Marketplace fees
Clear, transparent fees for buying and selling through the Light Ideas marketplace.
Selling on Light Ideas
Currently 0% on each sale. You keep more of every order while we grow the marketplace.
A typical UK card is around 1.5% + £0.20. The actual Stripe processing fee varies by payment method, card and transaction.
Completed sales and processing fees
On a successful completed sale, the seller pays their appropriate share of the actual Stripe payment-processing fee. Light Ideas Payments deducts that share before transferring the seller’s proceeds.
For a multi-seller checkout, the actual Stripe processing fee is shared fairly between the participating sellers. It is not charged repeatedly as though each seller had processed a separate customer transaction.
The rate above is an example for a typical UK card. The actual processing fee can vary by payment method, card and transaction.
Refunds and processing fees
What happens to the processing fee when an order is refunded?
When a customer is refunded, Light Ideas absorbs the applicable portion of the original payment-processing fee. The seller is not charged that processing cost again. Currency conversion, exchange-rate differences and other international payment or payout charges are separate and may still apply.
Full refund: Light Ideas absorbs the full original payment-processing fee. The seller’s proceeds are reversed only by the amount they actually received, so they do not bear that original processing cost again.
Partial refunds: Light Ideas absorbs the corresponding proportion of the original payment-processing fee. Multiple partial refunds are tracked cumulatively so a seller can never have more reversed than they actually received.
Each refund is allocated to the relevant seller or sellers. Refunding one seller’s item does not affect another seller’s proceeds.
Shipping is only included when it forms part of the customer’s refund.
On a fully refunded £1,000 sale with a £15.20 original payment-processing fee, the seller’s proceeds are fully reversed and Light Ideas absorbs the £15.20 processing cost.
Currency conversion, exchange-rate differences and other international payment or payout charges are separate from this refund policy.
Buying on Light Ideas
Light Ideas does not currently add a marketplace fee to the buyer’s order.
Paying in a local currency
Where available, Stripe Adaptive Pricing lets buyers pay in a supported local currency. The buyer sees and pays the local-currency price offered at Stripe Checkout. Any Adaptive Pricing currency-conversion charge is buyer-side and is not treated as a seller processing fee.
Light Ideas marketplace accounting remains in GBP. Paying in another supported currency does not change the seller’s underlying GBP marketplace entitlement.
Light Ideas’ refund processing-fee protection covers the relevant original Stripe payment-processing fee only. It does not include buyer Adaptive Pricing, currency-conversion costs or exchange-rate differences.
Typical UK card examples
| Sale | Light Ideas commission | Typical processing | Estimated seller proceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| £10.00 | £0.00 | £0.35 | £9.65 |
| £50.00 | £0.00 | £0.95 | £49.05 |
| £100.00 | £0.00 | £1.70 | £98.30 |
| £500.00 | £0.00 | £7.70 | £492.30 |
| £1,000.00 | £0.00 | £15.20 | £984.80 |
These are single-seller estimates using the typical UK card rate shown above. The actual processing fee is used. In multi-seller orders, each seller is allocated an appropriate share of that fee.
Estimate your seller proceeds
Uses the typical UK card rate only. Actual processing fees can differ, and multi-seller checkouts allocate the actual processing fee between sellers.
How payments and payouts work
Payments are securely processed by Stripe.
Seller payouts remain through Stripe Connect. A seller needs a connected and verified Stripe account before Light Ideas can transfer their proceeds.
Refunds go back through the original Stripe payment. Light Ideas Payments then separately reconciles and reverses the relevant seller transfer or transfers.
International card charges and seller or cross-border payout costs can vary with the seller account, payout country and transaction. These remain separate from the Light Ideas marketplace commission and refund processing-fee policy.