Managing customers

This article serves as a guide for managing your customers when selling digital products using our Commerce product. For more information on selling digital products, refer to our guide to Commerce on Patreon.

Located within your the Audience section of your account, the Sales tab is a helpful tool that provides valuable insights into your customers’ purchase history and payment status. Continue reading to learn how to make the most of this tool for managing your customers effectively.

Viewing Sales

Here’s how to easily locate and access customer transactions:

1. Make sure you are logged into your creator account profile
2. Click on Audience from the left-side navigation
3. Select the Sales tab from the top menu
4. By clicking on the search bar, you can search by order ID, customer, or product

Within Sales, you'll find essential information about each transaction, including:

• The product purchased
• The date purchased
• Status (complete vs. refunded)
• Total amount paid

You can also export your customer details and transaction information by clicking the Download CSV button.

By clicking on the customer’s name from the list, it’ll open the Order details side panel. This is where you can find more details about an individual customer and their order.

Customer management

Refunding purchases

Since Patreon provides a platform for members to pay creators directly, in most cases, Patreon will not refund on behalf of creators. This means that Creators can issue refunds at their discretion.

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. 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

Refunds can be processed within 90 days of the original transaction as long as you have a Patreon balance to cover the refunded amount. You can read more about refunds in Patreon’s refund policy.

Messaging customers

You can directly message your customers to help with troubleshooting your products and communicating about refunds. Follow these steps to message your customers:

1. Make sure you are logged into your creator account profile
2. Click on Audience from the left navigation side
3. Select the Sales tab from the top menu
4. Click the name of the customer you want to message, this will open an Order details side panel
5. Select the  Arrow icon in front of the customer’s name
6. Type up your message and click the Send button. When you send a message to a customer, it creates a message thread where you can find your conversation with that individual

FAQ

• The Order details panel is where you can find information about a customer and their order. It includes important details like your customer’s transaction history.

  To access this panel, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on Audience from the left side navigation
  2. Select the Sales tab from the top menu
  3. Click on the customer’s name. This will open a side panel with the Order details
  4. In that panel, select the three dots(...) button next to the customer’s name.
  5. Click on View transaction history

• You may notice that the total amount paid by the customer might be higher than the price of the product. This is because we are required by law to apply sales tax to purchases made in certain jurisdictions. You can see a breakdown of where we’re collecting sales tax from customers and what those tax rates are in the following article: Sales Tax on Patreon.

• Yes, you will have the option to message all your customers using the Patreon messaging system.

• Patreon should be a safe space for all creators to share their work. If you feel a customer is being problematic or making you uncomfortable, you have the option to block them:

  1. Click on Audience from the left side navigation
  2. Select the Sales tab from the top menu
  3. Click on the customer’s name. This will open an Order details side panel
  4. Click on the three dots (...) button and select Block user

  Please note that blocking a customer will also block any accounts connected to the same payment method used, blocking any other accounts they might have. They won’t be able to purchase from you or become a member.

• Any members that you've blocked from joining your Patreon will not be able to purchase digital products you sell through Commerce.