You can sell from your EverWeb website in four ways: PayPal and Stripe payment widgets on your own pages, a contact form that takes payments (EverWeb 4.6 and later, with the Contact Forms Enhanced add-on), Membership Sites for paid members-only pages and subscriptions, or an outside shop such as Shopify, Etsy, Gumroad or E-Junkie, connected with a link or its embed code. The right one depends on how many products you have, whether you need details from the buyer, and whether you post things or send files.
Which option fits
| You sell | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A few products, services, tickets or deposits | PayPal Modern or Stripe Payment widget | A buy button on your page. Payment happens on PayPal's or Stripe's secure page |
| Orders, bookings or registrations where you need details from the buyer (sizes, names, dates, notes) | Contact Form Advanced with payments (EverWeb 4.6 and later, Contact Forms Enhanced add-on) | One form collects the details and the payment. You get the answers by email, marked Paid |
| Several products that people buy together | The PayPal (Legacy) widget, with Add to Shopping Cart and View Cart buttons | PayPal keeps the shopping cart for you |
| A subscription or paid access to pages, such as lessons or members' content | Membership Sites | Members sign up, pay by card through Stripe, log in and see their pages |
| Files delivered straight after payment (ebooks, music, patterns, presets) | Gumroad or E-Junkie | They send each buyer the file automatically |
| A large catalogue, stock levels, shipping rates and order management | Shopify, or Etsy for handmade items | A full shop that connects to your EverWeb site |
The payment widgets
Drag them from the Widgets tab and fill in Inspector > Widget Settings. For full steps, see Take payments on your website with the PayPal and Stripe widgets.
- PayPal Modern: choose Button Type (purchase or subscription) and enter your PayPal Client ID (the Get Client ID... button takes you to PayPal to create one). One Client ID covers all your products. Add sizes or versions under Options With Prices. Each page can use only one currency.
- PayPal (Legacy), the classic PayPal widget: enter your PayPal Email Address and choose Button Type: Buy Now, Add to Shopping Cart, View Cart or Donate. It also has tax, shipping and discount settings.
- Stripe Payment: create the product in your Stripe account, then enter your Stripe Secret Key and the product's Product Price ID. Choose Product Type (Purchase or Subscription).
Good habits:
- In PayPal Modern, an option's price is added to the main Price. If each option has its full price, set the main price to 0.
- Check the currency on every payment widget before you publish.
- Make a thank-you page and set it as the Thank You page (PayPal Modern), Thank You Page: (PayPal Legacy) or Successful Payment Page (Stripe). Untick Include page in navigation menu for it.
- Place one real, low-value order on the published website to see the whole process from your customer's side.
Take orders with a contact form (EverWeb 4.6 and later)
With the Contact Forms Enhanced add-on, a Contact Form Advanced form can work as a simple order form. Visitors choose options, see a running total, and pay by card through Stripe or through PayPal when they send it. You set it up in the Payments section of the form's Widget Settings: tick Accept Payments, add your Stripe or PayPal details, choose a Currency, then give your options prices.
It suits:
- A bakery taking custom cake orders: size, flavour, a message for the top, and a collection date.
- A club selling kit: sizes for each item, a name to print, and a quantity.
- A craft maker taking made-to-order pieces with a gift-wrap extra and a choice of postage.
Know the limits before you choose it:
- One-off payments only. No subscriptions or monthly payments: use Membership Sites or your PayPal or Stripe account's own tools for those.
- One order per form. There's no cart across several pages. A quantity (Stepper or Slider) multiplies one price, not a whole set of options.
- One currency and one tax rate per form. Shipping is a priced choice you set, such as Standard or Express. There's no shipping calculator.
- No typed discount codes. A discount can be a priced choice, such as a "Member discount" tick box at -10%.
Full steps: Sell a product with options and extras from your contact form. For bookings, events and donations, see Take bookings and deposits with your contact form, Event registration and ticket sales with your contact form and Take donations on your website with a contact form.
What EverWeb doesn't do on its own
Knowing this up front saves a lot of rework:
- No stock control. Payments are in your PayPal or Stripe account. Orders from a contact form also arrive by email and in your Client Area, but nothing counts stock down. For stock levels, use Shopify or Etsy.
- No automatic file delivery after a payment from a widget or a form. A file you link to can be opened by anyone who has its address. To sell files, use Gumroad or E-Junkie, or send each buyer the file yourself after their payment arrives, which works well for a few sales a week.
- The shopping cart is PayPal's. With the PayPal (Legacy) widget, the cart opens on PayPal's website.
Connect an outside shop
- Set up your products in the shop first.
- Either link a Shop or Buy button to your shop (Inspector > Hyperlinks, Link To: An External Page), or copy the shop's buy-button or embed code.
- Drag the HTML Snippet widget onto your page (inside a Container on a Responsive page), paste the code and click Apply.
- If it doesn't show on your published page, change Embed Option in Widget Settings from Auto to Direct Embed or External Frame, and publish again. See Add a booking calendar, Instagram feed or other outside code with the HTML Snippet widget.
Product pages that share a layout
Put your header, menu and footer on a Master Page. Build one product page, then right-click it and choose Duplicate for each product, changing only the photo, text and button. See Put the same header, menu and footer on every page with a Master Page. With many products, a Search Field widget helps visitors find them: see Add a search box to your website so visitors can find any page.
Paid members-only content
Membership Sites has a free Starter plan with a 10% fee on each payment. Plus is $10 USD a month or $100 a year (4.9% fee), and Deluxe is $50 USD a month or $500 a year (2.9% fee). Stripe charges its own fees too. See Members-only pages, logins and paid subscriptions: EverWeb Membership Sites.
Set up outside EverWeb
- A PayPal business account or a Stripe account, or your Gumroad, E-Junkie, Etsy or Shopify shop.
- For contact form payments, the Contact Forms Enhanced add-on: see What is the Contact Forms Enhanced Add-on?.
- The padlock (HTTPS) on your website before you take payments: see My site says 'Not Secure': how to get HTTPS (SSL) on your website.
- A page with your delivery terms, policies and contact details.
Checklist before you publish
- Prices, currency, tax and shipping are right on every widget and priced form.
- Thank-you and cancelled pages exist and aren't in your menu. For a form, they're the Forward To Page and the Payment Unsuccessful Page.
- Your website shows the padlock.
- A test order works on a computer and on a phone.
- Publish with File > Publish Entire Site.
Would you rather we set up your shop? We can rebuild an existing store website in EverWeb for you. See Convert your website to EverWeb: move any website and get a no-obligation quote.
Related articles
- Take payments on your website with the PayPal and Stripe widgets
- Sell a product with options and extras from your contact form
- Can I add e-commerce or PayPal to my website? Your options for selling online
- Members-only pages, logins and paid subscriptions: EverWeb Membership Sites
- My site says 'Not Secure': how to get HTTPS (SSL) on your website