Frequently Asked Questions

SmallRun is an online marketplace for independent makers - primarily electronics projects, open-source hardware, and DIY kits, alongside tabletop gaming accessories, fandom art, miniatures, and other small-batch geeky goods. Buyers discover unique things directly from the creators who make them.

SmallRun specializes in electronics and maker goods:

• Electronics projects, DIY kits, and open-source hardware (PCBs, sensor modules, dev boards)
• Tabletop gaming accessories and miniatures
• RPG supplements, handmade dice, and game components
• Fandom art and prints, enamel pins, stickers
• 3D-printed parts, handmade crafts, and other small-batch maker goods

Anyone can browse and buy on SmallRun. Sellers set their own shipping destinations and rates, so availability varies by shop. At checkout, prices are shown in your local currency - SmallRun uses Stripe Adaptive Pricing so you'll see and pay in a familiar currency regardless of where the seller is based.

Any independent maker or small creator can open a shop. SmallRun is focused on handmade, small-batch, and creator-owned products. Sellers connect a payout method - a Stripe Express account where available (see Stripe's global page), Wise payouts straight to a bank account in around 160 countries, or PayPal Payouts in the 190+ countries PayPal reaches - and provide a ship-from address. Between the three, we welcome makers from nearly every country.

SmallRun is built and operated by one person - Aron Hoekstra, a maker himself, based in Crown Point, Indiana, USA. It operates under his Indiana single-member LLC, Unigration, LLC d/b/a SmallRun. There's no parent company and no outside investors, so decisions are made based on what's good for makers and buyers - not a growth target. It also means that when you contact support, you're talking to the person who actually built the site.

Browse or search for products, add items to your cart, and check out with Stripe. You'll need to create an account or log in. After checkout, the seller is notified and prepares your shipment.

SmallRun uses Stripe for all payments. Buyers can pay with most major credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other payment methods Stripe makes available in your country.

No. SmallRun never sees or stores your card number, expiry date, CVV, or any other payment credentials. All payment data is entered directly into Stripe's PCI-compliant hosted checkout and stays entirely within Stripe's systems. SmallRun only receives a transaction reference ID from Stripe, which is used solely to process refunds if needed. See Stripe's privacy policy for details on how they handle payment data.

Once the seller ships your order and generates a tracking label, you'll receive a shipping confirmation email with a tracking link. You can also view your order status and tracking from your Orders page when logged in.

Contact the seller first using the messaging system - most issues are resolved quickly. If you need to escalate, use the Report option on your order. You are encouraged to reach a resolution with the seller, or SmallRun directly - before opening a dispute with your card issuer.

Each seller sets their own return policy, which is shown on their shop and product pages. If a seller agrees to a return, they'll coordinate with you directly. For orders that arrive significantly not as described, you can open a dispute through your payment card.

After signing up for an account, go to the Start Selling section, and complete the shop setup. You'll need to connect a payout method (Stripe Express, Wise, or PayPal - see payout methods) and provide a ship-from address. Once your shop is set up, you can start listing products immediately.

SmallRun is for independent makers selling their own handmade, small-batch, or creator-owned goods. Reselling mass-market products is not permitted. Focus areas include electronics projects, tabletop gaming, hobby crafts, fandom art, miniatures, and similar maker-oriented items.

Yes. SmallRun supports international sellers. For payouts you can connect a Stripe Express account where Stripe Connect is available (roughly 45 countries), get paid straight to your bank account via Wise in around 160 countries, or use PayPal Payouts nearly everywhere else - see payout methods for how the three compare. Some carrier options for calculated shipping may differ based on your ship-from country.

SmallRun's all-in selling fee is 7% of your product subtotal plus shipping - and that already includes card processing, so there's nothing extra deducted at payout. It breaks down to roughly 4.1% for SmallRun (hosting, infrastructure, and support) and 2.9% for Stripe card processing. A flat $0.40 per-order fee also applies, which helps cover Stripe's fixed per-transaction and tax-collection costs. There is no monthly fee, listing fee, or setup cost. When you use calculated shipping, the buyer's shipping payment is passed through at cost to cover the actual carrier label - SmallRun does not mark up shipping. Free and flat-rate shipping (see the Shipping section below) work differently: with free, you absorb the postage; with flat rate, the full amount goes to you to cover your own postage.

On a typical order, SmallRun's all-in selling fees - card processing included - are among the lowest you'll find. Here's how they compare:

Total fees on a $60 product with free shipping, before sales tax. eBay and Etsy also apply their percentage to shipping and tax, and Etsy's Offsite Ads program can add 12-15% on qualifying orders, so the difference is often larger in practice. Competitor rates are current as of June 2026 - check each marketplace for the latest.

SmallRun supports three payout methods, and you pick one when you connect payouts from your seller dashboard:

• Stripe Connect (recommended where available) - you create a Stripe Express account, onboarding is instant with no manual review, payouts arrive about 2 business days after a sale with no payout fee, and sales tax / VAT is collected and remitted automatically. Stripe Connect is available in roughly 45 countries.
• Wise - payouts go straight to your bank account, in your bank's currency, in around 160 countries. You don't need a Wise account and there are no documents to upload - enter your bank details once and you're set. Wise's transfer fee (typically 0.5-1%) is deducted from each payout, with any currency conversion at the mid-market rate, and you see a live fee preview for your exact currencies during setup. Each payout is held for 30 days after the sale.
• PayPal Payouts - for makers who prefer being paid to their existing PayPal account, in the 190+ countries PayPal reaches. Verification is instant: sign in with your verified PayPal account and you're approved on the spot (if your PayPal account isn't verified, a one-time manual document review is available instead, typically 1-2 business days). PayPal's payout fee (2% outside the US) is deducted from each payout, and each payout is held for 30 days after the sale.

You can connect any of the three from your seller dashboard once your shop is set up. Payouts always go to an account you own; the payout fees above are charged by the provider, not by SmallRun.

It depends on your payout method. With Stripe, payouts go to your Stripe Express account on Stripe's standard schedule - typically 2 business days after a sale for US sellers, longer for some other countries - and you control your payout settings from your Stripe dashboard. With Wise and PayPal, each payout is sent to your bank account (Wise) or PayPal account 30 days after the sale (the hold helps cover refunds and disputes).

If your Stripe Express account's payout currency differs from your listing currency - for example, you list in USD but your bank account settles in EUR - Stripe charges a 1% cross-currency transfer fee when sending your payout. This is deducted by Stripe before your funds arrive; SmallRun does not add any additional markup.

With Wise payouts, if your bank's currency differs from your listing currency, Wise converts at the mid-market rate (the one you see on Google) as part of the transfer - there is no separate conversion markup, just Wise's normal transfer fee. The payout setup page shows a live preview of the fee and what you'd receive for your exact currency pair.

Buyers can choose a display currency on SmallRun, but the actual charge at checkout is always in the seller's listing currency. If a buyer's payment method is in a different currency, their bank or card network may apply their own foreign transaction fee - this is entirely separate from SmallRun and its payout providers.

A run is a group buy on a small-batch product. The maker sets a minimum quantity, an optional cap, and a close date; buyers commit up front with a saved payment method. If the run reaches its minimum by the close date (or fills its cap early), everyone is charged at once and each commitment becomes a regular order. If it falls short, the run expires and nobody pays anything. A public page listing all open runs is coming soon.

Never at commitment time. When you join a run you save a payment method, and it is charged only if the run succeeds. The full amount - items plus the seller's flat-rate shipping and any applicable tax - is shown before you commit, and you can withdraw at any time before the run closes from your commitments page. If the charge fails when a run closes, you'll be notified and can retry with an updated payment method.

It expires: nobody is charged, and there's nothing to cancel or refund. If you still want the product, look for the "notify me about the next run" button on the product page - join the waitlist and you'll get an email the moment the maker opens the next one.

From your seller dashboard, open Runs, pick a product, and set a minimum quantity, an optional cap, a close date, and an estimated ship date. Buyers commit with a saved payment method, and nobody is charged unless the run hits your minimum - so you can gauge real demand before spending anything on parts. When a run succeeds, each commitment becomes a regular order and the standard selling fee applies, just like any other sale; if it expires, no one is charged and there are no fees. Runs are in beta, and we're looking for a few sellers to test the feature - if you'd like access, reach out and let us know.

Build logs are project journals posted by sellers documenting how they designed and built their products. They're especially common for electronics and open-source hardware projects - design decisions, prototyping notes, schematic walkthroughs, assembly guides, and lessons learned. Think of them as a dev log attached directly to the creator's shop.

Primarily sellers can publish build logs from their shop dashboard. Posts support rich text and images. Build logs are a great way to document your process, attract followers interested in your work, and give buyers more confidence in your products. However, you don't have to sell things to post build logs. If you just want a place to share your hobby, then create an account and shop - but just keep the shop marked as unpublished. You can still create and publish build logs.

Sellers choose one of three shipping methods per product:

• Calculated - real-time rates from carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, Evri, and Canada Post via Shippo, based on parcel weight and dimensions and the buyer's destination. The buyer picks from the available rates at checkout and the cost is passed through to fund the label - SmallRun does not mark it up.
• Free - the buyer pays $0 shipping. The seller bakes postage into the product price and ships it themselves.
• Flat rate - a fixed amount the seller sets per product (useful for stickers and other items that ship with a regular postage stamp, which Shippo can't generate a label for). The buyer pays the flat amount and the seller handles postage.

When an order mixes items with different methods, any item using calculated shipping pulls the whole shop's box through Shippo - free and flat-rate items ride along at no extra charge. An order of only flat-rate items charges the highest flat rate among them, once per order (one envelope ships them all).

Available carriers depend on the seller's ship-from country. SmallRun uses Shippo to generate labels, and sellers can restrict which carriers they offer in their shop settings. These carriers work automatically with no setup beyond a ship-from address:

• United States: USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL Express
• United Kingdom: Evri, DPD UK, UPS, Royal Mail OBA*
• Canada: Canada Post
• Australia: Aramex, Australia Post*
• Germany: Deutsche Post
• France: Mondial Relay
• Italy: Poste Italiane
• Other countries (outside the US): DHL Express*

* Available by connecting your own carrier account in your shipping settings (Royal Mail Online Business Account - note Royal Mail only issues API credentials to high-volume senders; Australia Post MyPost Business or eParcel; your DHL Express account). Postage on a connected account is billed by the carrier directly to you.

Additional carriers (such as Parcelforce, Colissimo, Chronopost, Correos, Purolator, and New Zealand Post) can be added on request - contact us if your shop needs one. If adequate calculated shipping options are not available for your region, sellers can choose to set flat rates based on the buyer's ship-to country and use their own carrier/label provider. Rates and available services depend on the seller's ship-from address and the buyer's destination. For products using flat-rate or free shipping, sellers handle postage themselves - SmallRun does not generate a label for those.

Yes. To comply with US sanctions and export regulations, SmallRun can't support orders shipped to - or shops based in - Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Belarus, or the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. These don't appear in our country dropdowns. Everywhere else, each seller chooses which countries they ship to, so availability varies by shop.

It depends on the shipping method:

• Calculated: SmallRun retains the shipping payment and uses it to buy the label when you fulfill. If the actual label is cheaper than the rate the buyer was quoted, the difference is automatically refunded to the buyer. Exception: when the buyer chose a rate on your own connected carrier account, the carrier bills you for the postage directly, so the shipping payment is paid through to you in your payout instead (like flat rate, commission still applies).
• Free: No shipping money changes hands - the seller absorbs the postage.
• Flat rate: The full flat amount is paid through to the seller in their payout to cover their own postage. Commission still applies to the full order including shipping.

SmallRun uses Stripe Tax to automatically calculate and collect the correct sales tax or VAT on every order based on the buyer's location. The tax amount is shown at checkout and charged on top of the order total. SmallRun remits the collected tax to the relevant authority - sellers do not need to handle this themselves.

Yes, on intra-EU orders. If both you and the seller are in the EU, the applicable VAT rate for your country is calculated automatically at checkout and added to your order total - the price you see at checkout is the full price.

Important: for orders shipped into the EU from outside, SmallRun's IOSS registration is still in progress. Until it is live, those packages ship DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) - your carrier will collect import VAT and any handling fee from you on delivery. Enabling IOSS-based VAT collection at checkout is a top priority for us.

No. SmallRun acts as the marketplace facilitator for VAT purposes. Stripe Tax calculates and collects VAT on every sale, and SmallRun remits it on your behalf. You do not need your own VAT registration to sell on SmallRun.

Note: this covers platform-collected VAT only. If you have separate VAT obligations in your own country from other business activities, those remain your responsibility.

IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) is an EU scheme that lets marketplaces collect VAT at the point of sale on goods worth €150 or less shipped into the EU, so buyers don't pay import VAT again on delivery.

SmallRun's IOSS registration is in progress. Until it is live, shipments into the EU from outside go out DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) - the buyer pays import VAT and any carrier handling fee on delivery. Getting IOSS-based VAT collection enabled at checkout is a top priority and we are working to have it in place as soon as possible.

No - once SmallRun's IOSS registration is live, the platform IOSS number will cover all eligible orders (goods valued at €150 or less) shipped through SmallRun, and will be automatically included on Shippo customs declarations so the carrier knows VAT has been collected at checkout.

For goods over €150, IOSS does not apply regardless. The buyer is responsible for any import duties and VAT on delivery for those orders.

EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) is a number issued by a customs authority that identifies a business in customs declarations. It is separate from IOSS - IOSS covers VAT, EORI identifies you as an exporter or importer in the customs system.

Most sellers do not need one. For small-volume international shipments, your carrier (USPS, UPS, etc.) files customs declarations on your behalf and EORI is not required. Higher-volume sellers who regularly ship to or from EU countries and file their own customs declarations may need to register with their country's customs authority. If that applies to you, you can add your EORI number in your shop settings and SmallRun will include it automatically on Shippo customs declarations for EU shipments.

IOSS only covers goods valued at €150 or less. For orders above this threshold, VAT and import duties are not collected at checkout - the buyer will pay them to their country's customs authority on delivery (known as DDU, Delivered Duty Unpaid). Buyers should be aware of this before placing a large order from outside the EU.