The Bournemouth Rugby official shop sells the club’s new 2026/27 kit: match kit for adults and juniors, training and travel wear, heritage pieces and accessories. The chevron from the club’s history is back on the new kit, and it runs through the shop as well.

We built it, and Kim Thompson from our team led the build from start to finish. We wanted to write it up honestly, including how much AI was involved, because “we used AI” can mean anything from a few product descriptions to the whole job.

A deadline set by a kit launch

The shop had to be ready for the new kit launch, and there was no moving that date.

“The initial build was on a tight timeline. I had around 20 days to get the shop ready for the new kit launch, which meant a lot of long days and evenings. We opened at the start of September with the kit on pre-order, so the club could see what people wanted before committing to stock.”

The shop is separate from the club’s main website, which already handles memberships, so the two don’t get in each other’s way. It still needed to look like it belongs to the same club.

“I designed the shop myself, taking details from the club’s new kit, like the chevrons, and working them into the site. I wanted it to feel like its own thing while still sitting comfortably alongside the club’s main website. Once I had the designs for each section, I used AI to help build them out, going back and forth until each part was right. I led the design and the decisions, and AI helped me get it built in the time we had.”

The second drop

At the end of October came the next range, and with it the fiddly part of selling clothing.

“The second drop at the end of October was a much bigger job: new outerwear, accessories, heritage pieces, final pricing, and VAT that has to be handled size by size for junior kit. It’s the kind of detail customers never notice when it’s right, and definitely notice when it’s wrong.”

The Junior Travel Hoodie product page on the Bournemouth Rugby shop, with the hoodie on the left and the price, size buttons, size guide link and Add to basket button on the right — A junior product page: sizes as buttons, with the size guide one click away.

One stock count for the website and the club shop

Once the stock arrived, the online shop and the physical club shop needed to agree on what was left.

“Once the stock arrived, we connected the online shop to the club’s Lightspeed till, so there’s one stock count for both. When something sells in the physical club shop, the online stock updates too. I tested everything on staging first, then spent the night before the physical shop opened matching a hand-written stock count against supplier invoices and pre-orders, and getting it all into the till.”

What AI did, and what Kim did

Here is roughly how the work split:

Work	Mostly AI-assisted	Mostly Kim
Theme and mega-menu code	Yes (Claude Code)	Design, direction, review, testing
Pricing, margin and VAT workings	Yes	Club decisions, sign-off
Product import files and stock checks	Yes	Gathering the data, checking, importing
Talking to the club and suppliers		All of it
Site setup, configuration and plugins	Some	Most of it
Product images, content and testing	Help with descriptions	Testing and image choices (the club supplied the photography)
Lightspeed setup and go-live	Import files and guidance	Documenting changes, testing throughout

“I used AI throughout, especially for the data-heavy work: going through supplier price lists, working through margins and VAT, building import files, and checking stock against invoices and orders. That saved me a huge amount of time. There were still plenty of long days, but it meant I could spend my time on the decisions that needed a person. I led the build, made the calls, talked to the club and suppliers, and tested everything myself, but I couldn’t have pulled it all together on my own before the deadline.”

AI did the most where the work was spreadsheets and repetition. The parts that depended on knowing the club, the suppliers and the customers stayed with a person.

“I think of AI as a very fast colleague. It’s great at spreadsheets, import files and spotting inconsistencies, but the client relationship, the judgement calls and the long hours were still mine. My honest take: AI made me quicker, not redundant.”

Have a look

Get behind the Lions at store.bournemouth-rugby.co.uk.

If you sell online and in person and you’re keeping two stock counts, or you’re working to a launch date that won’t move, talk to us. Our two-minute AI readiness check is a good place to start.