marketing and marketplaces: [list]
   - Team size and technical ability: [describe]
   - Budget and preferred contract length: [describe]
   - Launch deadline: [date]
   - Features that are essential: [list]
   - Features that are unacceptable: [list]
   
   Compare these candidate platforms: [platform names]. If the list is empty, suggest a shortlist suitable for the requirements, including both hosted and self-hosted options where relevant. Research current information for the UK and cite the official source URL for every material claim about price, transaction fees, payment support, VAT, shipping, integrations, data processing, contract terms or platform limits. Use information available on 13 August 2026 only where it is explicitly confirmed. Do not invent prices, features or limits. Mark anything you cannot verify as unknown.
   
   Create:
   1. A requirements summary, separating my stated requirements from assumptions.
   2. A comparison table covering total cost categories, UK payments, VAT and invoicing needs, delivery, integrations, SEO, catalogue size, scalability, data export, support, contract terms and migration difficulty.
   3. The three most important trade-offs for this business.
   4. A best-fit recommendation and a credible second choice, with the exact requirement each satisfies and the main reason not to choose it.
   5. A list of questions I must ask each platform before signing.
   6. A verification checklist telling me what to test in a trial or demo.
   Do not make the final decision for me. End by stating which unknown answer could change the recommendation.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.