Let customers pay online when they reserve

Every shop can take payments online, in “Settings” → “Payments”. It’s your choice: until you connect Stripe and choose how customers pay, nothing changes. Customers pay you when they collect, in cash, by card or by transfer, as you choose, and those orders carry no fee.

At checkout, “Pay by card” opens Stripe’s secure page, where the customer types their card details: TwistDrops never sees them. Where their phone or browser offers Apple Pay or Google Pay, its button sits on top, and they pay without typing. Each payment goes to your own Stripe account, and Stripe pays it out to your bank after taking its own processing fees. To see your account, tap “Open your Stripe Dashboard” in “Payments”.

In “Settings” → “Payments”, start with your tax details if you haven’t added them: who sells, your address and your tax number, which TwistDrops needs to invoice its fee. “Add your tax details” takes you there, and saving brings you back. Then tap “Connect with Stripe”. Stripe asks about you, your business and your bank, then sends you back to the studio. If it still needs something, “Continue with Stripe” picks up where you left off.

Under “How customers pay”, choose “At pickup”, “Online” or “Customers choose”, then save. “At pickup” is where every shop starts, and the other two open once Stripe is set up. With “Customers choose”, “Pay online above” sets an amount: an order worth more than it is paid online, and leaving it empty lets customers always choose. Whichever you pick, your prices stay the same: you can’t charge more for paying online.

When a customer pays, their reservation is confirmed at once, with nothing for you to confirm. They get the confirmation email with their pickup code, and you get an email saying it’s paid. In “Orders” and on the pickup list, the order shows “Paid online”, so you hand it over without taking any money. A customer who leaves Stripe’s page, or lets it expire, has reserved nothing and paid nothing.

Cancel a paid order with “Cancel order”, and the customer gets everything back from your Stripe account, deposits included. If Stripe can’t make the refund, for instance because your Stripe balance is too low, the order stays as it was and the studio says why. A card refund usually takes 5 to 10 days to show. If a customer doesn’t collect a paid order, you decide whether to refund it. A dispute with a customer’s bank is yours to answer, in your Stripe Dashboard.

You pay a fee only on orders paid online, never on orders paid at pickup: 3% of the first €1,000 (£850) your customers pay online each month, 1.5% of anything above that, and never more than €49 (£42) a month. The month is a calendar month in your shop’s time zone. A product’s “Deposit” carries no fee, and VAT is added where the law requires it. Your customers never pay a fee. On whatever is refunded, and on a dispute you lose, TwistDrops gives its fee back.

In “Settings” → “Payments”, any offer open to your shop, such as months with no fee, shows next to our fee before you connect Stripe, with when it ends. Each month’s statement is under “Fee statements” there, with every order paid online and every refund, and TwistDrops invoices you for each month’s fees.

You can stop using your Stripe account between drops: once no drop is taking reservations or waiting for its pickup, no paid order is still to hand over and no customer is paying. Then tap “Stop using this Stripe account” in “Payments”. Until then, the page lists what’s still in progress. Your Stripe account stays open and stays yours, and refunds of earlier orders still go through it. To switch, connect a new account. For a break, choose “At pickup” instead.