COVID-19 resources for Stripe users

These are unprecedented times. Businesses around the world are responding urgently to new government policies, sudden needs to switch in-store sales to online, dramatic drops or spikes in demand, disruptions to cash flow, and more. We’re committed to helping our users navigate rapidly changing circumstances.
Below are some of the products, programmes and resources Stripe is building to help your business adapt to the challenges of COVID-19.

Stripe systems + reliability

Our priority is to help you serve your customers and keep your payments infrastructure operating reliably. Our teams are fully set up to work remotely and to keep Stripe’s systems available, scalable, and financially resilient for millions of businesses around the world. Our free, 24×7 email, phone, or chat support will remain available to all Stripe users.

We’re also actively working with financial partners, other technology companies, and governments on programmes that may help businesses during and after the crisis. We'll keep this page updated with the latest resources and information for Stripe users.

Access to capital

Governments are developing programmes to help some of the most vulnerable businesses cope with sudden losses in revenue. As those programmes come online, we will provide details for accessing loans and other lines of capital.

Latest updates

Getting started

Businesses moving to accepting online payments quickly can follow our docs to start using Stripe.

No-code options

Choose a partner to start and run your online business with no code required.

Billing

You can now pause payment collection on subscriptions via the Dashboard or the API.

Telemedicine programmes

We are fast-tracking supporting telemedicine platforms and helping them get started with Stripe even faster.

Payments

All businesses can now proactively add funds to their balance to cover refunds or chargebacks.

Resources from Stripe and our partners

Depending on your business model and industry, you may be facing different challenges – from needing to process more refunds to handling demand spikes. We’re working quickly to add features that will help you take action. The Stripe platform already includes products and features that may help your business adapt today:

E-commerce and ticketing

Businesses that sell physical products or tickets may need to process more refunds than is typical and keep a closer eye on fraud.

You may want to automate refunds (providing refunds is generally less expensive on the whole than handling chargebacks) or empower more of your team to process refunds. You may also need to respond to a high volume of disputes.

To help limit fraud, set a more conservative risk threshold using Radar for Fraud Teams (we offer a 30-day free trial). You can also set a rule to manually review more payments than you usually would to screen for potential fraud.

Small businesses, retail and services

Businesses with an in-person presence such as shops, restaurants, gyms, and many more are especially affected by social distancing policies in place.

We’ve seen optimistic results from businesses that have quickly added e-commerce capabilities. Follow our guide to get started or choose from dozens of Stripe partners who help you get started with no code.

Many businesses have also started to deliver goods or purchases to their customers.

SaaS

While a few companies are seeing a spike in enquiries from customers who are racing to put solutions in place for remote work, collaboration or virtual events, many are seeing reduced demand and extended sales cycles.

SaaS companies may need to add extended free trials and take on longer sales cycles to help customers who are jarred by the uncertainty in the market.

You may want to offer to pause subscriptions instead of cancelling them outright or offer discounts.

On-demand marketplaces

Some marketplaces that are in the delivery space are facing urgent scaling challenges. Others are dealing with stringent restrictions on the services they can offer.

If you’re supporting increased demand, get new service providers set up fast. US marketplaces can also create virtual payment cards to fund purchases without needing to wait for physical cards to arrive.

Many marketplaces are quickly putting resources together to help the service providers on their platform adapt to reduced demand by offering faster or extra payouts.

Software platforms

Many software platforms are racing to help their customers – small businesses – deal with the pandemic.

If your platform is based in the US, you can enable faster payouts for your customers.

We’re working with our partners to create resources and guides for SMBs. To start, you may want to look at the reference guides from some of our partners:

Non-profits

Many non-profits are responding urgently to the crisis and need to ensure a steady flow of donations.

Set up your non-profit to accept one-time or recurring donations online with Stripe or choose a platform that partners with Stripe to power donation collection for non-profits.

Stripe offers discounted processing fees for qualifying non-profit organisations.

More resources

We’ve collected a handful of guides and links that may help leaders across any type of business:

LessWrong: curated list of information, papers and articles about the coronavirus

View data 

FAQs

We’ve collected answers to frequently asked questions around payout timing, refunds, and more on our support site. If you have any other questions, please contact us – we offer 24×7 support over email, phone, or chat.

We can help

If you’re sprinting to get a new project or programme live, our sales team can help – please get in touch. We also partner with developer agencies that offer services to integrate Stripe or make quick changes to features and functionality.

Ways to get involved

Open-source projects

If you’re a developer, our friends at GitHub compiled a list of open-source projects that are helping the COVID-19 response. You might also consider joining #BuildForCovid19, a global distributed hackathon, or looking at Help with COVID's website for projects that need specialised support. Please contact us if you’ve built projects or tools to help the community – we’d love to help spread the word if we can!

Help get businesses online

Many small businesses need help getting up and running with online payments, delivery services, and more. If you’re interested in sharing your expertise to help a small business get online, please fill out this form – we’ll do our best to connect you with those that need help.

Stay updated

Please refer to local authorities for the latest, up-to-date information on COVID-19.

Need help?

We’re here 24×7 over email, phone or chat. Get in touch if you have questions or need help with code.