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Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#121

Post by indigochill »

ksec wrote: post #68
mfost wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it impossible to reach and provide your service to Spotify merchants without going through the Spotify app store? If yes it's hypocritical, if not then the situation is totally different than what is going on with Apple.

Shopify . I agree with the case being different to Apple. And not sure why it is hypocritical. Not to mention Shopify holds no clear monopoly over e-commerce. Unless people want to argue the Shopify has a monopoly on Shopify App Store.

> Unless people want to argue the Shopify has a monopoly on Shopify App Store.

They're trying to enforce exclusive control over transactions made on their platform, which sounds a whole lot like Apple to me.

And also not unreasonable, IMO (since it's the business model their platform is built around), although their CEO trying to ride the outrage train for political points is pretty distasteful, especially when his own company is doing the same thing.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#122

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

foxhop wrote: post #115

I built an alternative for my wife called MakePostSell https://www.makepostsell.com Right now it only works for digital downloads but I'm planning to build out shipping and local pickup options for physical goods. Currently in beta but my wife is using the platform in production here: https://shop.printableprompts.com The only payment processor at this time is stripe. My thought is to allow people to bring their own…

Thank you for sharing this.

Having looked into it recently, the current pricing for online merchants is just excessive. Unless you are selling an item with a ridiculous margin, it is hard to keep up. And it isn't just Shopify and companies of the same type. Online marketplaces are about as bad in terms of trying to capture bigger slice of the pie.

I will keep watching your project.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#123

Post by yarcob »

foxhop wrote: post #115

I built an alternative for my wife called MakePostSell https://www.makepostsell.com Right now it only works for digital downloads but I'm planning to build out shipping and local pickup options for physical goods. Currently in beta but my wife is using the platform in production here: https://shop.printableprompts.com The only payment processor at this time is stripe. My thought is to allow people to bring their own…

Your welcome page doesn't mention VAT, so I am going to assume that you do not handle VAT. This makes your product unsuitable for anyone in Europe.

There are other solutions for digital products that take lower commissions, for example FastSpring (would not recommend) or MyCommerce (no experience).

They are probably not as sleek as Shopify, but their rates are around 5-9% (depending on how big average orders are), and they handle VAT and invoicing so you don't end up having to pay a lot of back taxes when the authorities audit your business.

They are built for selling software, but work just as well for ebooks etc.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#125

Post by victorNicollet »

tomaszs wrote: post #53

From a user perspective it is better for me to have one invoice from Shopify, in the right format with all necessary information and with additional tax documents required by law. If I had to set up payments for each extension and go through gathering invoices and documents it would be devastating. So as long as I understand the author I also understand why Shopify wants the billing API to be used. Also easy pay = mo…

On the other hand, if you pay $2000/month for some other service, you may be unhappy with having to pay an additional $500 just to have it connect to Shopify to expose some data.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#126

Post by [deleted] »

addictedcs wrote: post #64

If you delist your Shopify app from the app store you will not have to pay the 20% monthly commission from the new customers. It also means your app is private, and you will have to invest in your distribution channel now. Shopify stores can install it as a Private App, which means you will need to find new customers on your own. On a different note, I wouldn't recommend building an app that is strongly integrated in…

[deleted]

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#127

Post by kevincox »

wooque wrote: post #80

You have to use Shopify Billing for shops that installed your app through app store, but you can have Stripe for apps that installed your app directly through your site for example, that's how business I'm working for is doing. Basically if you want Shopify App Store customers, you have to give 20% to Shopify, but you still have option of acquiring users yourself through your site without app store. Is it fair? Maybe…

This seems pretty reasonable to me. If you don't like the deal you can still target these customers. 20% cut for advertising, billing and other features sounds like a deal that many people would (and do) take.

I would be much more bothered by the 20% cut if there was no other way to target these customers.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#128

Post by victorNicollet »

wooque wrote: post #80

You have to use Shopify Billing for shops that installed your app through app store, but you can have Stripe for apps that installed your app directly through your site for example, that's how business I'm working for is doing. Basically if you want Shopify App Store customers, you have to give 20% to Shopify, but you still have option of acquiring users yourself through your site without app store. Is it fair? Maybe…

The Shopify terms state that if your application accesses the Shopify API and is used by two or more merchants, then you have to give 20% to Shopify.

Do you have any references on there being an exception for apps not installed through the store ? I would be very interested.

Re: Shopify says remove Stripe billing or get booted from their app store

#130

Post by boris9999 »

How is this a problem? Are all marketplaces bad? Were you forced to sell there?

You chose to sell your app on their marketplace and agreed to their TOS and pricing. They provide you with access to their marketplace and you agree to pay them 20%. Were you aware that these are the terms and broke them anyway?

It's like an Uber diver who will start charging cash without going through the Uber app to avoid paying Uber. Or maybe start a McDonald's franchise and hide all the profits. Not to mention paying taxes to the government...

Apple controls the iOS platform, so it's a different case. Shopify does not prevent you from selling on your own website and taking 100% of the profits.

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