How to open an online store that doesn't take a cut of your sales

If you sell online, the quiet cost is the per-sale fee. Many platforms add 1–3% on top of the card processor's fee — on every order, forever. On real volume that's the difference between a healthy margin and a thin one.

The fix: bring your own payments

Instead of routing your money through the platform, you connect your own Stripe account. Customers check out on your site; the money lands in your account; the platform takes nothing from the sale. xigzag works this way — 0% on your sales on every plan. You pay for hosting, not for selling.

What a real store needs beyond a 'buy' button

• Product search and filters that work over a big catalogue, not just a short list.
• Inventory, variants and sold-out states that are honest in search results.
• Discounts and scheduled sales you can run without code.
• Order management, refunds and receipts — handled, audited, in one place.
• Tax, currency and language that match where your customers actually are.

Keeping your own payment account isn't just cheaper — it's yours. Your customer relationships and payout history don't live inside someone else's platform.

Getting there in minutes

Describe the shop, add your products (or import them), connect Stripe, and publish. The storefront, cart, checkout, search and the legal pages a shop needs are already built and wired together. When you're ready, point your own domain at it.