Hi all. I have a client who writes pdf guides and sells them as downloadable files. Currently using Woocommerce in WordPress. I want to change hime back to RW. It struck me that Paddle would be a suitable way for him to sell his ebookletsm and having enquired off Paddle find that is correct. I also see there are Paddle stacks available. So all the elements seem to be there, however on looking at the Paddle website it is definitely geared to the developer and as I am not one, just a humble website builder, I wondered if there was any handy guides out there as to how to use Paddle?
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I can help.
First of all, where is your client located? EU or Non-EU?
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He is actually in New Zealand where I am, however his audience is the UK - so soon be not EU but currently in the EU if you know what I mean. So his current PayPal is in GBP.
I think the question is on collection of VAT. Paddle makes taking care of collecting and paying VAT for you. They act as an agent.
If you want to setup and manage that yourself you can have a look at e-junkie. They do allow you to setup and collect taxes like VAT but you have to do it all yourself. They do electronic delivery as well.
Will Woodgate has a free stack as well.
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Oh right, I hadn’t considered that.
Please consider the fact that Paddle doesn’t make payments until £100 have been accumulated.
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They sell your products under license and under their own responsibility. You get license fees from Paddle. You have nothing to do with their taxes but you may have to pay taxes on the license fees depending on your local regulations (that’s what my tax consultant told me).
Paddle is perfect if you are located in the EU and have to take care about the EU VAT regulations for digital purchases (or any other country enforcing you regarding this).
If not, like @Teefers already mentioned, I would choose e-junkie or cartloom.
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Well for the volume of sales Cartloom just doesn’t make sense, so I will have a look at ejunkie. I think the 100pounds needed to build up is a bit of a deal breaker too.
Thanks
Between the choice of E-Junkie and Paddle, I’d say Paddle was the better of the two. Paddle does a great job of handling the minefield of VAT-MOSS and GBPR. Up-until I left E-Junkie in 2015, the whole system was awfully dated and limited in what it could do. Paddle has many more payment options, a proper order lookup website and a particularly pleasant checkout experience (including Apple Pay support).
RapidCart Pro has the option to handle digital downloads, if your transaction volumes are very low (e.g. less than £100 a month). For some reason RapidCart Pro seems to get a lot of hate on the main RapidWeaver forums, but Roberto and his other business partner are super nice people and really great to chat with. RapidCart Pro works fine with RW8 and with most themes. The rumours RapidCart Pro is a dead product are totally untrue.
Another option you have is to go the Patreon-type route. Though I’m not actually suggesting you use Patreon itself (watch this interesting video from a few days ago), but rather one of the alternatives like SubscribeStar. If you were selling membership access to digital downloads alongside other perks (like one-to-one monthly consultation), then that will possibly allow you to legally side-step the draconian VAT-MOSS regulations and establish a slightly more consistent monthly revenue stream.
Admittedly subscriptions are NOT to everybody’s liking. But if you are only charging a few quid a month (with the ability to cancel any-time, no questions asked) and throwing in some extra exclusive perks, then this has the potential to be a good system for creators. In this political and economic climate, you often have to think outside of the box and break-away from the norm.
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Well that is interesting about RapidcartPro. I thought they were no longer operational. I did several sites many years ago using RapidcartPro and was happy with it. I think I will go down that route. The monthly fee thing for a seller who has a low turnover is a giant turn-off. My dear mama who has never sold a single painting through her site but still wanted the opportunity to sell is one case at the very low turnover end of the scale. (Maybe Roberto could be encouraged to join this forum which has proved immensely popular in these early days?)
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Paddle serves me very well for low sales of digital product. I won’t go subscription. @willwood didn’t mention his Paddleboard stack, it’s free and what I use for RW Paddle integration.
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