Frequently Asked Questions
Please note: These FAQs are for clients selling (or interested in selling!) digital goods via FastSpring.
If you bought something on the FastSpring platform and have questions, check out our FAQs for Buyers.
- All
- Overview
- Account Setup
- Service
- Payment
- Selling
- Security
- Licensing
- Affiliate Setup
- Affiliate Support
- Affiliate Payments
- Affiliate Reporting
- Affiliate Partners
Account Setup
We host files up to 5GB. Enjoy the benefits of a fast, reliable, and secure global file distribution network utilizing Amazon.com’s S3 bandwidth service.
We can often have you live in just 12-48 hours, assuming you provide us with the product and account details we need.
Within our platform, login and click to setup Google Analytics (GA) for your account under “External Tracking”. You’ll be given specific instructions on how to do so in 4 steps:
- Step 1: Create a new GA website profile within an existing GA account (or create a GA account if you don’t have one) at: http://www.google.com/analytics
- Step 2: Enter the ID Google assigned to the website profile
- Step 3: Edit the GA website profile
- Step 4: Save, and wait 24 hours for verification
For detailed information on advanced options, see our support article on Integrating Google Analytics with FastSpring.
Yes, most of this is customizable to fit your preferences and products.
The store layout file is a .zip with html, CSS and images to be used. With about 80% of clients we’ll take the first shot at matching their site and then they can tweak from there; about 20% do it completely themselves. For more information, view our support article on creating custom store styles.
If you have a few larger ad deals or rev share partnerships which you’ve set up on your own and just need to track, you can use Google Analytics (GA), as we’ve integrated with it. This is a great system, there is zero cost, and the tracking works very well. Take a look at the Google URL builder here, as this is where you would create unlimited tracking urls:
http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1033867
If your aim is to get new affiliates to promote your products or to manage a large number of different affiliates, ShareASale.com (SAS) is a good option for increasing your revenue since it does everything you need in an affiliate program, including showing your products to countless new affiliates so they can opt to promote your offer and auto sending checks to affiliates. There is a setup fee charged by SAS, but the fee should come back to you once a few decent SAS affiliates start promoting you and the % is just a % of what you’re paying to affiliates in commissions, so it’s a % of new revenue earned. SAS is quick and easy to setup, unlike a lot of affiliate programs.
We’ve integrated with many of the leading affiliate networks that are focused on nothing but affiliate program growth and who have attracted the highest volume producing affiliates. Some e-commerce systems have their own affiliate network, but in our many years of experience we’ve seen time and again that the more lucrative, higher quality affiliates are found in the major affiliate networks, not in the affiliate programs developed by e-commerce firms. We also support other higher volume external affiliate programs, such as Commission Junction (www.cj.com) and LinkShare.com. If you would like us to add support for another affiliate program or 3rd party tracking tool, just let us know, as we can often add support for 3rd party solutions quickly.
FastSpring does not allow the following types of content, products, or services: Adult or other inappropriate material; Tobacco; Pharma Sales; Gambling; Hate/Violence; 3rd Party Processing. We monitor your content regularly; if you violate this policy, your account will be immediately frozen and legal measures may be taken. Any account determined to be associated with any form of illegal activity, in addition to being frozen will be reported to the appropriate local and/or international authorities. Thank you for complying with our policy.
Absolutely. Just sign up. When your account is set up, open a ticket to request a branded order page. Or if you have specific questions you want to ask beforehand, drop us an email.
Affiliate Partners
Yes, Impact Radius has a Marketplace where there are thousands of affiliates/media partners. You can make your product visible on the Marketplace when you set up setup your account.
Yes, you can have a branded signup link on your website where partners/affiliates can sign up to sell your products through the Impact Radius system. You can also send a direct signup link to your specific campaign to your partners.
Affiliate Payments
The cost of using the affiliate system is based on only transactions that have an affiliate payout amount associated with it and it is 25% of the affiliate’s commission. For example, if an affiliate with a 20% commission rate sells a $100 product, then the affiliate is paid 20% of $100, or $20 for the sale. The fee you incur is 25% of the affiliate’s $20 commission, or $5. So for the $100 product, you make $100 minus $20 paid to affiliate minus the $5 fee, or $75. Note: this calculation does not include the service fee for the order itself, as stated in your FastSpring User Agreement. Any questions about fees for using the system can be sent to affiliate@fastspring.com.
Yes, you can have a general setting for a commission amount and/or you can have specific settings for a given partner or affiliate. These are set up in the Insertion Orders section of your account. You can have a public insertion order and also individual customized insertion orders.
FastSpring funds your affiliate payments for you so that you do not have to pay your affiliates directly. Then once a month, the amount that FastSpring has funded for you is deducted from your FastSpring payment.
Affiliates are paid once a month on the 15th of the month. Keep in mind that there is a locking period to protect you from paying commissions on returned orders. Affiliates are only paid on transactions that have been “locked”. The system is set up for a 30 day locking period. Once transactions are past 30 days old, they are put into a locked status. Those locked transactions are then paid on the 15th of the month. Once a transaction is locked it cannot have a return processed in the system.
Affiliates are paid through the Impact Radius system. FastSpring funds your affiliate payments so that you do not have to handle paying the affiliates directly. Affiliates can be paid via electronic funds transfer, PayPal, or check ($5 processing fee).
Affiliate Reporting
Yes, you can create SKU Exception lists for your products so that those products are not available for commission on an affiliate sale.
No, any returns/refunds processed in Impact Radius do not transfer over to FastSpring. You will need to go into the FastSpring account and process a return/refund from within Springboard separately from the return process within Impact Radius since the two systems are not currently linked.
You can manually return an order in the system as long as it is not in a locked status. Once it is locked there is no way in the Impact Radius system to process a refund/return on that transaction. Additionally, please note that since the FastSpring system is not linked to the Impact Radius system, that any return would need to be done in your FastSpring account as well.
Currently, the two systems are not linked. All reporting, including dashboard reporting is found in your Impact Radius account. The system has very robust reporting available to you.
Affiliate Setup
Any questions about fees for using the system can be sent to affiliate@fastspring.com.
While there are no setup fees for standard integrations, please contact affiliate@fastspring.com for questions on specialized implementations, current startup promotions, or for a fully managed approach.
Special terms are appended to insertion orders to cover policies and conditions that your media partners must adhere to. Special terms are not required but they do provide the ability to embed policies such as trademark restrictions, promotional regulations, brand usage and copy writing guidelines into your insertion orders.
You can apply to become a Media Partner within Impact Radius (click here to apply) and see what other advertisers or competitors are offering.
Please refer to our QuickStart guide that can be obtained at the bottom of this page and also via the post-signup activation email. For guidance with this you can also reach out to us at support@fastspring.com
An Insertion Order is your agreement with your affiliates. This is where you dictate the commission amount, tiers and special terms. You will need to have at least one public Insertion Order which will serve as your default offering to an affiliate. If you have other partners that you want to do a special commission rate for, then you would create an individual Insertion Order and that may have a different percentage of payout to the affiliate. Your affiliates can propose a different commission rate that they desire as well and you can either approve or deny those requests.
You are responsible for setting up your own affiliate account and your own campaign(s). There is a setup wizard that will guide you through this process. Any other specific questions can be addressed by emailing support@fastspring.com
Affiliate Support
You can email your pixel tracking code (found in the system after you create an Action Tracker) to support@fastspring.com if you are unsure of how to place the tracking code onto your FastSpring receipt/thank you page.
Please contact support@fastspring.com for any Impact Radius support related questions
Buying From FastSpring-Enabled Stores
We have heard of some cases where prior session data or certain browser plug-ins can interfere with our ability to display the check box. To bypass this issue, please try one of the following:
- Try again with a fresh browser session (clear your browser’s cache before you retry).
- Attempt the purchase again using a completely different web browser (e.g. Google Chrome instead of Safari).
- Try the purchase from a different computer altogether.
If you have a contact e-mail or link within your order confirmation e-mail message, please use that to contact the product provider directly. Otherwise please contact orders@fastspring.com with the order information.
Please contact orders@fastspring.com with the invoice link or Order ID number.
Note that any charge you see is likely a pre-authorization charge which will drop off automatically after a few business days. If the charge does not drop off, please fill out our charge inquiry form.
VAT can be refunded within 30 days of a charge when a valid VAT ID is provided and the order is paid with credit/debit card, PayPal, or Amazon Payments. Please contact orders@fastspring.com with the VAT ID.
Please contact orders@fastspring.com with the invoice link or Order ID number.
If you have a subscription notification e-mail message, it should contain a link you can use to access the subscription; please follow the instructions in the message to edit or cancel the subscription.
If you have a contact email or link within your order confirmation email message, please use that to contact the product provider directly. If you need additional help with refunds, please contact orders@fastspring.com.
If you have a contact e-mail or link within your order confirmation e-mail message, please use that to contact the product provider directly.
Licensing
We can send any and all data, and pretty much in any format that you like, it is highly configurable. If you’d like a listing of the variables available, let us know.
It goes automatically into a retry state and will retry it a few times, then goes into a manual queue for us to retry once your server is back up.
We utilize our DRM partners’ solutions for DRM because we can’t be the best at everything, DRM is complex and we feel best handled by a DRM specialist. Out of the box we offer integration with AquaticPrime, CocoaFob, GameShield and Software Passport. Instead of tying you to a single solution we’ve created, you have the option to select your preferred DRM solution, including these options for Windows applications, which we support:
- AquaticPrime
- CocoaFob
- Quick License Manager
- Nalpeiron
- SoftwareKey
- GameShield
- SoftwareShield
- LimeLM
- CryptoLicensing
- License4J
- LicenseSpot
If you prefer another DRM solution, just let us know, we can likely support it as well.
Overview
FastSpring is here for you and your business every step of the way – and our award-winning customer service extends to your customers as well. With FastSpring, you can always count on constant rapid-response support for both your team and your buyers.
Our powerful, cross platform embedded store SDKs for Mac and Windows allow end users to make a purchase directly from your software or application product. This functionality reduces friction in the purchase process, gives users an opportunity to immediately access your products, and helps generate more sales – all for less cost than other app store platforms.
FastSpring offers a number of shopping cart optimization and conversion enhancements to help convert browsers to buyers.
FastSpring is integrated with the leading Digital Rights Management (DRM) providers to enable you to securely offer your products on a free trial or sale basis while protecting your intellectual property. And with customizable emails for promos, coupons and more, maintaining relationships with customers has never been easier.
With FastSpring, collecting payment for your sold goods and services is fast and effortless. Simply choose your payment method and add your account details – we’ll take care of the rest.
FastSpring’s fulfillment options are perfect for companies selling online. We’ll help you set up delivery of your digital products, no matter what you sell – we fulfill file downloads, handle license distribution, and even customizable fulfillment notifications are a breeze.
From cloud-based hosting and data migration support to pre-launch testing and seamless API integration, FastSpring’s team of award-winning support specialists is always here to help.
With branded order pages, custom shopping carts, usage tracking, testing tools, full CSS control and more, the FastSpring platform can be tailored to your exact needs, both for branding and functionality.
Yes! Avoid the hassles of tax compliance by having FastSpring handle tax collection, compliance and payment on your behalf, including management of the European Union’s Value-Added Tax (VAT), US state sales taxes, and more. Utilize support for real-time VAT ID validation and exemption for B2B customers. Customize your store to display prices using VAT net pricing mode or VAT gross pricing mode.
If you’re selling products internationally, you need a platform that can work across boundaries. By accepting over 20 currencies with display options for more than a dozen languages, FastSpring has you covered around the world.
Payment
Wire payments made outside of the US are $15 to help FastSpring cover its cost. FastSpring does not offer US Wires, however, FastSpring will pay within the US via an ACH, which is free.
You can do full or partial (individual line items, like just refunding the CD portion of an order) refunds within our e-commerce platform. If we get refund requests, we’ll send them to you for approval. *Only* if we strongly believe that an order is fraudulent or is about to turn into a chargeback would we refund without permission, and we’d explain it first. Because refunds do cost us in transaction fees, we charge 3.5% on refund transactions. On a refund transaction, the original transaction plus its transaction cost is refunded to you, you only get charged the 3.5% which covers our own transaction costs, including recovering merchant fees, overall server resources used, our potential support time for handling the refund, backup CD money we may have lost if a CD was included in the order when applicable, etc.
You have the option to be paid by FastSpring through direct deposit (ACH), PayPal™, wire, or check. Receive your payment every two weeks. International direct deposit (ACH) is available for banks located in the Canada, Mexico, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Wire payments are available globally.
The minimum account balance required for payment is $25.00 unless you require payment via international wire, in which case the minimum is $100.00 and there is a fee of $15.00 per payment to cover our international bank wire fees.
Most companies choose to be paid twice per month, but if you prefer you can be paid monthly. With the 2x per month setting, you are paid every 2 weeks with about a 2 week lag. This means that sales from the 1st to the 14th would be paid around the 30th/31st, sales from 15th to end of the month are paid around the 15th of the following month. If you have set your payment cycle to be monthly, then on the 14th or 15th of each month, you will be paid for any sales from the previous month.
GETTING FIRST PAYMENT
In order to receive your first payment from us, we need you to add your payment details to our e-commerce platform at: FastSpring Platform
Log in, click the Account link, and provide your payment information for one of four of the following payment methods (whichever method you prefer and that is applicable) listed below.
Before expecting your first payment, please allow 6-10 business days following the date you provide us your payment information in order for your account setup to be cleared in our system. After the initial setup for making payments to you is complete, you will receive payments according to the FastSpring payment cycle: most companies by default choose to be paid twice per month. With this setting, you are paid every 2 weeks with about a 2 week lag. This means that sales from the 1st to the 14th would be paid around the 30th/31st, sales from 15th to end of the month are paid around the 15th of the following month. If you have set your payment cycle to be monthly, then on the 14th or 15th of each month, you will be paid for any sales from the previous month. (The info required for each payment option below is also detailed again in the Account section once you login).
PAYMENT METHODS AVAILABLE
Payment Method #1: PayPal
Information to provide us:
- Email address associated with your PayPal account (you can create a PayPal account easily if you don’t already have one)
- Please note that due to changes in PayPal policy, as of March 1st, 2012, transfers made to non-US based PayPal accounts will incur a 2% fee up to a maximum of $20 USD. Please review whether our ACH / Direct Deposit option is available in your country, as there is no fee associated with this payment method.
Payment Method #2: ACH Direct Deposit (requires US bank account)
Information to provide us after selecting US from the drop-down menu, then clicking the link “Enter Direct Deposit (ACH) Information”:
- Bank Name
- Account Name
- Routing / ABA (9 digits)
- Account Number
- Account Type
- Your Address
Payment Method #3: International ACH Direct Deposit
Supported Countries: Canada, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
Information to provide us after selecting country from the drop-down menu, then clicking the link “Enter Direct Deposit (ACH) Information”:
- Bank Name
- Account Name
- Routing / ABA (9 digits)
- Account Number
- Account Type
- Your Address
Payment Method #4: Wire Transfer
Information to provide us after clicking the link “Enter Wire Transfer Instructions”:
- Account Currency
- Account Holder Name
- Routing Code / Sort Code
- Routing / SWIFT
- Bank Account Number / IBAN
- Additional Description
- Address
- Bank Details
- Intermediary Bank Details
Payment Method #5: Physical Check
Information to provide us:
- Name to be written on your check
- Address where the check is to be mailed
Yes. With our embedded store SDK, available for both Mac and Windows, FastSpring offers a way for your customers to purchase within your software application itself without ever visiting a browser. For more information, please refer to our Embedded Store SDK feature, located here.
PayPal payment transfers to U.S.-based accounts are free. For payment transfers to non-U.S. accounts, PayPal incorporates a 2% fee (maximum of $20 USD). International vendors looking to avoid processing fees can consider direct deposit, as there are no fees associated with this option.
Security
We use a rules engine that every transaction flows through. A transaction gets scored. If it is too high, it gets blocked. A store can be put into a low, medium or high risk category. For example, someone selling games is in a high category. The block thresholds are set accordingly to your risk category. The rules we use to score a transaction come from our own experience as well as that of a 3rd party system. We use a rules engine that leverages over a decade of buyer history, combined with a 3rd party service that aggregates buyer data across 10,000+ online stores to generate fraud scores. The system takes into account various items such as:
- Buyer IP location
- Buyer stated location
- Credit card country
- Email domain
- Whether a VPN or Proxy is being used
- About 10 other factors that we cannot disclose (for obvious security reasons)
- Any known history for that email address
These are all used to come up with a score, which roughly translates to a percent chance that an order is fraudulent. With history of a given seller over time, the system continues to learn and adjust to find the optimal point where fraud is low enough while as few “good buyers” as possible would be disrupted.
Yes, we are PCI compliant; we adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and are regularly audited.
No. To protect against security compromises, FastSpring never stores credit card numbers.
We use a combination of external fraud scoring and internal historical based scoring. There are countless order characteristics that are factored in, and most taken on their own will not prevent an order from completing. Email address and whether it is a free account is one factor that goes into scoring, as is IP address, location, distance from billing address location, country of origination, and about 10 other factors which all go into developing the fraud score. Those which are above a certain threshold fail. It is a pretty low % at this point which fail fraud checks, and we experience a very low rate of chargeback incidents, so the system has worked quite successfully for a long time.
Selling
Yes, you can control the content, including links or codes you may want to include. Fulfillment emails can be plain text or html (or both), and can also be customized for multiple languages. Common variables for emails and templates (including license delivery, multi-language and web-based delivery) are well-documented right on the page where you set up email fulfillment.
The user has gone through the normal online store, or been linked into the online store after having chosen a Purchase Order link on the client’s site. Once products and options are selected, Purchase Order is one of the available payment methods.
This payment method will allow the buyer to optionally enter a PO number for their internal tracking, and then submit the PO. The system will then generate and send them an electronic, clickable or printable invoice for payment, due within XX days (configurable). The product fulfillment actions (downloads, license keys, triggering shipments) are not fired until the payment is received.
FastSpring also provides the option to allow you manually review each PO. With this setting, for each submitted Purchase Order, you get an email notification with clickable link that will take you to the details of the purchase order. Based on what you see there about the buyer and what they are buying, you can choose to:
- Reject it outright because it looks totally invalid/suspicious
- Set it to be handled as described above: delivery after payment is received
- Approve it for immediate delivery
This C option would generally be used if buyer is from known/established companies, someone you have worked with before, or a school/government buyer where immediate delivery is expected or better ensures closure of a sale.
If C is chosen, the fulfillment actions happen at that time, and we also send the electronic invoice payable within the configured number of days.
Information about purchasing through FastSpring, including information about security, privacy, downloads, license codes, VAT, charge inquiries and returns, can be found at purchasing through FastSpring page. A link to this page is available to your customers in the footer of your order pages.
We can host and deliver secure reliable downloads to buyers utilizing our S3 hosting via Amazon.com.
Once the customer completes the order form, we do immediate authorization, and one of 3 things can happen:
- It gets approved – we can immediately hit your server with the order details.
- It gets declined because of fraud check. This check is immediate.
- It gets declined by the credit card company.
Each of these events is accompanied by appropriate messaging on the order page, so the customer knows exactly where the order stands and what to do next.
Yes, FastSpring handles VAT (value-added tax for the EU) for you. FastSpring’s service provides support for real-time VAT ID validation and exemption for B2B customers. For European customers, the EU requires FastSpring to charge VAT to downloadable purchases by non-business consumers located in the EU. Business customers purchasing through FastSpring are able to waive VAT charges by providing a valid VAT ID at time of purchase.
Your customers will be able to pay using AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CNY, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, INR, JPY, NZD, PLN, SEK, SGD, USD and ZAR. Your customers will not have to select their preferred order page currency, their location and the appropriate language and currency settings will automatically be detected and displayed. For more information, see our support article Currency Settings.
Once you’ve set up multi-currency pricing for your products in the currencies listed above, your customers will be able to pay via bank wire/transfer. For more information on enabling bank wire/transfer as a payment method, refer to our support article Types of Payments: Bank Transfers.
Other payment methods include Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Discover®, JCB®, PayPal™, Amazon Payments, Alipay, eCard Poland, Giropay, iDEAL, Sofort, WebMoney, check, money order, and purchase order.
Yes, we offer functionality to bundle products.
Subscription and recurring billing functionality is an important focus and key priority for FastSpring. For detailed information, you can refer to our Subscription Features page and our public documentation on subscription features and functionality. If you are interested in using our subscription modules/functionality, please contact us for more information.
For US-based vendors requesting payment via PayPal, no fees are charged by FastSpring or PayPal for the transfer. Due to changes in PayPal policy, as of March 1st, 2012, transfers made to non-US based PayPal accounts will incur a 2% fee up to a maximum of $20 USD. Please review whether our ACH / Direct Deposit option is available in your country, as there is no fee associated with this payment method.
Service
Our sever uptime has been over 99.9% for the last several years.
Customers can call and leave a message with our phone support service, but we generally respond via email. The typical path is if they do have a problem (declined card, abandon shopping cart, etc) we display a browser window inviting them to contact us or try again. If they choose contact us, they get to write us a note, and it also includes the context so we can see exactly what they are trying to order with their contact info and details about where they are in the process. Most of the time they are so pleased with how quickly we get back to them that they make sure to get the purchase complete, even if it means they have a problem with one credit card and have to try another. We know some other companies claim phone support, but in reality it is at times a bit of a smoke-screen. They do offer it, but typical hold times and the general lack of knowledge on the part of the phone operators is often so bad that it frustrates customers and ends up costing you more sales than it saves. You’d be hard pressed to find customers who have dealt with FastSpring’s support and who were anything but pleased with the email response time and quality.
This may be developed eventually, but to be honest, at this point we are so fast at email support that they don’t really need the online lookup. In most cases we get back to customers with codes so fast via email that they feel like they’ve been taken better care of than just using a form.
You have the option to pay either 8.9% flat or 5.9% plus $.95 per transaction. If you prefer the 5.9% plus $.95 per transaction pricing, please make a request through our support team; the default setting otherwise is set indefinitely at the 8.9% flat pricing. It’s risk-free to sign up and use FastSpring. There are no sign-up, setup, or “special” add-on or hidden fees. You are not locked into a contract term and there is no exclusivity. Pricing includes fraud protection, management, unlimited support and much more.
We pride ourselves on offering the absolute best customer service in the industry. FastSpring’s policy is that all support requests are responded to within 24 hours, though we often respond in just 1-2 hours.
Doing business with a company on the Internet can be a very impersonal process. Not only have the founders of FastSpring run several Internet-related companies, we have also been – and continue to be – customers ourselves. Nothing is more frustrating than sending off an email to a company to get help only to wait for a week to get back an impersonal email with a pre-canned response that doesn’t address the actual question.
FastSpring is different. When you contact us, you’ll receive a response within 24 hours, often within just an hour or two. A real person with a real name will respond to your question, and bring in additional support specialists as needed, depending on the task at hand. Since we’ve been in your shoes, we always try to treat our customers as friends, and try to understand they are looking to us for real help within whatever problem or question they have.
