Commerce

Now, creators can sell digital products like videos, podcast episodes, images, and other files directly to customers, whether they’re a member or not, through Commerce. Selling digital products unlocks new revenue streams for creators and allows fans to support creators’ work in a new and direct way.

Commerce details

Access to Commerce is not yet available to creators who make 18+ content; however, we hope to expand eligibility in the future. If your account is marked as 18+ and you don’t think that fits your content, you can go through the steps to recategorize your page.

Pricing, fees, and taxes

There is no cost to list products. Fees are only applied when products are purchased. We’ve created a guide to Commerce fees to get into the nitty-gritty, but as you’re getting started, here is a summary of fees that may be applied to your product sales and payouts:

• Platform fee: 5%
• Payment process fee: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
• Foreign transaction fee: 2.5% - only applies if a customer pays in a currency other than yours
• Sales tax on fees: in certain jurisdictions, we are legally required to apply sales tax to fees assessed during a transaction, please see our Commerce fees article for more information
• Payout fee: the cost of withdrawing funds from your Patreon account to your personal account - this fee varies depending on your payout method and currency. Visit our payout fees guide to see what rates to expect

Product Guidelines

• Your product needs to be appropriate for all ages
• All products must meet our Community Guidelines. To keep Patreon safe for everyone, we may need to take down products that don’t meet guidelines or remove your early access

File types & limitations

Whether you’re a podcaster or releasing your latest video short, you can upload a variety of media types to sell in your shop.

How to create a digital product

Creating your first digital product is streamlined so that you can start selling in no time. Here’s how to create a digital product:

• 1. Log into your account and click on the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on your name in the bottom left corner, switch to your creator profile, and then click on the Shop tab
  2. Click + Add new button
  3. Give your product:
     • A name
     • A price: must be at least $3 USD, but no more than $5,000 USD
     • A description of the product
  4. If you choose, click the Advanced pricing button to give certain paid tier members access to your product for free
  5. Select your product type and select your product file to begin uploading
     • If you upload an Audio file, you can enable Audio preview and choose a clip between 30 seconds and 5 minutes to give customers a preview of your audio product
     • (Early access to Patreon video only): If you upload a Video file, you can enable Video preview and choose a short clip between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to give customers a preview of your video product
  6. You’ll need to update the hero image of the product –This will be the thumbnail that shows up in your shop, the product detail page, and around Patreon
     • Click the Recommended Dimensions link to see the size recommendations for different types of products. For audio products with previews, hero images should be 1:1 aspect ratio and at least 400 x 400 px. For all other products, images should be 16:9 aspect ratio and at least 984 x 554 px.
  7. You can add additional images to showcase your product. These will appear on the product details page (Optional)
     • Images must be JPEG, PNG, or GIF, and at least 1000 x 1000 px
  8. You can preview how your products will display for your customers by clicking on the preview icon at the bottom right corner
  9. Click the Publish button to go live! After you publish your first product, your Shop tab will become visible to your audience on your creator page. Products you create are displayed in your Shop tab and are immediately available for purchase if your page is published.

  

• 1. Click on the Shop tab
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on the menu    in the top-left corner > click on your profile name at the bottom of the menu > select your creator profile > click on the Shop tab
  2. Click the + plus sign to create a new digital product
  3. Give your product:
     • A name
     • A price: must be at least $3 USD, but no more than $5,000 USD
     • A description of the product
  4. If you choose, click the Advanced pricing button to give certain paid tier members access to your product for free
  5. Select your product type and select your product file to begin uploading
     • If you upload an Audio file, you can enable Audio preview and choose a clip between 30 seconds and 5 minutes to give customers a preview of your audio product
     • (Early access to Patreon video only): If you upload a Video file, you can enable Video preview and choose a short clip between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to give customers a preview of your video product
  6. You’ll need to update the hero image of the product –This will be the thumbnail that shows up in your shop, the product detail page, and around Patreon
     • Click the Recommended Dimensions link to see the size recommendations for different types of products. For audio products with previews, hero images should be 1:1 aspect ratio and at least 400 x 400 px. For all other products, images should be 16:9 aspect ratio and at least 984 x 554 px.
  7. You can add additional images to showcase your product. These will appear on the product details page (Optional)
     • Images must be JPEG, PNG, or GIF, and at least 1000 x 1000 px
  8. You can preview how your products will display for your customers by clicking on the preview icon at the bottom right corner
  9. Click the Publish button to go live! Products you create are displayed in your Shop tab and are immediately available for purchase if your page is published.

Promote your product on Patreon and beyond!

After publishing a product, you’ll have the option to share a link to your product page on socials. You can also embed your product into a live Patreon post to promote your product with members who don’t get access for free.

Your shop

Your digital products will appear in your Shop tab. Your shop is where you can add new products, get links to share products, edit existing products, and unpublish or delete products you no longer want to sell.

Your shop view includes filters so that you can view your products from new to old, old to new, from A to Z, and from Z to A. By default, your products will appear in order from new to old. You'll also be able to filter products by published and unpublished status. When viewing your shop, you can click on the three button (...) menu next to a product and select the Insights button to analyze sales and earnings details specific to that product. 

'View as' your customer

Click on the Page Controls button to view your shop as the public. If you're curious about what your product pages look like for customers and the public, click on a product, then click the More Actions button and select the audience you'd like to view your product page as.

The customer view of your shop

Customers visiting your shop will see all of your published products with your hero image as the thumbnail. Customers can filter your products from new to old, old to new, A to Z, and Z to A. If you enabled Audio/Video previews, your customers can play a short clip of your product to preview the content before making a purchase.

Editing a digital product

Once a product is published, you can edit the product’s name, price, member pricing, description, and preview images. Once a product is published you cannot edit the original uploaded file(s) product. If the product is a downloadable file, you can add more files to the same product; however, you won't be able to edit or delete the original file(s).

• 1. Click on the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your shop? Click on your name in the bottom left corner and switch to your creator profile
  2. Click the Edit button
  3. When you’re happy with your changes, click the Publish button
• 1. Click the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on the menu in the top-left corner > click on your profile name at the bottom of the menu > select your creator profile > click on the Shop tab
  2. Click the … more menu for the product you’d like to edit
  3. Click  Edit
  4. When you’re happy with your changes, click the Publish button

Unpublishing a digital product

Unpublished products will no longer be available in your shop. Customers who have already purchased this product will still have access to it. You can re-publish a product at any time.

• 1. Click on the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on your name in the bottom left corner and switch to your creator profile
  2. Click the … more menu for the product
  3. Click Unpublish and confirm
• 1. Click the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on the menu in the top-left corner > click on your profile name at the bottom of the menu > select your creator creator profile > click on the Shop tab
  2. Click the … more menu for the product you’d like to edit
  3. Click Unpublish and confirm

Deleting a digital product

Deleting a product will remove it from your shop. Customers who already purchased it will also lose access. If you want existing customers to still have access, you can unpublish this product instead.

• 1. Click on the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on your name in the bottom left corner and switch to your creator profile
  2. Click the … more menu for the product
  3. Click Delete
• 1. Click the Shop tab on your page
     • Not seeing your Shop? Click on the menu in the top-left corner > click on your profile name at the bottom of the menu > select your creator profile > click on the Shop tab
  2. Click the … more menu for the product
  3. Click Delete

When deleting a product, you will be asked if you want to refund your customers. If you select the option to refund your customers, you can refund:

• All customers: All customers who have purchased that product will be refunded
• Some customers: Manually select which transactions you want to refund

Paying out funds from digital sales

Funds from product sales will appear as pending for up to 7 days before they can be withdrawn from your balance. Once funds are available for payout, you can manually payout your balance immediately, or if you have automatic payouts enabled, your funds will be paid out on the 5th of each month.

When you withdraw funds, a payout fee will be deducted from the payout amount. Visit our Payout fees article to learn more about what payout fees you can expect depending on your payout method.

Refunding customers

Please note that funds from digital sales will appear as pending for up to 7 days before they are available for withdrawal. Funds must be available to withdraw in order to be used for refunding customers or members.

As long as you have the funds available to withdraw in your balance, you can cover customer refund requests, here’s how:

1. 1. Make sure you are logged in and in your creator account profile
   2. Click on Audience from the left navigation side
   3. Click on the Sales tab from the top menu
   4. Search for the customer you want to refund, either by using the search bar or by going through the list of customers
   5. Click on the customer’s name to open a side panel with their order details
   6. Click on the Issue refund button

Please keep in mind that refunds may take 5-7 business days to process and cannot be undone. As soon as you refund a product, it will be removed from the customer’s purchases, and they will immediately lose access to the content.

FAQ

• Funds from product sales will appear as pending for up to 7 days before they can be withdrawn.

• Analyze your earnings from sales, total sales, and top-selling products on the Shop tab within Insights. You can learn more about how to analyze your sales insights by visiting our shop insights guide.

  When you visit your Shop, you can click on the three button (...) menu next to a product and select the Product Insights button on any product to analyze your sales and earnings details for that product.

• As of now, you will not be notified of sales. We are working on adding notifications about sales in the coming months.

• Currently, you can create and sell digital products on the web and mobile web. It’s not yet possible to create and sell new digital products on the app.

• We will support native video, audio and images. In addition to our standard file types, we also support .epub, .doc, .rtf, .txt up to 5GB as downloadable files.

• Commerce supports all of Patreon’s accepted currencies.

• Your account is in good standing if it has not been flagged for potentially fraudulent behavior. Additionally, your account activity must comply with Patreon's Terms and Community Guidelines.

• Products that you give to paid membership tiers for free will not be available to fans on a Free Trial (if enabled). Fans with a Free Trial will get access to the product when their trial ends, and they become paying members.