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Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the TechShelf platform, wallets, withdrawals, and payments.

General Information

TechShelf is a premium digital product marketplace built specifically for creators and digital entrepreneurs in Kenya. The platform allows sellers to publish and monetize digital products (e.g. eBooks, templates, source code, design assets, software) and enables buyers to purchase and download them instantly using M-Pesa or PayPal.

Simply register an account by clicking the Register button. During signup, you can check the "Register as a Seller" option if you want to publish products and earn revenue. Buyers can register standard accounts to search, save favorites, purchase, and top up wallets.

For Buyers

Immediately after a successful payment (via M-Pesa, PayPal, or Wallet Balance), you will be redirected to your Order details page where a secure Download link is provided. You will also receive an email with secure download links. Download keys remain active for easy access anytime in your account dashboard under "My Orders".

Yes. To avoid processing individual mobile money or card payments for every single transaction, you can add funds directly to your TechShelf Wallet. M-Pesa and PayPal are supported deposit channels. Wallet funds never expire and can be spent on any digital product instantly.

Sellers, Wallets & Payouts

When a buyer purchases your product, the transaction revenue (minus the platform commission fee) is credited directly to your Seller Wallet. To protect transactions and prevent fraud, funds are split into two categories in your wallet:

  • Held Balance: Revenue from recent sales currently undergoing the security maturity hold.
  • Available Balance: Funds that have cleared the maturity period and are fully eligible for instant withdrawal.

All earnings from digital sales are subject to a **3-day maturity period** before they move from your Held Balance to your Available Balance.

Matures in 3 Days: Sales made on Monday will automatically clear and become fully available to withdraw on Thursday.

This hold ensures that any payment disputes, customer refund requests, or security flags are resolved before the funds leave the platform, keeping the marketplace secure for both buyers and creators.

You can withdraw your mature "Available Balance" at any time from the wallet dashboard. The platform supports withdrawals to:

  • M-Pesa: Sent directly to your registered Safaricom mobile phone number.
  • PayPal: Transferred to your configured PayPal email address in USD.

To comply with fraud prevention measures, you can only withdraw funds from the respective channel you or your buyers used (e.g. PayPal sales are paid out via PayPal, M-Pesa sales are paid out via M-Pesa).

Rates, Currencies & Fees

TechShelf lists all products on the storefront in Kenya Shillings (KES). However, PayPal does not natively support Kenya Shillings for checkouts or payouts. Therefore, all PayPal transactions undergo currency conversion.

Fixed Exchange Rate: 1 USD = 133 KES (approximately 0.0075 USD per 1 KES)

When paying or topping up via PayPal, the KES price is dynamically converted to USD at this rate. The rate is fetched and cached from the platform database settings to maintain stability.

Transaction fees are transparent and depend on the channel selected:

  • M-Pesa Deposits: Standard mobile money carrier rates apply for customer STK push prompts.
  • PayPal Deposits: PayPal enforces a minimum transaction limit of $1.00 USD. If your KES conversion results in less than $1.00, it will be rounded up to $1.00 USD to comply with PayPal's API constraints.
  • Withdrawals: Withdrawal fees are calculated dynamically based on predefined bands for M-Pesa and PayPal. This breakdown is previewed in full on your wallet dashboard before you confirm any withdrawal.