In this article, we’ll go over:
How the merch fee and billing works
When does the 3% fee to use Merch start?
You will begin paying the additional 3% fee immediately upon signing up for Merch. This 3% fee applies to your total monthly earnings on Patreon.
When will I be billed for shipping merch?
You will be billed for the cost of a merch item whenever a patron earns the item and the order to ship that item is successfully processed. You can learn more about when patrons earn their merch in this guide.
You will be billed for the cost of a merch item whenever a patron earns the item and the order to ship that item is successfully processed. You can learn more about when patrons earn their merch in this guide.
Most Merch orders are processed on the 4th, 12th, 20th, and 28th of every month. If an order to ship an item cannot be processed (often due to a problem with a patron’s address), we will not charge you for that item. We will attempt to retry an unsuccessful order for up to 100 days after an item has been earned. You can find your merch fulfillment bill in your earnings dashboard.
Do I need to enter a credit card to pay for merch?
Nope! You will pay for the merch items with your Patreon balance.
How do I learn what I’ve already paid for the merch items?
In your Earnings Dashboard, you can find a monthly breakdown of the merch items paid for as well as the Patreon platform fee.
Estimating how much your merch will cost
How can I estimate how much I’ll owe?
We help you out with estimation when creating your merch item, but there are other things you might want to estimate for. Note: You will only be charged for merch items that have been shipped.
When creating your items, we estimate the cost of your merch items by multiplying the number of current patrons in the assigned tier (at that time) by the cost of the item. Most creators pay less than this estimate because not all of their patrons enter a shipping address and/or size preference. We will email your patrons to remind them to enter their information, and you can also encourage them to update their information in their memberships.
After publishing your merch item, your patrons must pledge for 3 consecutive payments before they become eligible for merch and the merch ships. You can learn more about when patrons typically earn merch here. You can expect to pay for merch sent to be sent to existing patrons between 2 and 4 months after a merch item is added to a tier, depending on what time during the month you add merch to that tier and whether you charge your patrons for each month up front.
Why did I send more/fewer items than I expected?
Creators using Merch for Membership frequently send and pay for fewer merch items to their existing patrons than expected. Here are a few reasons why:
- There are fewer patrons pledging to your tier now than when you created your merch (i.e. patrons have stopped their membership),
- Some patrons have chosen to opt out of receiving physical goods from that tier
- Many patrons have not added a valid shipping addresses or selected a size for their merch item. Patrons must have a valid address associated with their account to receive merch.