How to sell digital products with Stripe

Stripe takes the payment. Everything around it is the store’s job: a product page, a checkout that works on a phone, handing each buyer a unique key or a private download link, and answering when a payment is disputed. This page covers what to check before you connect Stripe, how to connect it to ShopFast, the ways to pay it adds to your checkout, and how to keep disputes under control.

Check that Stripe supports what you sell

Stripe publishes its own list of restricted businesses. Read it for your product type before you connect, and ask Stripe’s support if you’re not sure where you stand. Selling something outside your processor’s terms puts your account at risk, whatever your storefront allows.

ShopFast’s acceptable use policy applies on top of Stripe’s: no stolen or leaked keys, no cracked software, no game cheats, no accounts a service doesn’t let you transfer.

What you need to sell digital products with Stripe

What	What it’s for
A restricted key (or your secret key)	Lets ShopFast create checkout sessions, refunds and the webhook it needs. Give it write access to Checkout Sessions, Refunds, Webhook Endpoints and Payment Method Domains, and read access to Payment Method Configurations and PaymentIntents
Your publishable key (pk_live_…)	Optional and recommended: buyers pay in a window over your store instead of on checkout.stripe.com
A payment method configuration ID (pmc_…)	Optional: choose exactly which methods show, instead of your account’s defaults

A restricted key is the safer choice because it can do only what you allow. Payment Method Domains is what Apple Pay needs, and read access to PaymentIntents lets each order show exactly how the buyer paid.

Connect Stripe to ShopFast

1. In your Stripe dashboard, create a restricted key with the permissions above.
2. In Money → Payments, pick Stripe and paste the key. ShopFast checks it with Stripe before saving, and turns down test keys while your checkout takes real payments.
3. Paste your publishable key on Stripe’s row and click Save. ShopFast checks that it’s a publishable key of the same mode as your secret key, that Stripe knows it and, where Stripe’s keys show it, that it belongs to the same account.
4. Turn on the payment methods you want in Stripe (Settings → Payments → Payment methods), then click Refresh on Stripe’s row.
5. Place a small order on your store. It’s marked paid, and delivered, as soon as Stripe confirms it.

Saved keys are encrypted and never shown again. To change them, connect again; Disconnect removes them along with the webhook ShopFast added. The step-by-step panel and screenshots are in get paid: the complete guide.

Apple Pay and Google Pay for digital goods, and Stripe Link

Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link show inside Card: the buyer’s device or browser offers them there. On a phone that means confirming with a fingerprint or a face scan instead of typing a card number, which suits products people buy on the spot. Link is Stripe’s own saved checkout: a buyer who has saved their details with Link can pay without typing them again.

For Apple Pay, your restricted key needs write access to Payment Method Domains. Without your publishable key, buyers pay on checkout.stripe.com instead of in the window over your store, so add it if you want them to stay put.

Every other method you turn on in Stripe

Your checkout lists each method you turn on in Stripe as its own choice, with its mark: Amazon Pay, WeChat Pay, Alipay, Cash App Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm, Revolut Pay, PayPal, iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA Direct Debit and more.

• What shows where. A method shows only in currencies it can charge in and only to buyers in countries Stripe offers it in: iDEAL in euro stores for buyers in the Netherlands, Cash App Pay in dollar stores.
• The list stays current. ShopFast reads your methods when you connect and once a day after that.
• Refusals don’t strand buyers. If Stripe refuses a method for an order (not activated, outside its amounts), the buyer stays on your checkout, reads that it’s not available right now, and picks another way to pay.
• Card covers the rest. Card opens Stripe with every method you have on, so a method ShopFast doesn’t list yet still works there.

Before you turn on buy now, pay later methods or direct debits for digital products, check each method’s own rules in Stripe. Cash App Pay and direct debits (SEPA, ACH, Bacs) count as cards for order limits, because buyers can reverse them. For Cash App specifically, see accepting Cash App for digital products.

Handle Stripe disputes on digital downloads

Card payments can be disputed, and digital products are a common target because they arrive instantly and can’t be taken back.

• Before delivery. Fraud Shield checks every checkout twice: before payment, and after Stripe confirms it, once card details such as the BIN and the 3-D Secure result are known. It can ask for 3-D Secure first and holds suspicious orders until you approve them (Fraud Shield).
• On first orders. A card limit on a buyer’s first order keeps your largest risk off brand-new buyers.
• After a dispute. Stripe disputes are imported into Disputes & Claims with their evidence deadline, ready for delivery records, the keys sent, the buyer’s IP and country, and downloads.

How to prevent chargebacks on digital goods goes deeper on each.

Subscriptions and renewals

For memberships and duration keys, auto-renew charges the buyer’s saved card each period and retries a declined card, so buyers keep access without coming back to your store (auto-renew). Pricing and setup are in selling subscriptions online.

Is Stripe a store?

People search for a “Stripe store” when they want to sell with Stripe. Stripe is the payment side. You still need product pages, stock, delivery and a place for buyers to come back to their order. That’s the part ShopFast adds: connect Stripe, and every product is delivered automatically once the payment is confirmed, with no ShopFast fee on orders paid through your own Stripe account. Next to Stripe you can add PayPal checkout and crypto; see every payment method.