How to sell online (depends what you are selling)

Most people searching for "how to sell online" think the answer is Shopify. It is not. The right answer depends entirely on what you are selling, and the key question is not how many things you sell, but whether anything needs to be posted.

If you are a barber selling gift vouchers, you do not need Shopify. If you are a bakery shipping physical products across the UK, you probably do. Let us break it down.

The three types of online selling

1. Services and bookings

Haircuts, consultations, sessions, classes. You are selling your time, not a product. No shipping, no inventory, no packaging. You need a way for customers to book and pay online.

Right tool: A custom website with Stripe checkout. One-off build cost, no monthly platform fee. Customers book and pay on your site, you get the money and a notification.

2. Digital items

Gift vouchers, memberships, downloads, courses. No physical product, no shipping. You are selling access or a digital file.

Right tool: Same as services. A custom website with Stripe checkout handles digital items perfectly. The customer pays, gets their voucher or download link, and you never touch inventory.

3. Physical products

Things that go in a box and get posted. You need inventory tracking, shipping rates, tax calculation, order management, and maybe in-person POS.

Right tool: Shopify. This is what it is built for. Trying to bolt inventory and shipping onto a normal website costs more time and risk than it saves.

Why Shopify is overkill for services and digital items

Shopify costs £25/month minimum, plus £79/month if you need POS Pro, plus theme costs and app subscriptions. Card rates start at 2% + 25p, against 1.5% + 20p with Stripe, so the processing difference itself is small. For a business selling vouchers or bookings, that is £300-1,248/year in platform fees for features you will never use (inventory, shipping, tax calculation, multi-channel selling).

A custom website with Stripe checkout does the same job. Stripe charges from 1.5% + 20p per transaction, no monthly fee. You own the code. No platform lock-in. See the true cost of Shopify over 5 years for the full breakdown.

When Shopify is genuinely the right choice

• You sell physical products that need posting
• You have inventory to track (stock levels, variants, SKUs)
• You sell on multiple channels (online + in-store + marketplaces)
• You need order management, fulfillment, and shipping labels

If that is you, Shopify is the right tool and I build Shopify stores. See get a Shopify quote.

The decision tree

What you sell	Needs shipping?	Right tool	Monthly cost
Services / bookings	No	Custom + Stripe	£0-18
Digital items (vouchers, downloads)	No	Custom + Stripe	£0-18
Physical products (few)	Yes	Shopify Basic	£25+
Physical products + in-store	Yes	Shopify + POS Pro	£104+
Large catalog, multi-channel	Yes	Shopify Grow+	£65+

Stripe fees: from 1.5% + 20p per transaction (UK standard rate, August 2026). Source: stripe.com/gb/pricing

What about Wix or Squarespace for selling?

Both can take payment, but they have the same problem as every platform: you do not own the code, you pay monthly forever, and you hit a ceiling. Wix e-commerce starts at £16/month on their Core plan. Squarespace plans run £16 to £89/month. Neither gives you a custom admin panel or the ability to own your site. See the full platform comparison.

What is the best way for you to sell online?

Take the quiz below. It is the same quiz as on the sell online page, but with more context above.

Sources

1. Stripe pricing (UK) - from 1.5% + 20p per transaction, accessed August 2026
2. Shopify pricing plans (UK) - accessed August 2026
3. See also: The true cost of Shopify over 5 years
4. See also: Wix vs Squarespace vs Shopify vs custom