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Shopify alternative

For a shop, not a warehouse

Shopify is built to run an online store. If you run a real shop that also sells a few things online, that is a lot of machine for the job.

Takes ~32 seconds · no sign-up or credit card required
A real Clay site — built from a Google listing

Shopify is the best product in its category and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. If online sales are your business — stock levels, shipping zones, abandoned baskets, a hundred SKUs — use Shopify and stop reading.

But a great many businesses are not that. A bakery with eight things worth posting. A studio selling prints. A deli with a Christmas hamper. For those, a Shopify subscription is a monthly bill for a warehouse you do not have, and what you actually needed was a website with a basket on it.

Clay vs Shopify

FeatureClayShopify
Builds the first version for you
Reads your Google listing — photos, hours, reviews, map
Live before you sign up
Full inventory, variants, stock rules
Shipping zones and carrier ratesFlat rates
Abandoned basket recovery, discounts, apps
A proper website around the shopTheme
Menu, booking, hours, map, reviews
Monthly fee before your first sale
Right for 20 productsOverkill
Right for 2,000 products
What the shop does

Products, options, a basket, paid

Photographs, a price, options like size or flavour, and a checkout that takes a card. Enough to sell a box of pastries or a print run; not enough to run a fulfilment operation, and it does not pretend to be.

And around it

The rest of the site is the point

A shop on its own does not answer the question most of your visitors have, which is whether you are open and where you are. On Clay the shop is one band on a site that also carries your hours, your map, your reviews and how to reach you — because for a real-world business that is what the traffic is looking for.

What you get

A website first, with a shop in it
No monthly fee before you have sold anything
Built from your Google listing — photographs, hours, map, reviews
Move to Shopify later if you outgrow it, and you will know when

How it works

1

Search your business

Type your name — Clay pulls your photos, hours, reviews and contact details straight from your Google listing.

2

Pick a style

Choose a look and Clay builds a full site around your content. Change anything with a tap — no code, no templates to wrestle.

3

You're online

Publish to your own name.clay.site in minutes. Add a custom domain and connect your own tools whenever you're ready.

Real sites, made with Clay

Open one. It is the live site in a frame, not a screenshot — so what you see is what it looks like right now.

Questions

How many products can I list?

There is no hard cap, but the shop is designed for a browsable list rather than a searchable catalogue. Past a hundred or so you want proper filtering and stock control, which means Shopify.

How do payments work?

Card payments through Stripe, straight into your own account. There is no marketplace fee on top.

Can I do click and collect?

Yes — collection is the common case for a local shop, and it is the default. Flat-rate delivery is there too; carrier-calculated rates are not.

What about stock levels?

You can mark something sold out. There is no live inventory syncing with a till system — if you need that, you need a real commerce platform.

Can I move to Shopify later?

Yes, and you should if the shop becomes the business. Your products are yours; your domain moves with you.

Can I use my own Stripe account?

It is the only way it works — payments go straight to your account and Clay takes no cut of a sale. What you type as a price is what the customer pays.

What happens to my product photos?

Upload from your phone and they are cropped and compressed on our side, so a forty-product page still opens fast on a phone with one bar of signal.

For a shop, not a warehouse

Search your business and see your site in seconds — free, no signup.

Takes ~32 seconds · no sign-up or credit card required