Question 1

What is Gwinn?

Accepted Answer

Gwinn is an AI-run commerce platform for independent makers. It gives you a point-of-sale and an online store that share one inventory, plus an AI assistant that handles product photos, descriptions, and customer support.

Question 2

Who is Gwinn for?

Accepted Answer

Makers, artisans, and small shop owners who sell at craft fairs, markets, and pop-ups and want to sell online too — without hiring a developer or learning complex software.

Question 3

Is Gwinn Swiss?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Gwinn is built in Zürich by a Swiss company, for Swiss makers first, for Europe next, and after that for anyone anywhere. Prices are in Swiss francs, TWINT is built in rather than bolted on, and the infrastructure is European with an open plan to move the rest of it into Switzerland. The full row-by-row list of what already runs where lives at /made-in-switzerland.

Question 4

How long does it take to set up a store?

Accepted Answer

About an afternoon. Upload a few products (or import a CSV), let the AI draft descriptions and style your photos, connect payments, and you can be live the same day.

Question 5

I already sell with Stripe, SumUp or Worldline — how do I switch?

Accepted Answer

Bring your catalogue with you instead of re-typing it. If you're on Stripe, link the Stripe account you already have — your checkout keeps working and your products import in one click. From SumUp or Worldline/SIX, upload the CSV export from their dashboard and Gwinn reads it (including German/French headers and Swiss price formats). You review every item before anything is written to your shop.

Question 6

Do I need to be technical?

Accepted Answer

No. Gwinn is built for makers, not store managers. The AI does the setup busywork, and a guided tour walks you through the dashboard.

Question 7

How much does it cost?

Accepted Answer

Selling in person is free, forever — the store, POS and inventory sync cost CHF 0/month and Gwinn adds nothing on in-person payments. Online and AI-agent orders carry a 1% platform fee on the Free plan (a month with no online sales costs CHF 0). Pro is CHF 25/month with a 14-day free trial: it removes the 1% and unlocks unmetered AI. Month-to-month — cancel anytime.

Question 8

Can I sell both in person and online?

Accepted Answer

Yes — that's the core of Gwinn. One inventory powers both your point-of-sale and your online store, and stock stays in sync in real time so you never oversell.

Question 9

How do I get paid?

Accepted Answer

You connect your own Stripe account and your customers pay directly into it — Gwinn never holds your money. On the Free plan a 1% platform fee is taken automatically on online and AI-agent orders only; in-person sales are always fee-free, and Pro removes the fee entirely.

Question 10

Do I need to buy a card reader?

Accepted Answer

No — payments happen on the phone you already own, via the Gwinn POS app: contactless card, Apple Pay / Google Pay, and TWINT QR. Nobody inserts a card anymore, they tap, so there's no reader to buy, rent, or plug in.

Question 11

How is Gwinn cheaper than Stripe, SumUp, or Worldline?

Accepted Answer

Those tools were built for an era when websites were hard and a card reader was king, so they charge for hardware, setup, and lock-in — easily around CHF 2,000 a year. AI builds your store in an afternoon and your phone is the terminal, so the real cost is tiny. Gwinn passes that saving on: selling in person is free, online orders carry just a 1% platform fee on the Free plan, and Pro is a flat CHF 25/month — roughly one-hundredth of the old way.

Question 12

What if I keep my inventory in a notebook?

Accepted Answer

That's fine — keep it however you already do. Snap a photo of your handwritten list and the AI reads it into a real catalogue (names, prices, quantities). AI is good with ambiguity, so you don't have to become an 'inventory person.'

Question 13

Do I have to tag every sale at a busy market?

Accepted Answer

No. Just enter the amount and take the tap. At the end of the day Gwinn emails its best guess at what you sold; you tap to confirm and each piece is marked sold across your store and POS automatically.

Question 14

Can I bring products from another platform?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Import your catalogue with CSV or bulk photo upload, so switching from Shopify, Square, or a spreadsheet is quick.

Question 15

Will AI assistants be able to find my products?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every store publishes an llms.txt and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint, so AI assistants and agents can discover and recommend your products, alongside normal search-engine SEO.

Question 16

What about product photos?

Accepted Answer

Take one rough phone photo and the AI restyles it into a clean product shot or an on-model image — no photographer or studio needed. AI-styled images are always disclosed.

Question 17

Can I upgrade or downgrade anytime?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Changes take effect at your next billing cycle.

Question 18

Is there a contract?

Accepted Answer

No. All paid plans are month-to-month. Cancel anytime.

Question 19

Where is my store's data stored?

Accepted Answer

In Europe. Gwinn runs on servers we rent from Hetzner, a German hosting company, in European data centres — in most cases in Germany. Your products, orders and customers' details live in a database on those machines, not on a cloud region on the other side of an ocean.

Question 20

Does any of my data leave Europe?

Accepted Answer

Some of it reaches companies we don't run ourselves: card payments are handled by Stripe (card numbers never touch Gwinn's servers), our AI features send text and photos to a model provider, and account emails go through an email service — and not all of those are European. Everything Gwinn itself stores stays on our European servers. The sub-processors are named in the privacy policy, and the current list is available on request.

Question 21

Is Gwinn covered by the GDPR and Swiss data protection?

Accepted Answer

Both apply. Gwinn serves merchants in Switzerland and the EU, so the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (revFADP) and the GDPR both come into play — where they differ we work to the stricter one. Hosting in the EU makes that a much shorter conversation, and where we process your customers' data on your behalf, a Data Processing Agreement governs it.

Question 22

Are you moving the rest of the stack to Europe?

Accepted Answer

Yes, piece by piece, and we publish the state of it rather than the ambition. Servers and your database are already European; TWINT already runs on Swiss rails. Card payments, the AI, product-photo storage and account email are the ones still outside Europe, each with a stated next step — the whole ledger is at /made-in-switzerland, including the parts (card networks, phone wallets) that are never going to be European.

Question 23

Can I get my data out again?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on every plan — including Free. Export your catalogue and store profile as a JSON file from Data & privacy in your admin, any time, without asking us. Deleting your store is a support request purely so we can confirm it's really you.

Question 24

Do prices include VAT?

Accepted Answer

There's no VAT to add. Gwinn is under the CHF 100,000 Swiss VAT registration threshold, so the price you see is the price you pay. If that ever changes, we'll say so before it does.