Stripe dot com payment system

Products,Tools, and Software
1

First, I’d like to thank David for implementing new feature with stripe account and possibility to accept cards as payment.
However, I have a question.

Why do they keep your money for so long? Like my funds will be available only more than a week after payment was made!! Is it just first time or every time? None of payment sys keep money for so long, paypal, venmo even check - you can get money as fast as next hour with fee, and next b. d. without. I certainly don’t like this part of stripe system

2

Hi Julia,

The first payouts do take one to two weeks, and yes, it is to manage their and the buyers’ exposure to fraud. This is good for us all as sellers because it maintains Strip’s reputation as a safe way to buy online.

After the first payouts, the default payout frequency is weekly. That can be changed. Mine, for artist membership fees is every two days.

As with any payment processor, the longer you maintain a good reputation with Stripe (few buyer complaints and chargebacks) the more flexibility you will be extended.

Here’s more about payouts from Stripe: https://stripe.com/docs/payouts

I have worked with PayPal for over 12 years and have seen their policies and customer service become more and more seller unfriendly. Because of this, I spent a great amount of time researching alternatives to offer our artists and buyers, and finally settled on Stripe.com.

A big selling feature of Stripe, for me, is, unlike PayPal, and Amazon, Google, Apple payments, buyers do not need, actually cannot have, a Stripe account. Sellers do, however, but that is true for all payment processors or the seller would have no way of receiving payouts. To the buyer, they are simply paying with their card.

After working with Stripe for the last 8 months, I have no doubts about my decision. Their fees are 50% lower than PayPal’s, and their policies are as friendly and respectful to sellers as they are to buyers. They clearly want and are grateful for loyal customers and I think that is the best way to run a business.

Take care,

David

5 Likes
3

Ok, thanks a lot for your response. All make sense. Well, I think I will get used to new payment system, lower fees are certainly better than paypal’s :sweat_smile:

4

Hello, David. I also have a question about Stripe. I just received my first Stripe payment, and unlike PayPal, it appears that they do not have any shipping integration in their system. Am I correct? Furthermore, unlike PayPal, they do not provide me with the customer’s shipping address, and my only source of this information is the DPW notification that the painting has sold. I’m just checking to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Thanks so much,
Irina.

5

Same here Irina,

As I understood, there is no option in stripe to put “shipped” and assign tracking. You have to send email to customer with all needed. And yes, only dpw gives shipping info.

But let’s see if David conforms it as well :sweat_smile:

6

Yes, I agree, with PayPal, it’s very convenient to have all that info: transaction, customer data, full or partial refunds, shipping label, tracking info, etc. But if a customer prefers another tool, it’s better to have it ready and available for them :)

7

Oh, refunds as well. I need to make one, partial for extra shipping. Is it possible via stripe?

8

Never mind, it’s doable, just did it. In menu with transaction press three dots, then refund, then sum of refund (could be partial or full sum).

9

PayPal is definitely a full service payment processor, while Stripe isn’t. In fact, PayPal is effectively a bank with many people using their PayPal account as they would a checking account.

Stripe, on the other hand, does one thing, which is process card payments, and it does it very well. Stripe is great for tracking your buyer transactions and doing things like giving refunds. Any other features, such as getting the buyer address and sales information, and printing orders and packing slips, is the responsibility of the ecommerce platform that integrates with Stripe, such as DPW.

A good question is why accept card payments through Stripe when PayPal accepts card payments even without having a PayPal account?

It comes down to cost, customer service, and policies. Stripe transaction fees are 2.9% + 30 cent per transaction where PayPal fees are 3.49% + 49 cents. As you can see, the seller ends up paying for the extra features PayPal provides.

Customer service can be a bigger issue. Many sellers and some buyers have found PayPal service and policies to be less than friendly and the trend not being positive. This includes, difficulty in contacting support, onerous and continuing identity verification issues, and holding funds for extended periods of time. Further, PayPal leans in the favor of the buyer often at the expense of the seller. Stripe, on the other hand, has consistently better service and friendlier policies.

A buyer can pay with a card through PayPal without needing a PayPal account, however, if the buyer has a PayPal account, PayPal will require the buyer to sign in to it. With Stripe, not only doesn’t a buyer need a Stripe account, they cannot have a Stripe account unless they are also sellers. A buyer doesn’t even need to know or care about Stripe. To the buyer, they are simply paying with their card.

All of this is why we decided to offer Stripe to give both our artists and buyers an alternative to PayPal. With Stripe, an artist can be a member of DPW without needing a PayPal account at all.

DPW does provide many of the features PayPal has that Stripe doesn’t. DPW lets you view and print an order for the artist’s records and a packing slip for the buyer from the “I want to…” drop down menu for the artwork in the Art Tracking Grid. Both the order and the slip have the buyer’s email and shipping address. You can also view a sales report.

As for shipping labels, for US artists, you can’t do better than the click and ship feature on the USPS.com website, where you can pay for and print Priority Shipping labels with tracking and insurance, both of which we strongly recommended. There is no membership fee to be able to do this and you pay the same amount as you would at the post office. All you need is an inexpensive scale. As a plus, USPS will deliver Priority shipping boxes to your house for free.

3 Likes
10

Thank you David so much, great response!

11

Many thanks, David! Lots of useful information! By the way, I completely missed the addition of the option to print orders and packing slips. Today was the first time I used it, and it worked great. Thank you very much!