Selling online: the store and payments suited to your offer

Three families of offers, three different tools

"Selling online" doesn't mean the same thing depending on what you sell. Matching the tool to the type of offer saves you from paying for useless features — or hitting a wall.

Physical products (items to ship): you need a cart, stock management, shipping fees and labels. This is the turf of Shopify (from ~€29/month) and WooCommerce (free extension on WordPress; you pay for hosting and some modules).
Digital offers (ebook, template, course, presets, music): no stock or delivery, just a file or access to deliver after payment. Light, cheap tools: Payhip, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, or Stan Store for creators.
Services & engagements (coaching, consulting, subscription): often sold via a simple payment link or an offer page, without a full store. Stripe Payment Links, Systeme.io, Stan Store.

Many solo entrepreneurs don't need a full store: a payment link is more than enough to start.

Stripe: the payment engine under almost everything

Whatever the front-facing tool, it's very often Stripe that actually collects card payments behind the scenes (with PayPal as a complement to reassure some buyers). Good to know:

Stripe charges no subscription: it earns a commission, around 1.5% + €0.25 per European transaction (more for non-European cards). It's the standard; don't look for "cheaper," look for "well integrated."
With Stripe Payment Links, you create a payment link or QR code in two minutes with no site at all: ideal to sell a service, collect a deposit or test an offer.
Stripe also handles recurring subscriptions, installment payments and automatic billing — useful as soon as your offer becomes recurring.

All-in-one "creator" solutions

For those selling digital products and services to an audience (social media, newsletter), all-in-one solutions avoid assembling ten tools:

Stan Store: a "link-in-bio" store built for creators — selling coaching, digital products and bookings from a single link in your Instagram/TikTok bio. ~$29/month.
Systeme.io: sales funnels, store, emailing, course area and affiliation combined, with a generous free plan. Very popular for launching an offer on no budget. Limit: the design is less refined than dedicated tools.
Payhip / Gumroad: selling digital products with no subscription, on commission, in a few clicks. Perfect for a first ebook or template.

The trade-off is clear: an all-in-one saves you a huge amount of time at the start, at the cost of a bit less control and polish. To validate an offer, it's almost always the right choice.

Reducing cart abandonment: the details that pay

The sale is won or lost at the moment of payment. A few concrete settings, valid across all tools:

As few fields as possible. Every piece of information requested loses buyers. Email + card is often enough.
Show the all-in price (VAT, shipping) before the final step. Fees that appear at the end are the number one cause of abandonment.
Offer several methods: card, PayPal, Apple/Google Pay. The express payment button sometimes doubles conversions on mobile.
Reassure visibly: secure-payment notice, clear refund policy, a real contact. Trust is built just before the purchase click.

The online seller's minimum compliance

Selling online imposes a few obligations not to neglect: accessible terms of sale, legal notices, a clear refund policy and, in Europe, respecting the right of withdrawal for consumers (with its exceptions for digital goods delivered immediately). Most platforms provide templates; have them reviewed and adapt them to your business. We come back to GDPR compliance in chapter 9.

Key takeaways

Choose the tool based on the type of offer — physical, digital or service — and don't roll out a full store when a simple Stripe link is enough. Plug Stripe in as the payment engine, polish the payment step to limit abandonment, and lay the base compliance. Start with the lightest option: you'll move upmarket when volume justifies it.