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Have Claude act as your inventory analyst and AI make your listing images when you run online brands with no employees
Alex Willen, a former B2B software product manager who buys and runs 12 small e-commerce brands (including Lone Trail, a hunting-gear brand) that sell mostly on Amazon, with no employees, in CNBC (he also writes a free newsletter, The Automated Operator, about trying to have AI run his business)
Per CNBC, Anthropic's Claude helps with bookkeeping, customer service, advertising and inventory across his brands, and OpenAI image tools do work that used to go to photographers and designers. For Lone Trail he used ChatGPT and Claude to rebuild the Shopify site and AI to help run its Meta ads instead of shutting the channel down.
Claude $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) · ChatGPT Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo
Medium · or we set it up for $197
Claude, ChatGPT, OpenAI image tools, Shopify, Meta Ads
The problem
Running a dozen brands alone meant reordering stock, ads, bookkeeping, customer service and listing images. He says a product photo shoot used to cost $2,000 to $5,000 and a designer $300 to $1,000 for new listing images, and that without AI he'd need one more full-time person plus contractors for photography, design, bookkeeping and ad management. Lone Trail's own Shopify site brought in only about 1% of its sales when he bought it.
What happened
He expects the 12 brands to bring in $2.5 million to $3 million this year with no employees. In a recent 30-day period Shopify was about 30% of Lone Trail's revenue, up from about 1%, which he says will be at least six figures a year that wouldn't exist without AI. He says money saved on photographers and designers "just goes into my pocket." About 80% of revenue still comes through Amazon. Self-reported.
Quoted in the source: Alex Willen, operator of 12 e-commerce brands including Lone Trail. Source: CNBC: America's newest small business owners with no employees are off to a hot start in AI era (Barbara Booth) (2026-11-07) · Added 2026-11-09.
How to set it up yourself
- Export your last 12 months of sales by product and your current stock and supplier lead times into one spreadsheet (most marketplaces and Shopify have a report for this).
- Upload it to Claude with the prompt below and ask what you should reorder and when. Write down the context only you know (a supplier's holiday, a product you're dropping) and paste it in too.
- For listing images, photograph the real product on your phone and ask ChatGPT's image tool for a clean white-background version and a feature infographic. Check every claim on the image is true before you upload it.
- Test new images against old ones where your marketplace allows it, and keep the winner. Re-run the reorder check every two weeks.
Copy-paste prompt
You're my inventory analyst. Attached is a spreadsheet with 12 months of unit sales per product, current stock on hand, units on order, and supplier lead time in days. Extra context: {SEASONALITY, PRODUCTS BEING DROPPED, SUPPLIER CLOSURES}. For each product, project sales for the next 90 days, tell me the date I'll run out at the current pace, and tell me what to reorder this week and how many units, keeping a {X}-week safety buffer. Show your working in a table and flag any product where you're unsure.We set up one AI automation in your tools, live within 48 hours of getting access, for $197. No call needed. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297).
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Tools used
Claude
AI assistant for writing, long documents, analysis and coding help.
From $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (checked 2026-11-10)
Visit site →
ChatGPT
General AI assistant for writing, research, brainstorming and analysis.
From Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo (checked 2026-11-09)
Visit site →Some tool links may be affiliate links. Disclosure
Checked prices: Claude: from $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (verified 2026-11-10) · ChatGPT: from Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo (verified 2026-11-09)
Rather not do it yourself?
The $197 Quick-Win: we set up one AI automation that saves you hours each week, in accounts you own, live within 48 hours of getting access. No call needed. Refund if it isn't live in 48 hours or isn't doing its job in the first 14 days. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297). Terms.
See the $197 Quick-WinNeed more than one automation or ongoing care? Bigger setups: $149/mo with setup included (6-month minimum), or $497 pay-once. Satisfaction guarantee: we'll fix it until it works. Pay-once setups: or we refund your setup fee. $149/mo plan: cancel in the first 30 days and we refund your first month. We reply within 1 business day.
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