Guides & essays

The gocushy blog

Selling in the agentic era: how checkouts, funnels, tax, and affiliates work when your AI operates the machinery — on your own Stripe. Practical guides, honest comparisons, no dashboard worship.

ThriveCart Alternative for 2026: Why the Next Cart Is Agent-Native

Comparing ThriveCart to gocushy: bumps, upsells, affiliates, and tax on your own Stripe — operated by your AI instead of another dashboard.

SamCart Alternative: Sell Through ChatGPT Instead of Another Dashboard

SamCart vs gocushy — what changes when your checkout, upsells, and subscriptions are operated by an AI agent on your own Stripe.

How to Sell Digital Products with ChatGPT (Step by Step, 2026)

A complete walkthrough: connect ChatGPT to a real checkout with bumps, upsells, tax, and receipts on your own Stripe — in about ten minutes.

Stripe Payment Links Are a Cash Register. Here's the Store.

When a Stripe payment link is enough — and when you need order bumps, one-click upsells, tax, affiliates, and invoices around it.

What Is an MCP Checkout? The Agentic Commerce Stack, Explained

MCP lets AI agents operate real software. Here is what happens when the software is your checkout — and how to make that safe.

Merchant of Record vs Your Own Stripe: Who Owns Your Customers?

Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, and Gumroad take the tax burden — and the customer relationship. What you trade away, and the own-Stripe alternative.

How to Add Order Bumps and One-Click Upsells to Stripe

Three ways to add bumps and one-click upsells to Stripe checkout — DIY code, cart platforms, or one sentence to your AI agent.

EU VAT, UK VAT and AU/NZ GST for Digital Products on Your Own Stripe

Reverse charge, tax IDs, sequential invoices — how cross-border tax on digital products actually works when you sell on your own Stripe.

How to Run an Affiliate Program on Your Own Stripe Account

Server-side attribution, 30-day holdbacks, refund clawbacks, and paying affiliates from your own accounts — the ledger model explained.

Give Claude the Keys to Your Checkout: Selling with an AI Agent, Safely

Set up Claude to operate your products, offers, affiliates, and refunds — and the guardrails that make handing over the keys sane.

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