3 ms·
Do you only need a payment gateway? I'm in Europe and there is a lot more to accept payments here: You need to ask the customer for their location and then ca
by TekMol 4y ago
Do you only need a payment gateway?
I'm in Europe and there is a lot more to accept payments here:
You need to ask the customer for their location and then calculate VAT and other tax details depending on where they are.
You need to ask for their address and send them an invoice.
You need to store all that data and create tax reports from it.
I have not started to sell digital goods yet, but I am planning to.
Any tips on payment providers who abstract all of that away?
I think the payment provider then has to be the one from whom the customer buys the service and your "customer" is the payment provider?
I'm surprised there is not a big player who handles this for all online merchants around the world already. It must be a giant business.
- cryvate1284 4y agoI think you're talking about a merchant of record, like Paddle. https://www.paddle.com/ https://www.paddle.com/
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- radiojasper 4y ago> Any tips on payment providers who abstract all of that away? Stripe, Mollie. Mollie is kinda awesome and they're affordable and offer a vast array of payment systems, including a whole bunch of local systems like iDeal for NL markets, Przelewy24 for Polish markets, Bancontact for Belgium and a lot more.
- TekMol 4y agoI don't think that Stripe offers that the customer buys the product from them and Stripe buys it from you? If not, you are still left with one hell of a complex tax reporting. Even if Stripe should help you to gather all the needed data. Does stripe handle the invoicing? So that every customer gets an invoice they can use in their country?
- radiojasper 4y agoIf you want to run a(n online) business, you will have taxes to do and paperwork to keep up with. No single payment provider will take that away from you, you just need to pay a bookkeeper for that. Also: > I don't think that Stripe offers that the customer buys the product from them and Stripe buys it from you? I have no idea what you mean with this, sorry. > Does stripe handle the invoicing? So that every customer gets an invoice they can use in their country? Yes, Stripe does invoicing. How else are you going to book it into your own administration?
- TekMol 4y agoSo if Stripe works, why do you suggest Mollie? Isn't Stripe kind of the gold standard?
- radiojasper 4y agoSorry for recommending alternatives!! I will never do it again.
- yabatopia 4y agoThank you for recommending alternatives!
- yabatopia 4y agoThat's a very US-centric point of view. The world is bigger than US tech companies. Mollie is very popular in certain regions in the EU, with lots of local integrations. It would make little sense to use Stripe in such cases. Look for what works best for you, not what you think you should use according to US-based platforms/media.
- nerdawson 4y agoMy suggestion would be to use a Merchant of Record such as Paddle. They worry about all the complexities of payments, invoicing, taxes, etc. That stuff is a huge headache and could really blow up in your face if you get it wrong. Paying 5% of top line revenue to take it off your plate seems worth it to me.
- albertopv 4y agoIn Italy most of merchants use Paypal, Stripe or Nexi.