Setting Up Stripe for Your Shop

What Stripe is

Stripe is a company that handles the credit card part of selling online. When a customer clicks "Buy" on your website, Stripe takes their card details, charges them, and sends the money to your bank a few days later.

You've used Stripe before without knowing it. Substack, Patreon, most software products, and most independent online shops use Stripe under the hood. It's one of the two leaders in this space (the other is Square).

What it costs you

Signing up is free. You don't pay Stripe a monthly fee. You pay only when you make a sale.

Their fee is 2.9% + 30¢ per sale. Concrete:

You sell something for...	Stripe takes...	You receive...
$5	$0.45	$4.55
$20	$0.88	$19.12
$50	$1.75	$48.25
$100	$3.20	$96.80
$500	$14.80	$485.20

There's no fee for refunds (you just don't get the original Stripe fee back).

SiteGlowUp takes $0. We don't add a markup. The fee above goes entirely to Stripe; the rest is yours.

What you'll need to sign up

Stripe legally has to verify who you are before letting you accept payments (it's a regulated industry). When you sit down to sign up, have these ready:

• 🏢 Your business name — if you're not formally registered as a business, that's fine; you sign up as a "sole proprietor" (an individual selling under your own name)
• 🆔 Your EIN (if you're a registered business) or SSN (if you're a sole proprietor)
• 🏠 Your business address (or home address if you're a sole proprietor)
• 📞 Your phone number
• 🏦 Your bank account details — routing number + account number, where Stripe will deposit your sales
• 📷 A photo ID (driver's license, passport) — Stripe might ask you to upload one and take a selfie, depending on what they need

About 15-30 minutes total. They ask one question per page so you can pause and come back.

If you already have a Stripe account (you sold subscriptions or freelance invoices through it before), you can just sign into that one — no new account needed.

How the money flow works

1. Customer pays $20 on your shop
2. Stripe takes their $20, deducts their fee (about $0.88), and the remaining $19.12 sits in your Stripe balance (their holding account)
3. After about 2 business days, Stripe automatically sends your balance to your bank
4. The deposit shows up at your bank under your business name

The 2-day delay exists so Stripe can handle refunds and disputes cleanly. You can see exactly when your next payout will land at dashboard.stripe.com.

Heads up: your first payout takes longer. Stripe holds the first ~7 days of charges before releasing them while they verify everything's legit. After that, you're on the normal 2-day rolling schedule.

Step-by-step setup

1. Open your dashboard at app.siteglowup.ai → pick your site
2. Click Addons in the left menu → find the Shop card → click Manage (or Enable first if you haven't yet)
3. You'll see two cards: Stripe and Square. Click Stripe
4. A new tab opens to Stripe's signup wizard
5. If you already have a Stripe account: click Sign in and use your existing email + password. Done in 30 seconds.
6. If you don't have an account: click Create one and walk through their wizard. They ask one thing per page. Plan ~15-30 minutes.
7. When Stripe says "Account complete," close the tab and go back to your dashboard
8. The Shop Settings tab now shows Active provider: Stripe ✓

Your shop is now wired up to accept payments.

(Next step: add some products — see Selling on Your Website.)

Where to find things after setup

Most money-related things live in Stripe's dashboard, not ours. We don't have refund buttons because we don't hold your money — Stripe does, and that's where the controls are:

What	Where to find it
All payments you've received	dashboard.stripe.com → Payments
Refund a customer	Stripe Dashboard → Payments → click the payment → Refund
Customer disputed a charge (chargeback)	Stripe Dashboard → Disputes (Stripe emails you too)
Change which bank gets your payouts	Stripe Dashboard → Settings → Bank accounts
When your next payout will arrive	Stripe Dashboard → Payouts
Year-end tax forms (1099-K)	Stripe Dashboard → Tax forms (in January)
Your shop's orders list	Your SiteGlowUp dashboard → Shop → Orders

Common questions

"Do I have to be a registered business (LLC, corporation, etc.)?"
No. You can sign up as a sole proprietor (just yourself) using your SSN. No paperwork required.

"What if I'm not in the US?"
Stripe works in 50+ countries. The signup wizard asks for your country and adapts everything from there. Just need a bank account in the country you select.

"What will my customers see on their credit card statement?"
Your business name. By default it's whatever you typed during Stripe's signup. You can change it in Stripe Dashboard → Settings → Public details → Statement descriptor.

"What if a customer disputes a charge?"
Stripe emails you. You log into Stripe, see the dispute, upload your side of the story (the receipt, shipping confirmation, etc.), and Stripe submits it to the customer's bank. They decide within 30-60 days. If you lose, Stripe deducts the disputed amount from your next payout.

"What about sales tax?"
Stripe doesn't add tax automatically. If you need to collect tax (US state tax, EU VAT, etc.), Stripe has an optional paid product called Stripe Tax that handles it (~0.5% extra per sale). For most small US sellers under their state's economic-nexus threshold, you can skip this. If you're unsure, ask an accountant.

"What if my Stripe account gets locked?"
Rare but it happens — usually for new sellers in higher-risk categories (digital products, subscriptions, anything Stripe's fraud system gets nervous about). They email you and ask for more info; responding promptly usually fixes it within a day. A sudden spike in revenue is the most common trigger — Stripe wants to confirm you're not laundering money.

"Stripe vs Square — which should I pick?"

• Stripe: if you sell only online, or live outside the US/UK/EU


• Square: if you also sell in person (events, popups, a physical store), or want next-business-day payouts


• For online-only US sellers it's basically a coin flip — both work great

"Can I switch from Stripe to Square later?"
Yes. In your Shop Settings tab, click Switch provider. Your Stripe account stays linked (in case you switch back), but products created under Stripe need to be re-created for Square. Click the Connect Square button and follow Setting Up Square.

Need help?

For Stripe-account issues (verification stuck, payout delays, dispute help) — use Stripe's own support at support.stripe.com. They're 24/7 and excellent.

For SiteGlowUp-side issues (the Connect button isn't working, products aren't appearing, etc.) — email support@siteglowup.ai and we'll dig in.