CALLING ALL SELLERS: You can now enable your shop to take card payments!

Yep, I’m with you on this and and in no hurry to sign over.
I like Paypal, and I like the instant access to funds.

Over on another site I do have card payments activated and 50% of sales are paid via this, but funds are not available instantly and can take up to four days to hit my bank account.

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Thanks Karen. That’s very helpful. I do have customers who dont like to use Paypal and at the moment I sort them out by sending them a direct Paypal invoice which they seem to find easier to pay using their card than when they try through Folksy. That is the restriction on number of times they do it coming into play I think.

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I would add that this is an option to sit alongside the existing Paypal - it is simply a way of increasing payment gateways, giving the customer more choice.

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I have just taken a look at the Stripe dashboard for my account, and the public information to be shared with customers does NOT include my phone number, merely business name, statement descriptor (their term - mine is Fiona Humphrey Art) email and Folksy shop name. I am happy with this as this is information I share in any event.
Fiona

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Thanks Fiona, I’ll have another look on the dashboard later to double check that mine won’t show. I was eating my tea at the same time as signing up, so maybe I missed something on the dashboard.

x

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Someone on the Facebook group commented that it takes 7 days to get your money…
When I looked on the Folksy write up about it says you can choose the timescale for that, so I don’t know, but I suspect it would not be instant like Paypal.
I really hope we have a choice…this pinned post makes it seem like a command!

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Hi, seems ages since I popped on here, nice to see familiar names.
Yes, I know that feeling, and I had to go back and check, I wasn’t sure, hopefully any issues can be ironed out.
Fiona x

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It’s a good question, I don’t know if they will be expecting everyone to take it up in addition, I saw it as an option, but worth clarifying.
Fiona :slight_smile:

Perhaps @folksycontent could clarify this for us?

Hello – thanks so much for your feedback on this thread. I’m going to have a go at responding to it all in one post, but do let me know if I miss anything out.


Are you aware that you will be allowing Stripe to debit your bank account if you sign up ?

Yes, this is the case. In this respect, it’s exactly like PayPal.
Also like PayPal, the only functonality that Folksy uses with Stripe is the ability to put money into your account when you make a sale. We will be deducting our sales fee at this point, but that is done before the money lands in your Stripe account, so at no point will we be seeking access to any account of yours other than to make a payment.

Where it differs from our PayPal integration is in the lower fees and the greater flexibility it enables you to offer your customers.


I know you (Folksy) are saying “stripe” is cheaper to use than Paypal for sellers but I don’t see why you are saying it is better for buyers. Buyers don’t need a Paypal account to pay by card, they can pay as a guest and then enter their details, or can they not do that through Folksy?

There have been reports of people struggling to pay by card through PayPal without explicitly setting up a PayPal account. This has been an intermittent problem with PayPal that we have talked about with them. Currently when a buyer who doesn’t have or want a PayPal account comes across this problem they can use the alternative checkout form on Folksy, but it’s not ideal.

There are also a limited number of times that you can checkout as a guest in this way before PayPal insist that a buyer register for an account. That number is pretty high, but it applies across the whole internet, not just Folksy. With Stripe, this simply is not an issue as it has been designed from the outset for the utmost convenience of the buyer.


I presume this is not compulsory?

No, it isn’t. We are very keen for sellers to adopt it, though. We’ve thought through possible measures to encourage sellers to connect their Folksy accounts to Stripe but as yet haven’t come up with any really great answers. We don’t want to do anything like make it a compulsory prerequisite to selling because we really don’t want to place any obstacles in the way of new or existing sellers listing and selling their work.

That said, the advantages of sellers enabling card payments will only take effect in those baskets where every seller has connected with Stripe, so we obviously are hoping that people will take advantage of it. Currently there’s a big banner displayed to sellers who haven’t connected asking them to do so (you may have noticed ;)), but we can’t just leave that there forever.


I think this sounds like a great feature. Some buyers don’t realise you don’t need a paypal account and direct payments means buyers don’t leave the Folksy site. Much better thank you Folksy!

Not that this was begging for a response, but – thank you! :slight_smile:


I’ve signed up to it, it didn’t take long, though I really don’t want my mobile number to show up on customers credit card statements. It said this can be changed when I was signing up, but I can’t find where to do this anywhere on the dashboard (you have to put your phone number in when signing up, otherwise it won’t let you do it).

I’ve emailed Stripe support about this and will let you know what they say.


I’ve never heard of Stripe. I need a lot of convincing before I sign my life and bank account away to it.

They’re a big, reputable and well-trusted company. For an overview of just how ubiquitous they are see this page: https://stripe.com/us/customers

As for putting bank details in there, they are an online payment service provider just like PayPal. I do understand if people are nervous because they aren’t familiar with the name, but that’s why we’ve started pushing the connect-to-Stripe work before the payments system is implemented: to give people time to look into them and become more familiar with them.


I haven’t heard of Stripe either, and to be honest I felt rather anxious to see the sign up banner glaring out at me on my shop front.

Oh, I am sorry about that, we definitely didn’t want to cause anyone any anxiety. We really need sellers to know about connecting to Stripe so we put it where they’d be guaranteed to see it. As said above, there are conversations ongoing about the best ways to let sellers know about this.


Over on another site I do have card payments activated and 50% of sales are paid via this, but funds are not available instantly and can take up to four days to hit my bank account.

On Stripe you can set it up to transfer to your bank account daily, so that shouldn’t be an issue.


I would add that this is an option to sit alongside the existing Paypal - it is simply a way of increasing payment gateways, giving the customer more choice.

Absolutely! That’s exactly how we’re hoping people will see it. However our communications on this work may have been a little terse (because we haven’t wanted to overface people with yet more things to read), so there’s maybe something for us to consider there.


I have just taken a look at the Stripe dashboard for my account, and the public information to be shared with customers does NOT include my phone number, merely business name, statement descriptor (their term - mine is Fiona Humphrey Art) email and Folksy shop name. I am happy with this as this is information I share in any event.

Brilliant, thank you! That’s exactly what I thought, but as this has caused concern I’ve nonetheless asked our contact at Stripe support about it in case any additional reassurance is needed.


Someone on the Facebook group commented that it takes 7 days to get your money…

That’s only for the first payments received after you sign up. After that, your money is transferred to your bank account as regularly as you tell it to in your Stripe settings.


I really hope we have a choice…this pinned post makes it seem like a command!

Please bear with us on this. As I said above, we’re trying to negotiate a tone to fit between our strong desire that our sellers connect their accounts with Stripe and our desire not to put any obstacles between sellers listing and selling things.


I hope that answers your questions for now. I’ll check back in later (as you may have guessed, I’m rather absorbed by implementing the actual Stripe payments at the moment!) to see if I’ve missed anything.

And thanks so much for your feedback again,
Doug.

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I :heartpulse: you @dougfolksy !

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*blushes*
Thank you! :slight_smile:

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Thank you @dougfolksy .
Although it is obvious why Stripe need our bank details, in order to transfer payments to our bank, why do they need us to set up a direct debit so that they can take money from our bank account? I understand why this happens on Paypal as I use Paypal for purchasing and may not always have sufficient funds in my account, but I will not be using Stripe this way. Is this for refunding payments back to the customer?..and if so do they contact us before this is done?

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Hello! Yes, refunds would be a reason why they’d need to be able to do that.
However, refunds are only initiated by you clicking to refund a customer in your Stripe dashboard, so only happen when you explicitly tell them to by clicking the ‘Refund’ button. Refunds wouldn’t happen without your knowing.

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@dougfolksy
Thank you for your explanations.
I understand that Stripe can be set to send funds to your bank account as often as we choose, but there is still a time lag.
It may leave Stripe immediately but…as with Worldpay…the way it is set up means that it will still take between 2-3 working days to appear in our bank account.
As opposed to Paypal, where funds can be accessed immediately.

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Me too :slight_smile:

Will the refund allow partial refund as currently on Paypal. I often just did another today) send a refund for excess combined postage. ???

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@dougfolksy
Thank you for the info so far . I’m all for customers having a different method of payment . There have been a few occasions where I have lost a sale due to someone’s reluctance / inability to use Paypal . I’m ready to sign up ! but … I’m not familiar with this company myself , so,… from a customers point of view , how much info will be given with regards to the ‘Stripe’ method of payment .? Do they need to know the name/ company before they are comfortable paying via Stripe , or will there just be the options to pay via debit/ credit card ( and no reference to the provider? )
Regards, Ali

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@JOYSofGLASS -good point ! I often have to refund some postage in the case of multiple purchases made . Which is easy to do via Paypal .

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@thesherbetpatch said:

It may leave Stripe immediately but…as with Worldpay…the way it is set up means that it will still take between 2-3 working days to appear in our bank account.

I shall ask our Stripe contact about that. I’d assumed that a daily transfer would go through that day, but you could well be right – thanks very much for your question! I’ll let you know what he says.


@JOYSofGLASS said:

Will the refund allow partial refund as currently on Paypal.

Yes, I definitely remember mention of partial refunds! I think it was in the video we linked to, which gets pretty deep and advanced before it gets to the more useful bits, sorry – we’ve fed some of our suggestions about that video back to Stripe.


@AliDufty said:

from a customers point of view , how much info will be given with regards to the ‘Stripe’ method of payment .? Do they need to know the name/ company before they are comfortable paying via Stripe , or will there just be the options to pay via debit/ credit card ( and no reference to the provider? )

It will be exactly as your last suggestion – the pay-with-card option is Folksy-branded, and the customer need know nothing about Stripe at all.

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