Sellfy is an eCommerce platform that allows entrepreneurs to sell digital products and print-on-demand merchandise online.
However, this is a crowded marketplace and we have reviewed many of the major webstore platforms here on Vault50.
With the pandemic keeping many of us housebound for most of 2020, a lot of people started looking for ways of making money online. It seems a new sales platform is being launched every month to cater to this high demand.
This is good news for the online business owner. It is now easier than ever to start selling digital products on the internet, and these platforms are offering all sorts of new features in order for you to sign up for them.
So how does Sellfy hold up against the competition?
That’s exactly what we will look into today. What follows is an in-depth review of Sellfy and whether they are the eCommerce sales platform to use when selling digital products in 2021.
Table of Contents
Sellfy Review Summary
PRICING: Starter = $19 / Business = $39 / Premium= $89 (per month)
Easy-to-use e-commerce platform- Offers inbuilt print on demand
- 14-day trial and zero transaction fees.
- Unlimited hosting space and product data upload
- Provides domain (or connect an existing domain)
- Highly customizable webstore options
- Embedding supports search engine optimization.
- Provides PDF stamping
- Good marketing tools
- Reliable customer support.
- Advanced tax settings for the webstore.
Payment options limited to only PayPal and Stripe.- Analytics could be more comprehensive
Sellfy – Is it Any Good?
First impressions are good with Sellfy. The 14day free trial allows you to get in there are really experience the features of the platform before signing up for one of the plans.
First and foremost, the platform is very easy to use. The interface is bright, clear, and uncluttered. I would go as far to say that a complete newbie could launch their own webstore within 30 minutes using the Sellfy web application.
I was happy to see that they have a PDF stamping feature as eBooks are the main product that I sell online.
However, one great differentiating feature that Sellfy has over some of its competitors is a focus on giving store owners the tools to sell merchandise online.
Print-on-demand clothing has become a real big thing in the last few years. The guys at Sellfy have recognized this and provided the storefront designs and functionality to allow you to launch such a business with ease.
You don’t need to worry about inventory. Designs can be loaded directly into the Sellfy dashboard and onto your store. They handle the sales, printing, and delivery. It really is a business-in-a-box style model with an incredibly low barrier to entry. It was this that impressed me most of all about Sellfy.
The platform also allows for selling video content and subscription services. Physical products can be sold too.
On the negative side, Sellfy does not support very many payment types, (just Paypal and Stripe at the moment). The likes of Sendowl and Payhip are more versatile in this regard, as they have many options.
I liked the marketing features with the ability for product upsells and discount vouchers. The analytics for campaigns was a bit lackluster, however.
Bottom line is, Sellfy is much like many other digital sales platforms out there right now. On the plus side, it is definitely easy to use and it has the inbuilt print on demand merchandise facility. If this speaks to you, you will be on to a winner.
What is Sellfy?
Sellfy is an all-in-one, cloud-based e-commerce platform that allows an online merchant to create and host a webstore that sells digital products and subscriptions.
It also allows the selling of physical goods, including print-on-demand products. Additionally, it provides a robust platform that offers unlimited storage space and can be integrated with over 750 third-party applications.
However, integration with most of these apps is mediated through Zapier. Relatedly, the platform provides inventory management, marketing tools, and analytics.
Additionally, it allows one to connect a custom domain name and provides translation tools for building a multilingual store. The merchant can customize the store, add a shopping cart, and validate the order processing system.
Regarding payment, Sellfy provides 2 payments options – PayPal and Stripe. These are secure payment processors that are fully PCI-compliant. Sellfy also provides PDF stamping, special download links, and can limit the number of download attempts.
Regarding subscriptions, Sellfy comes with 3 service plans. Each plan comes with a 14-day trial and zero transaction fees. These service plans are the Starter Plan, Business Plan, and the Premium Plan.
Key Features
Webstore
This is the online store that Sellfy allows one to create. In the SaaS, this online store is created after one has acquired a Sellfy account, which means that one must register and confirm his particulars before building any webstore on the platform.
One can even acquire a domain name, or add an existing domain name.
The webstore can be customized to the liking of the merchant, and one can add a customized logo, color scheme, store layout, and navigation scheme. After customization, the merchant can set up the shopping cart and order processing system, in addition to customizing the language and translation settings of the webstore.
This allows one to have a multilingual webstore with full functionality. Therefore, a customer who understands a foreign language -i.e that is not the primary language of the webstore – can still navigate the store and make purchases as long as his/her language is among the supported languages.
Additionally, the webstore allows the customer to download a product that has been purchased. The shopping cart and the integration with a payment gateway provide a full set for transaction initiation, processing, and validation.
Likewise, one can set how cart management is to be handled, but only if (s)he has subscribed to the Business plan.
The webstore is fully responsive, which allows customers to make a purchase when they are using mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.
- Related Content: What to Consider When Choosing an eCommerce Platform
Wix Website Building Platform
Sellfy provides an app that can be added to a website building platform known as Wix. This app is named Sell Downloads, and it can be added to the Wix account as an external resource.
This allows the website built by Wix to feature a Sellfy app that can be used to sell products. This means that the app allows one to create a lean webstore that hosts products.
Even so, this app is different from the Sellfy store platform and is in fact offered as a different paid service. On the upside, this app provides a 14-day trial period which is enough for one to test its performance on the Wix-built website.
Hosting
Sellfy stores all the details of the product files uploaded to the webstore. An advantage of using Sellfy is that the hosting space is unlimited which allows one to add as many products as possible. Nonetheless, the maximum size of a single file is limited to 5GB.
This platform also supports product categorization, and its inventory management system provides a simple way for the merchant to catalog available products.
Embedding
Embedding allows an external resource to be connected to the Sellfy platform. Sellfy provides multiple embed options that allow the merchant to better optimize the online visibility of the webstore.
One of the most valuable embed options is the ability to embed Sellfy to an existing website. This allows for the “Buy Now” button to be added to products hosted on the website, as well as enables the merchant to transfer the Sellfy webstore to the website.
Likewise, if one does not want to transfer the whole Sellfy store, (s)he can select the products to transfer to the website.
Another embed option is social media embedding. This allows the merchant to link the webstore to a social media page, usually a Facebook page or a
YouTube channel. This serves to improve online visibility in YouTube as Sellfy allows for product details to be shown on end screens, or as cards in the streaming video.
Types of Products
When compared to SendOwl, Sellfy allows the merchant to sell two different types of products: digital products and physical goods.
Among the physical goods is a specific subset of goods called print-on-demand products. This makes Sellfy an alternative to SendOwl.
As mentioned, digital products include a document (eg electronic book), audio (eg music and podcast), and video (eg movie and documentary) files; as well as a subscription to SaaS products, video streams, or webzines.
Physical goods are basically tangible goods that need to be shipped to the customer. This can be clothes, cutlery, and kitchenware, etc.
At times, the customer may need a specific good to be branded to their liking, eg a T-shirt or mug to have their name printed on it. They need to request the merchant to print this name on a product that they have chosen.
The product that is shipped to the customer is called a print-on-demand product because it has been customized through printing at the request of the customer.
Product Data
As mentioned, Selly allows one to sell digital products. Each product comes with a specific set of data. This is called product data. Physical goods that are sold are also posted in a digital format, i.e the goods are photographed and it is the digital photographs that appear in the store along with product details.
Product data must include the product title and price, with the optional requirements being product image and description. Sellfy also allows for the merchant to set variable pricing options for a single product.
This means that one can set different prices for the same product, or even set the price as “pay what you want”.
Therefore, the platform allows for setting the minimum product price and letting customers choose to pay more; as well as giving the customer the option (if the merchant allows) of paying what (s)he feels is the best price for the product.
- Related Content: SendOwl Review – My Thoughts After Selling Products on the Platform
Payment Options
Unlike Sendowl which provides a wide range of payment options, Sellfy only provides two payments options – PayPal and Stripe. The store is usually mandated to pick only one of these options.
Nonetheless, PayPal and Stripe are great payments options for any webstore because they are secure payment processors and they are fully compliant with the data security standards set for the payment card industry (PCI).
Data Protection
Sellfy protects the proprietary rights of its merchants, especially the proprietary rights to their digital products. Sellfy provides PDF stamping for document files, and special download links for downloadable files, besides limiting the number of download attempts.
This ensures that the merchant does not lose his/her products to malicious actors crawling the webstore.
Integration
Sellfy allows the merchant to integrate third-party tools into the webstore. These tools include Google Analytics, Patreon, webhooks, and Live Chat by Facebook.
To further expand the functionality of the online store, the store can be connected to Zapier, which allows for integration with over 700 third-party apps including MailChimp, Salesforce, and Trello.
Analytics and Marketing Tools
As mentioned, Sellfy comes with analytics and marketing tools. This includes email marketing tools that allow viewers to subscribe to newsletters, as well as facilitates emailing of store updates to these subscribers.
There is also a discounting tool that allows the merchant to set and offer discounts, in addition to creating coupon codes for redeeming pre-set discounts.
Another tool is the advertisement tool that allows a merchant to create an advert and track its progress on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. This tool also supports upselling of product packages.
The analytics dashboard enables the merchant to track product performance, identify best-performing products, identify locations of most buyers, and monitor sources of traffic to the webstore.
Basically, this dashboard allows the merchant to assess the website’s performance.
Customer Support
Sellfy provides 24/7 customer support to all subscribers of the paid plans. Even so, priority is given to subscribers of the Premium plan.
- Related Content: Shopio Review – My Recent Experience Launching a Webstore
Sellfy Subscription Costs
Sellfy has 3 service plans, each of which comes with a 14-day trial and zero transaction fees. Even so, no transaction can be done during the trial period. To make any transaction, one needs to purchase one of the 3 plans.
These plans are sold as monthly subscriptions, with the yearly subscription coming with a 34% discount at the time of writing this review. The plans are as follows.
Starter Plan = $19/mo
This is the cheapest plan that one can subscribe to and start a webstore. In this plan, the merchant gets to start a webstore, customize it, and upload an unlimited number of product files.
It allows one to sell digital and physical goods, including subscriptions and print-on-demand goods. It also supports discount setting and the generation of redeemable discount codes.
This plan also comes with advanced tax settings for managing store taxation and product pricing. Moreover, it allows one to connect a custom domain name to the webstore.
With this entry-level plan, the webstore is allowed to sell goods worth US$10,000 per year. If more sales are made, Sellfy will charge an overage fee that is equivalent to 2% of the amount in excess of the (US$10,000) limit.
This fee is charged after Sellfy notifies the merchant to upgrade the subscription plan.
Business Plan = $39/mo
This is the mid-tier plan that comes with all the features of the Starter plan. Its unique features are support for product upselling, management of cart abandonment, and provision of 10,000 email credits.
So, what is an email credit? An email credit in Sellfy is a pre-set number of emails that a merchant can send out to customers using the built-in email marketing tool.
Email credits are sold, but this plan gives 10000 credits for free and only starts charging the credits after the merchant has exhausted the allocated free credits.
This plan also supports free migration of a webstore to a website or importation of data from a website into the webstore. Additionally, it removes the Sellfy branding on product images.
With this plan, the webstore is allowed to sell goods worth US$50,000 per year.
Premium Plan = $89/mo
This is the premium-tier plan that comes with all the features of the Business plan.
Its unique features are 50,000 email credits and priority support. Priority support simply means that customer support will give the merchant more priority over merchants that have subscribed to Business and Starter plans.
With this plan, the webstore is allowed to sell goods worth US$200,000 per year.
- Related Content: 5 Marketing Tips When Selling Digital Products Online
Pros & Cons of Sellfy
- Easy-to-use e-commerce platform that allows for creation of a customized multilingual webstore.
- Excellent Built-in, print-on-demand services
- Unlimited hosting space that allows one to add as much product data as possible.
- Allows one to acquire a domain or connect to an existing domain name/address.
- Provides a highly customizable webstore that can feature a custom logo, store layout, color scheme, and navigation menu.
- The inventory system provides for product categorization and cataloging.
- Embedding supports search engine optimization.
- Merchant can set variable pricing options for a single product, including an option to pay what you want.
- Provides PDF stamping for document files, and special download links for downloadable files, besides limiting the number of download attempts.
- Provides marketing tools for email marketing, discount setting, and social media advertising.
- Provides reliable customer support.
- Provides advanced tax settings for the webstore.
- Each subscription plan comes with a 14-day trial and zero transaction fees.
- Payment options limited to only PayPal and Stripe.
- Analytics options are a little lackluster
Sellfy Vs The Competition (Payhip, SendOwl, & More)
BEST BUDGET SENDOWL | BEST FOR PRINT-ON-DEMAND SELLFY | PAYHIP | BEST FOR ONLINE COURSES PODIA | BEST FOR PHYSICAL PRODUCTS SHOPIO | EASYSTORE | |
 |  |  |  |  |  | |
PRODUCT TYPES | Digital, Physical Membership, Subscriptions | Digital, Physical, Print-on-Demand & Subscriptions | Digital, Membership, Subscriptions | Digital, Courses, Membership, Subscriptions | Physical Products | Physical Products |
UNLIMITED PRODUCTS | NO (Amount Depends on Plan) | YES | YES | YES | NO (Amount Depends on Plan) | NO (Amount Depends on Plan) |
HOSTS YOUR WEBSTORE | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
EMBED INTO OTHER PLATFORMS | YES (Websites & Social) | YES (Websites & Social) | YES (Websites & Social) | YES (Websites & Social) | YES (Websites & Social) | YES (Depends on Plan) |
FILE SECURITY | PDF Stamps, License Keys | PDF Stamps, Unique download links | PDF Stamps, License Keys | PDF Stamps, License Keys | N/A 256-BIT SSL | N/A 256-BIT SSL |
BUILT IN EMAIL MARKETING | NO (Integrations Only) | YES | NO (Integrations Only) | YES | YES | Depends on Plan |
UPSELLING & DISCOUNTS | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | Depends on Plan |
TRANSACTION FEES | 0% | 0% | 5% (Free plan) 2% (Plus Plan) 0% (Pro Plan | 0% | 0% | 0% |
PLANS | Stnd: $15/mo 30 products Prem: $24/mo 100 Products Bus: $39/mo 250 Products | Start: $29/mo Bus: $59/mo Prem: $129/mo | Start: $0/mo Plus: $29/mo Pro: $99/mo | Start: $39/mo Mid: $79/mo Top: $179/mo | Start: $19/mo Bus: $59/mo Pro: $89/mo Top: $149/mo | Free: 1 Sales Channel Lite: $17/mo 2 Channels Stnd: $34/mo 7 Channels Top: $77/mo 13 Channels |
We have rated Sellfy highly based on the fact it is an all-around versatile e-commerce platform. The icing on the cake is the print-on-demand services that are built in. This provides an instant way for entrepreneurs to begin selling apparel designs and merchandise at a low cost.
Sellfy loses out only slightly to our top budget pick Sendowl in the value for money department. With a starter plan of only $15 per month based on 30 products, Sendowl offers a great way for beginners to test the waters of digital product sales.
Anyone that is interested in an e-commerce platform for physical goods, should look to Shopio. They too have a low-priced entry plan based on the number of products you sell. There is also a ton of features for established e-commerce sellers.
Finally, Podia is worth a special mention due to the features they have for selling online courses. In this regard, they are one of the best platforms around.
