Best service for setting up an online storefront?

[MrKyleRose]

Hello Tapastic community!

Some of you who frequent the message boards might know me but, my name is Kyle and I publish the comic The Working Stiff here on Tapas.

Right now I'm trying to set up an online store to sell both digital and physical comics and am looking for recommendations on which service to use. The two I have seen as popular options are Big Cartel and Gumroad. Both seem to support selling digital and physical products but it seems Gumroad tends to be more popular with digital only shops.

The other option I have been considering is Squarespace, since I am thinking about redoing my site anyway and that has sales tools integrated. It seems a little excessive to pay $10 for either a Gumroad or Big Cartel shop on top of the fee for Squarespace. However I'm not certain what the selling tools for Squarespace are like in comparison.

So does anyone have any personal experience with any of these or other services and can recommend which is the best to use.

Thanks,

[Kayke]

I like Storenvy! It's free to make a store and list stuff, but they take a processing free. For instance my most recent sale through there was for $28 but after processing I made $26.89.

They also give you the ability to make a custom store front as well as list your items in their marketplace.

[AnnaLandin]

@Kaykedrawsthings I've heard from some people who use Storenvy complain about it a bit - something about public marketplace listings not working as they should (?), and Storenvy demanding that the Paypal you use for it can't be a private one - but I'm not sure if that's just scaremongering or if it's actually true.

Have you had any issues with it? I'm considering opening up a storefront myself, but I can't decide if I should go with Storenvy or tictail.

... Though tictail is looking like the stronger contender right now, because I can't seem to type "Storenvy" without spelling it wrong ever single time. ^_^;

[MrKyleRose]

tictail

Thanks I'll check it out.

[MrKyleRose]

Never heard of tictail, but I'll have to give it a look. Thanks!

[Kayke]

@AnnaLandin I haven't had any issues with it? and my Paypal is a personal one, not a business account, but I set my shop up years ago so that might be a new thing they're doing.

I've never used Tictail so I can't compare, but I used to use Big Cartel and I def like Storenvy better than them.

[MrKyleRose]

thanks for the insight. It looks like even Retrofit uses storenvy, I'm going to try it out. Thanks again for the recommendation.

[AnnaLandin]

Thanks! I'll just have to check it out, then, and read up on their guidelines about it. : ) If it does turn out to not work, I can always switch to tictail.

[MrKyleRose]

It does appear that you need a business paypal account to set up at storenvy. Primarily because a business account can accept credit card payments and a personal account can't. However it does not look like you need a TaxID number or registered business (like an LLC) to upgrade your paypal account. It just seems like "business account" is the term they use for the additional features. I could be wrong about this but based on my research, this is what I've found.

[MrKyleRose]

To clarify even further, it seems like this is what you do if you are upgrading to a business account without a Legal Business or Tax ID number: Enter you own name in the "legal business name" field, then on the next page select "individual/sole proprietor" as the business type. Apparently they use to have a separate account type called "paypal premier" that worked the same way this does. Once again this is what I have found through my research and personal experience in setting up this account type, I have not confirmed this with paypal. It does seem to be working so far, I will update if there is any change.

Here is the help forum where I found this information:
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Business/Premier-Account-quot-Business-Name-quot/td-p/957356