As one of the most versatile online platforms for ecommerce, Shopify offers its users several ways to accept payments from their customers. This is a very important factor to consider when setting up your online store because if you’re unable to process payments, your store will most likely be of little use to you.
Fortunately, Shopify users can choose from multiple payment providers from Shopify’s payment gateway – known as Shopify Payments – to other third-party payment providers like Stripe, PayPal and more.
Choosing a payment provider
Unsure of what payment processing provider to use for your Shopify store? Your choice should ultimately take into account your needs, products, customers, location, as well as your expectations for functionality. By default, your Shopify store is set to automatically collect payments with Shopify Payments as soon as you create your Shopify store. In this case, your payment processing rates are based on your Shopify plan, and can only be changed whenever you change your subscription plan.
Charges for this feature start from 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction for the Basic Shopify plan to 2.4% + 30¢ for the Advanced Shopify plan. When setting up your Shopify Payments, you will be asked for the following information:
- Banking information
- Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Average price of your orders
- Shipping time of your orders
If you’re don’t qualify to use Shopify Payments (Shopify doesn’t allow certain products to use Shopify Payments) or find their rates to be on the high side, you can choose from over 100+ payment providers which are divided into two distinct types.
- Direct Shopify payment providers:
This type of payment provider can handle payments directly on the Shopify checkout page. For example, after checking out their purchases, your customers will be able to complete their payment on the Shopify checkout page without being redirected. Direct Shopify payment providers include Amazon Pay, Skrill, WorldPay, BitPay, Paysafe, PayPal Express Checkout, Coinbase Commerce, and Authorize.net amongst others. Direct payment providers are quicker and more secure as everything is carried out on Shopify and you’ll have no need to direct customers to leave the platform to accept payments.
- External Shopify payment providers
On the other hand, when you integrate an external payment provider with your Shopify store, customers are redirected to an external payment page to complete their order. After a successful payment, they are redirected back to your store to view their confirmation page.
Using an external payment provider, of course, involves extra steps that may or may not affect your Shopify store’s shopping experience. External payment providers include PayPal Payments Advanced, 2 Checkout, DirecPay, ePay, and SagePay Form.
Activate a Shopify payment provider
Only an admin account can add, edit, or remove a payment provider on Shopify and only one provider can be used on your store at any given time. To activate a Shopify payment provider:
- Go to Settings > Payment providers.
- You can choose Shopify Paymentsor click on Choose third-party provider.
- Select your preferred provider from the list.
- Configure your account details.
- Click Activate.
Once you’re able to set up payment processing for your Shopify store, you’re ready to start collecting payments and making sales. Ideally, you’ll be able to use Shopify Payments to do this, as it makes everything easier and makes it so that you’ll never have to deal with multiple platform providers. However, even if you do decide to use an external payment provider, collecting and processing payments on Shopify is a breeze.