Sherali👩🏻💻
831 posts
@sherali
Head of ML & Data Platform @NotionHQ, ex @Stripe, ex @Twitter. Love dogs, puns & podcasts. Opinions my own.
Just hit $100K revenue on Gumroad as Q1 comes to an end. If I move to Stripe I could save about $10K in fees next quarter. But here's why I'm staying on Gumroad: 1. PPP $18,340 of my sales came from turning on PPP (purchasing power parity) pricing on Feb 1. Yes, maybe some of these sales would have happened anyway at full price, but I'm sure this helped increase revenue. And yes, I could implement this on top of Stripe, but it's more work. 2. PayPal $18,850 of my sales came from PayPal. Stripe doesn't support PayPal. Yes, most customers would have likely chosen to use a credit card, but there are countries where almost everyone uses PayPal and I'm sure I would have lost sales without PayPal support. And yes, I could implement PayPal support along Stripe, but it's more work. 3. Affiliates $5,370 of my sales came from affiliates. It's only 5% of my sales, and about 50% goes to my affiliates, so I doubt I would bother to implement a solution on top of Stripe. But it's an extra $2,416 in profit I wouldn't have received. 4. Discover $999 of my sales came from Gumroad Discover. Gumroad ranks my products high on Discover since they sell well. Even if I keep my Gumroad landing page alive, it would lose its ranking from Discover if I start selling on Stripe. 5. Google $14,727 of my sales came from Google. Gumroad's landing page ranks exceptionally well on Google. Yes, over time I would likely be able to rank well too, but it's more work. 6. Gumroad Accounts Most importantly, $71,889 of my sales (71%+) came from people with an existing Gumroad account. Many of these would have likely had their credit card already saved, and were able to purchase my products with one click. No need to go find the wallet. They were also likely already familiar with Gumroad, and familiarity is a plus in sales. -- All that "merchant of record" stuff I keep hearing about doesn't matter to me. The real reason is that I'm very convinced I'd make less money next quarter if I moved off Gumroad. It's easy to lose $10K when you combine all the things I mentioned above.
