Cleverbridge was founded in 2005. Since that time, they have processed over $10 billion in transactions worldwide. This Merchant of Record has a team of over 200 employees. They power global software sales with features around payments, tax, and compliance while allowing you to sell online.
What is Cleverbridge?
Cleverbridge is an ecommerce platform that acts as a Merchant of Record for digital products, software, and SaaS companies. Not only can you sell digital products on this platform, but you can also have your global tax, payment processing, and chargebacks handled by Cleverbridge. Cleverbridge takes the legal and financial responsibility for the sale, meaning they act as the legal seller of your product.
How does Cleverbridge work?
Since Cleverbridge is both an ecommerce and subscription management platform and a Merchant of Record for digital products and software, they work differently from most ecommerce platforms.
If you’re selling products on Cleverbridge, it’s important to note that Cleverbridge will be the legal seller. They assume both the legal and financial responsibility for the transaction, tax compliance, and fraud prevention. They will handle subscriptions and chargebacks, too.
If you’re the buyer of products on Cleverbridge, you can trust secure payment processing, instant delivery of the products, and a checkout system that’s localized to your region. One thing to note is that Cleverbridge will appear on the invoice or bank statement rather than the brand name you bought the product from.
What you need to know about selling on Cleverbridge?
One of the biggest challenges of Cleverbridge is that, because they’re the legal seller of the product, they often appear on credit card statements instead of the brand the buyer bought from. This leads to higher volumes of chargebacks because people don’t recognize the name. While they do dispute chargebacks on your behalf, it still causes confusion in the buying experience, which can be frustrating for those selling on the platform. Your brand name won’t appear on any of the statements or bills. Thus, diluting the impact your brand can have.
Unlike most ecommerce platforms, Cleverbridge lacks transparent pricing. You’ll need to request a quote to know if you’re eligible to sell on the platform and to know if it’s within your budget. The platform doesn’t charge a simple monthly subscription. Instead, they take a percentage of the sale. So, if you succeed, they succeed. However, if your business doesn’t make money, neither will they.
Unlike some ecommerce platforms that do instant payouts with certain payment providers, Cleverbridge’s Merchant of Record status leads it to only offer scheduled payouts. The amount you are owed will typically be transferred to you on the 16th day of the following month, unless it’s a weekend or holiday. It may also take up to five days to reach your bank account. Overall, this can have a negative impact on cash flow.
When a Merchant of Record is responsible for the financial aspects of the business, that typically means there’ll be fewer customization options on your side of things. For instance, they manage the checkout flow, so you won’t be able to make modifications to your checkout to help you boost conversions. You have to give up full control of even cosmetic changes since you can’t modify them yourself.
Is Cleverbridge the best platform to sell products?
No, Cleverbridge isn’t the best platform to sell products. Instead, you should choose Payhip, which has automatic global tax compliance, clear pricing, instant payouts via Stripe and PayPal, and you are still the legal seller of the business. Payhip also has a free plan with a 5% transaction fee, or you can choose a set paid plan of $29 + 2% transaction fee, or $99 per month with no transaction fees as you scale. To start selling digital products online, you can sign up for Payhip for free.