Field notes
What we learn placing regulated merchants with processors and hosts that will actually keep them. Written for the merchant, not for the search engine, which means we tell you the parts that are not good news for us.
- Platform risk8 min read
Who actually bans what: the platform is rarely the problem, your processor is
Shopify and Squarespace publish no list of banned products at all; Shopify Payments points at Stripe's. A category-by-category comparison of what the published policies actually say, with links to every source.
Read it - Platform risk6 min read
Wix bans what you sell. What that actually means for peptides, kratom, CBD and vape.
Wix Payments publishes a prohibited products list that covers most regulated categories, and reserves the right to hold your funds and refund your customers. Here is what the policy says, and the difference between payment risk and platform risk.
Read it - Ownership7 min read
Your developer owns your domain. Here is how to find out, and get it back.
A free two-minute check that tells you whether you control your domain, your hosting, your store admin and your merchant account, plus what is realistically recoverable when a developer stops replying.
Read it - Payments7 min read
Your payment processor froze your account. What to do in the first 48 hours.
The order that works: what to stop, what to keep doing, how to tell a review from a termination, and the one shortcut that turns a recoverable problem into a five-year listing on the MATCH file.
Read it
New pieces land here first. The RSS feed carries the full list.