Shopify Payment Gateways & Countries

TheGenieLab has extensive experience integrating payment gateways into Shopify. We can also build custom payment gateway integrations for Shopify. If you need assistance or support with your payment gateway and Shopify please get in touch.

Shopify and Payment Providers

Shopify makes it easy to start off a new store, especially with their Shopify Payments gateway, but alternatively, they have integrated with over 100 Payment Gateway providers covering the globe.

What is a Payment Gateway?

The difference between a Website and an eCommerce site is the ability to sell and take payment from a client. Taking payment requires several pages that will allocate a customer’s choice of products into a basket, and accepting customer information securely for shopping and payment purposes. Given this interaction is being done online, security, credit card validation, and credit card response is crucial to the business selling their products. Without being able to process payment, a business cannot “sell” a product/service online and has to settle with an on-location payment – eCommerce categorically is defined by a website hosting a Payment Gateway.

Considerations in choosing a Payment Gateway

When choosing a Payment Gateway, there are several considerations to factor in. The first is the location to which you will be selling into, how is the product/service delivered, and lastly, what currencies require consideration.

Electronic goods: This applies to software, and a good example of this are App-stores. The App-stores consider your location, which determines your currency and the region that the software is licensed in. There is no “shipping” which is a very frictionless transaction which in most cases payment is taken by a configured profile just by a password/digital print. For independent stores, a Payment Gateway is required, yet the address is really used for credit card authentication (no delivery).

Packaged goods: Where the bulk of eCommerce fits this category outside of software, the address section can be set for both delivery and where the credit card is registered at. Assessing the cost of shipping to charge the client correctly takes effort in your store set up to attribute size/weight for each item to do a fair evaluation at checkout. Shipping is a new variable in choosing your payment gateway since a store will ship to certain locations and not in others (Domestically, or USA+CA, Europe only, etc.) giving you a set of currencies to transact for.

Heavy Goods: For palleted goods that require freight shipping, additional complexities in evaluating the shipping cost – like packaged goods, once the total is evaluated, then the Payment Gateway can process the payment. Two considerations outside the norm are the transaction amount will most likely be higher, and given the logistics of delivery, customs forms/costs may restrict the locations that are viable to ship to.

As long as your store is set up correctly to handle the estimation of shipping the goods, your clients' basket will show a total to transact comprised of goods/services and the price of delivery. From there, the Payment Gateway will cater to your demographic.

Shopify Payments – the best payment gateway for Shopify.

For a store to open up with some packaged goods, this solution is usually the simplest. Your Shopify Price Plan will determine the cost of running this gateway. An application form is required for you to fill out about the type of business, your bank and business license details, and possibly references. Much like any other Payment Gateway, Shopify ensures that the business is legitimate and complies with local laws and regulations.

The advantage of Shopify Payments is the integration within Shopify being seamless, as well as avoiding the Gateway Processing fee they charge for connecting an external gateway to the platform (2% (Basic), 1%, 0.5% (Advanced), 0.15% (Plus). It takes 3 days for a transaction to process, and to see the amount received in your bank. If you have a physical store, Shopify Payments also provide you with a card reader for physical cards to be processed making it collectively simple to manage.

Key Advantages of using Shopify Payments Gateway

· No Shopify plan Gateway transaction fees

· Online credit card transaction fees: BASIC 2.9% + 30¢; SHOPIFY 2.6% + 30¢; ADVANCED SHOPIFY 2.4% + 30¢

· In-person credit card fees: BASIC 2.7%; SHOPIFY 2.5%; ADVANCED SHOPIFY 2.4%

· No additional or hidden fees.

· Built-in Risk assessment tools on suspect transactions specific for Shopify Payments

Downsides of using Shopify Payments Gateway

· Only available in certain countries

· Chargeback fees: Every platform has them, when it comes to Shopify, their charge is $15 every time a chargeback occurs, which is passed onto you.

· Chargeback errors or suspicious account activity may result in a frozen account.

PayPal Shopify Payment Gateway

Adding another option for your clients to transact, PayPal is a great choice for them to use. It takes about a day for your application to get processed and to turn on the option for your Shopify store.

· The cost of a US-based client to use this option: 2.9% of transactions, plus a fixed fee of 50¢or less depending on the currency.

· Payments coming from outside the US: 4.4% plus a small fixed fee

· Non-US currencies like GBP: 3.4%+20p to 1.9%+20p depending on monthly volume.

· PayPal will also have a fee for converting currencies.

· PayPal will re-direct clients to their platform for clients to login/password and confirm payment to then return to the store.

· PayPal Buyer Protection applies and does add the additional risk of claims against the merchant.

PayPal does give you an increased conversion rate, for most stores it makes sense to add the option.

Which countries currently support Shopify Payments?

• Australia

• Austria

• Canada

• Denmark

• Germany

• Hong Kong SAR China

• Ireland

• Italy

• Japan

• The Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Singapore

• Spain

• Sweden

• United Kingdom

• United States Shopify Payments is not available to US territories except Puerto Rico.

Alternative Payment Gateways for Shopify

There are hundreds of Payment Gateways, to which Shopify has integrated with 100+ of them. Large companies like Stripe, Worldpay, Amazon Pay are all available and can be connected with their fees + Shopify’s fees.

With larger sales volumes, and moving up in the Shopify Pricing Plans, alternative Payment Gateways start to make sense financially as the percentage numbers drop on both ends placing Shopify Payments at a cost disadvantage.

Conclusion

The Shopify Payments Gateway is a great way to start your store, all the while managing everything in the back-end of Shopify. It will only make sense to have an alternative Payment Gateway when your volume is established and have your stored moved up into the higher plans where the connectivity costs are lower, and with your external gateway, lowered fees will be advantaged.PayPal is a good addition for clients, as long as the customer experience is well managed to minimize any dissatisfaction issues via the PayPal Buyer Protection program.

If considering "New eCommerce Businesses and Optimal Transactions" see the link displayed.