Stripe is A Bad Idea for Storenvy, Sorry Not Sorry

There are three good things about Storenvy which make people choose it over Ebay or Etsy. First, of course it's a marketplace where you can sell almost everything, just like eBay, unlike Etsy which identifies itself as art platform (only specific items can be sold: craft supplies, handmade stuff, and such). Second, free of listing fee and unlimited listing time! PayPal as a secure payment platform already cut sellers money for using it, then eBay and Etsy do too. Storenvy won't charge you listing fee. Your listing will be there for forever until you take it down when you don't need it anymore (item sold or been stuck there for ages yet no one buy). Third, Storenvy is user friendly for both sellers and customers. It's easy to modify too. As a starter, they won't hold money for weeks you receive from customer unlike eBay. Our listings are also well indexed on Google search engine! Add more if you have.

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To support all of these goodness, PayPal is there as payment platform. PayPal is already well known and the most common one in online transaction. It's trusted, mostly fair (though it's more to protect customer), and secure. Those who hold credit card, use PayPal to hide their credit card information. Just need a few clicks to register, and voila! you can shop till broke. If you are not satisfied with item you purchase, if the item you receive has different specification seller mentioned in item description, or if your order never reach your hands, PayPal is there to give you protection. Seller has rights too, so PayPal is there too. PayPal records transactions, logins, etc. This Google product amazingly knows everyone's steps: trying to fake or not.

I've been using Storenvy for 1,5 years. Not so long, but it's a good experience. My customers mostly come from United States, because this Storenvy is from there and I believe my stuff attract Americans more. I honestly don't expect much selling to International customers as many local shops in the US sell same stuff. If it's not sold, no problem. If it's sold, then Thanks God! But of course I have another plan to produce my own product which is unique and not rely on reselling final products.

Andddd..suddenly since weeks ago, everytime I login into seller dashboard, they put notification about Stripe payment on the top of page. I used to ignore it. I thought it somewhat like additional payment choice, but I realized today it is NOT. I have never even heard of stripe before in my life. Today mail subject from Storenvy caught me:  Changes to Payments on the Marketplace. 

Notification on Seller Dashboard

So they said ther are implementing a new payment processor on the Storenvy called Stripe. Here, My bet is they need us, sellers, to pay listing fee but hey don't want us to feel "ah, double fees again: PayPal and Storenvy listing fee". So they replace PayPal. Still don't know how Stripe will work whether it will be free or not. If not free, then sure the money goes to their pocket. Maybe they have deals with Stripe. Haha.. whatever. OK, that's just my thought, because they clearly state to replace PayPal at all with funny reasons.

(UPDATE: Oh.just found out it's true they are going to charge sales. No issue with that. But Ebay still can use PayPal, Ebay charges us. Etsy uses PayPal, does charge fees. Many others charge too, and they are using PayPal. So maybe Storenvy progammers don't know how to build codes for that and use Stripe as a gateaway?)

We are doing this in order to allow customers to pay with credit cards and create a seamless experience that improves checkout speed and conversion rates while also optimizing for repeat purchases. When a customer checks out, we securely record their address and payment info so they may check out with only a few clicks the next time they buy.

Yeah, as if PayPal checkout was slow and didn't need just a few clicks. Why don't just put both Stripe and PayPal as payment option?

The worst part is, if you are not in a Stripe supported country or are unable to connect to Stripe, then your store will no longer be able to sell in the marketplace when Stripe officially launches. These are those countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States.

I don't know what their considerations are, but if I have to speak up, Stripe is a bad Idea for Storenvy. It's really a bad move to kick out loyal costumers. They will lose tons of sellers and customers. They should do surveys earlier. Although I think I'm not complaining here, it actually sounds like a complain LOL.

So, I need to pack :') My country is not listed.
It was a wonderful time to dig pennies there.
Goodbye Storenvy.

UPDATE 28 November 2014
I rediscovered again. So I actually still can open my storenvy store. They just won't list my items on marketplace. Buyers still can purchase from my custom store, which is good enough. I still can use PayPal too. I've always concerned in promoting my custom store and never care the marketplace. To make sure Google spiders crawl into my website is enough too. Most of the sales are from my custom store URL too. Stripe payment will work for sales from marketplace.