What is a merchant of record and why use one?

A merchant of record (MoR) — Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar — is the legal seller of your product. They run checkout, collect payment, and critically, they handle global sales tax and VAT registration/remittance in every jurisdiction, then pay you out. The cost is roughly 5% + fees versus ~3% for raw Stripe. For digital sellers without a tax team (or without Stripe access in their country), the extra ~2% buys compliance in dozens of tax regimes and instant worldwide selling. Most solo digital-product businesses should start MoR and only revisit at serious scale.