Accepting payments on Shopify Plus

Introduction 

Two fundamental parts of launching your new ecommerce experience on Shopify Plus are understanding the available options for getting paid and making the right choices around which payment methods you offer customers. You can enable a variety of payment methods in the Payments providers area of your Shopify admin.

By the end of this guide you’ll know:

• What payment options you can offer on Shopify 
• What Shopify Payments is, how it works, and the benefits of using it
• The options available if you want to use a third-party payment solution

Contents

• Payment options available on Shopify
• Key payment concepts
• Authorization and capture
• Risk and compliance
• Disputes and fraud
• Fees and payouts
• Strong customer authentication and 3D secure
• Shopify Payments
• Benefits
• Getting started
• Rates
• Authorization period
• Currencies
• Accelerated and local payment methods
• Payouts
• Set up and verification
• Refunds
• Reporting and reconciliation
• Testing
• Third-party providers
• Choosing a third-party provider
• Enabling a third-party provider
• 3D Secure support with third-party providers
• Transaction Fees

Payment Options Available on Shopify 

If a payment method is available in your country, you will find it in the Payments section of your Shopify admin. Make sure that your store address is correct under Settings> Store details, and that it matches your business address. You can then search for an available provider under Payments.  

Your store’s currency may also influence the selection of payment options available to you. For example, PayPal is available in most countries in the world, but only in a few dozen currencies. If your business is in a country where PayPal is available, but you are selling in an unsupported currency, you won’t find PayPal as an available option. 

Most online stores offer credit card payment options, and on Shopify you can connect a wide range of payment providers that allow you to accept credit cards. Shopify Payments is the simplest way to accept credit card payments on a Shopify store, without the need to establish a relationship with an external provider. If Shopify Payments is not the right solution for you, or your business is not eligible to use it, you can also connect to all the supported third-party credit card payment providers, and many local and specialized providers.     

On Shopify, you can also accept wallet payments through providers like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. These methods are often the preferred choice for customers, as they offer increased convenience, speed, and security. On Shopify, wallet payment options are referred to as accelerated checkouts, because they allow customers to access their payment and shipping information and quickly complete payment for their orders. Find out more here.  

You can also enable Manual payment methods, for use cases where you arrange to receive payments outside of Shopify (e.g. cash on delivery, money orders, or manual bank transfers).

If you are working with Shopify POS, you can also enable different payment methods so that your customers have a choice of payment options at checkout. Find out more here.  

 

Key Payment Concepts

When making decisions about accepting payments on your online store, it is important to understand some key concepts. 

Authorization and Capture

When a customer makes a payment using a credit card, they give authorization for their credit card to be charged the transaction amount. The payment information needs to be captured and sent to their bank for processing. 

As a merchant, you can choose whether your Shopify store is configured to authorize and capture the payment when the order is placed, or only authorize the transaction. This decision might depend on internal or external requirements. For example, you might be required to capture the payment only when you are ready to ship the product: in this case, you will choose to capture the payment after the initial authorization.

The authorization period is the timeframe within which a payment can be captured. The length of the authorization period depends on the payment provider you use. Find out more about credit card authorization and capture here.  

Risk and Compliance

Every payment provider will impose certain requirements on merchants, based on their risk tolerance and the regulations they need to abide by, which might be in turn imposed by partner institutions or governments. This translates into a list of acceptable business models and products merchants are allowed to sell, countries and currencies where a payment provider can operate, and documents that you’re required to provide to open an account and keep it in good standing. You can generally find these terms on your payment provider’s website. Because every merchant’s situation is different, it’s important to check your eligibility and start to set up an account with a new provider as soon as possible, to ensure that you’re ready to accept payments when you want to launch your new store. 

Disputes and Fraud

In commerce, and especially when payments happen online, it’s common that a customer may have an issue with a transaction they find on their account statement.  

Customers can initiate chargebacks by contacting their issuing bank and filing a complaint related to one or more transactions on their statement. Issuing banks file chargebacks within four general categories:

• Technical, e.g. payment processing error
• Clerical, e.g. incorrect amount or refund not issued
• Quality, e.g. item not received or damaged
• Fraud, e.g. stolen financials or identity theft

Merchants who receive a chargeback are, in most cases, allowed to provide supporting documentation to dispute them. Merchants also generally incur a fee related to the processing of the chargeback. If you use Shopify Payments, the fees are listed here. 

Digital payment wallets, like PayPal, may have similar processes to dispute a transaction or report a fraudulent payment. 

While they can’t be completely avoided, fraud and disputes can be prevented by implementing internal processes to review and cancel suspicious transactions, and to ensure quality of your products and timeliness of your deliveries. 

Fees and Payouts

Whether you’re using Shopify Payments or a third-party provider, there will be fees associated with payment processing, currency conversion, or even monthly fees for account maintenance. Regardless of the provider you choose, make sure that you have a clear understanding of the fees that will apply to you. 

Another important aspect to consider are payouts. Typically, payment providers will pay out to your bank account either a lump sum on a set schedule, or, less commonly, deposit each transaction directly. Some providers give the option to receive payouts in multiple currencies, while others convert all currencies into one. Also, some providers will invoice you for the fees, while others will pay out the net amount after retaining their fees. As payouts can have a significant impact on your business’s cash flow and the fees you pay for processing, make sure that you discuss with the providers you’re considering how payouts will be made, how frequently, and in what currency. 

Strong Customer Authentication and 3D Secure

Especially if you’re selling in the European Economic Area (EEA), you may have heard of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), a regulation that mandates the need for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for customers in the EEA. You can read more about it in this blog post. If you are required to or want to enforce SCA, often enabled with a 3D Secure technology, you should make sure that your payment provider’s integration with Shopify can support it. Shopify Payments and Stripe support 3D Secure out of the box. Other payment providers support it through an additional integration with CardinalCommerce, or by having an external integration. Others might not support it. 

 

Shopify Payments

 

Benefits 

With Shopify Payments, you can skip lengthy third-party activations and go from setup to selling in a few clicks. You can enable popular accelerated checkout methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay, and local payment methods.

To keep payment information and business data safe, Shopify Payments is PCI compliant and supports 3D Secure checkouts.

Only with Shopify Payments can you track your orders and payments all in one place, and have a complete view of your finances directly from within your store admin.

With Shopify Payments, you can improve your customers’ experience with Shop Pay, our very own accelerated checkout method that allows customers to securely store their credit card details and checkout even faster across any Shopify store that supports it. They can also download our Shop app which will help them track and manage all their orders from any Shopify store, and manage their saved credit cards.

With Shopify Payments, you can take advantage of an integrated fraud analysis system built on machine learning algorithms based on all the merchants using Shopify Payments. These indicators can help inform your decisions to capture a payment, or cancel an order, helping to reduce fraudulent orders and chargebacks. In the event of a chargeback, you can manage the dispute directly in the admin and easily provide supporting documentation. 

Getting Started 

To use Shopify Payments, your business must meet specific requirements related to the location of your business and the products you sell. Depending on your region, you may need to provide additional information to set up Shopify Payments. 

Make sure that your bank account meets the Shopify Payments requirements before you connect it to your account.

Rates

Shopify Payments charges a blended rate for each payment received—made up by a variable (percentage) fee and a fixed fee. Fees might vary depending on whether the customer’s credit card is from the same country as your account, an international card, or an AMEX. If you’re accepting multiple currencies, you may also be charged a variable (percentage) fee for currency conversion. You may also be charged a fee for processing any chargebacks. 

Beyond these fees, there are no monthly fees, no hidden fees, and no setup fees for Shopify Payments. When you're using Shopify Payments as your processor, there are no transaction fees on orders for stores located in most countries.

Authorization Period

Shopify Payments provides an authorization period of 7 days for a charge to be authorized and then captured. If a store is set to manually capture credit card payments, and the payment is not captured within the authorization period, then you will not be able to collect money for the order.

This also is the same for any and all payments collected or processed using our Transaction API and Shopify Payments.

Shopify Plus merchants can extend the authorization period to 30 days for selected credit cards. To apply for the 30 day authorization period, please contact Plus Specialist Support.

Stores using Shopify Payments can enable receiving a warning email when authorizations are close to expiring.

Currencies

The currency that your customers use to pay for their orders can be different from the currency of your payouts from Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments supports selling in many of the world’s currencies. 

For example, if your store is located in Europe, but the majority of your customers are in the United States, you may choose to set your store currency to United States dollars (USD). And because you’re located in a European country, your payout currency is Euros (EUR). This is why Shopify Payments allows you to select what your base currency will be for your store but also allows you to sell in multiple currencies— so your buyers can see what their order will cost them in their chosen currency. Read more on which currencies we support. 

Changing payout or store currency after you have completed your set up and have started to operate with a certain currency may require you to reach out to Shopify, or make adjustments manually within your admin. Make sure that you set up the correct currencies for your store before you go live to avoid delays or disruptions. 

Shopify Payments multi-currency features also allow you to support your customers paying for their order and receiving refunds in their local currency. Read more about how to use multi currency to sell locally to your buyers.

Accelerated and Local Payment Methods 

Shopify Payments has a selection of accelerated and local payment methods which help you provide faster and more secure ways for your customers to pay for their order.

The accelerated checkout options allow your customers to save payment and shipping information so that on their return, customers can complete payment for their orders quickly;  their information is automatically filled in at checkout.

Shopify Payments currently supports a range of accelerated checkouts such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and our very own Shop Pay. Find out more about supported accelerated checkouts.

Local payment methods are available in specific regions and allow you to offer popular local payment choices to your customers. Find out what local payment methods are available to you and your customers.

Payouts

Shopify Payments sends you payouts on a daily basis, unless you choose to change your schedule to a weekly or monthly one. The time between when a customer places an order and when the payout containing that order is sent to you, known as pay period, depends on the country of your Shopify Payments account. You can find details of the pay periods here.

Shopify Payments payouts are net of the day’s fees and refunds. You won’t receive an invoice for your Shopify Payments fee. Instead, the fees will be deducted at the time of receiving a payment. Details of all movements (orders, fees paid, refunds, etc.) that result in the amount paid to you can be seen in the payout report of your Shopify Payments account. 

Payouts are made to the bank account that you enter when you set up your Shopify Payment account. There are specific requirements on the type, nationality, and currency of the bank account you can use, depending on the country of your Shopify Payments account. Please see the details here. 

Regardless of the currencies you sell in, the currency you receive your payouts in depends on the country of your Shopify Payments account. For example, a business in the United States can only receive payouts in USD. See the available payout currencies for all Shopify Payments countries here. 

Set Up and Verification

After you have verified your eligibility for Shopify Payments, you can start to set up your account from the Payments page in the Shopify admin. Before you proceed, make sure that your store currency and your store address are correct. You will have to disable Shopify Payments if you want to change them, and then enable it again. 

When you activate your account, you will be asked for information about your company, its owners and directors, banking information, and additional details that depend on your location and the type of business. You will also be required to provide business registration and personal identification documents, also dependent on your location, for verification purposes. 

To complete your account setup, we need to verify the account owners. We may ask for the following information:

• Confirm you’re doing business as a sole proprietor/partnership/corporation
• Business type
• Business owners name and personal details
• Company registration number
• Business address
• Banking information

We’re required by regulators in different countries to collect documentation about merchants that is intended to promote transparency and prevent financial crime. Due to the sensitive nature of these documents, ensure that you only upload them through the Shopify admin and do not send them to us by email. Please refer to our privacy policy if you have any concerns about how this information will be stored and treated. 

As local rules and regulations evolve, Shopify and its partners may reach out to collect additional information about you and your business. If additional information is required, you will see a notification in your Shopify admin, and will be able to provide it securely directly from your admin. 

When you set up your account, you can also enable fraud prevention measures, personalize the statement your customers will see on their credit card bill, and update your tax details.

Finally, you should decide what credit cards, wallets, and local payment methods you want to accept—tick the appropriate boxes in your Shopify Payments account to enable them. Depending on your country, you will see different available local payment methods. Find out more here. 

Refunds 

You can refund orders from the individual order page in your admin. Some important considerations on refunds when you use Shopify Payments:

• Refunds are instant and funds are immediately sent back to your customer, but depending on your customer’s bank, they might take a few days to appear on their statement
• Refunds will be made to the payment method the customer used to make the payment, and cannot be made to another source
• Refunds are also final: they cannot be undone or canceled
• Refunds can be issued up to 60 days from the original transaction. After 60 days, and up to two years from the initial payment, you can still issue a refund, but there is no guarantee that it will be successful 
• The amount you refund will be deducted from the total of your next payout
• If sales within your pay period are not sufficient to cover the refunds during the same timeframe, you create a negative balance. If you are in the United States or Canada, the negative balance amount will be withdrawn from your connected bank account. In other countries, you will not receive payouts until that negative balance has been recovered

Reporting and Reconciliation

You will find data related to your payments that will help you with reporting and financial reconciliation in two locations in your Shopify admin.

Your Analytics section includes a section dedicated to Finances. Here you will be able to create reports on your payments.

Your Shopify Payments account also includes a section where you will find details about your payouts. You will see a list of payouts, and you will be able to click into each payout to see what transactions are included in the total you have received. You can find out more here. Information about your payouts can also be accessed via REST and GraphQL API. 

Testing 

Before you launch your store, you should thoroughly test your order flow. To place test orders, keep Shopify Payments in test mode. Here you will find the details of how to enable test mode and simulate transactions. Before you go live, you can delete any orders that were made with Shopify Payments in test mode. More importantly, don’t forget to turn off test mode when you launch your new store. Your customers will not be able to pay when test mode is on.

 

Third-Party Providers

Shopify supports a wide range of merchants on our platform, and not all merchants are compatible with or meet the requirements for Shopify Payments. This is why we provide the option for any merchant on the platform to use a third-party solution to receive payments from their customers. We have over 100 individual providers to choose from and each has their own unique features such as multi capture, 30+ day authorization, and anti-fraud verification.

To find out more about our third-party payment integrations and to see if your current payment provider is supported click here.

Choosing a Third-Party Provider

Choosing a third-party solution to support your business transactions can sometimes be challenging, as each provider has specific requirements and eligibility criteria that you must meet.

Here are some tips to help you with the choice:

1. Define what you need out of a third-party payment provider: Is it support for restricted products? Is it high risk transactions that exceed a certain value? Are you looking for the lowest possible payment processing rates? 
2. Make it clear to your third-party provider what types of products or services you’re selling to your consumers. Do you intend to sell CBD products, or other products that contain regulated substances or foods? This will help you find the right solution to support all your needs
3. Ensure you provide as much transactional processing information as possible. This will help you secure the best rates for your business and can improve your operational efficiencies
4. Before you commit, ensure that your payment provider of choice has an integration with Shopify—solutions that don’t have one cannot be used on Shopify 

Enabling a Third-Party Provider

Enabling a third-party solution can be done easily within the Payments section of your admin settings. Follow this help doc for configuring your third party gateway.

3D Secure Support with Third-Party Providers

You have learned about 3D Secure in the first section of this guide, which typically applies to merchants selling in the EEA. If you’re required to enable 3D Secure and use a third-party payment solution, you will encounter four possible scenarios:

1. If you use Stripe, 3D Secure is enabled out of the box, and you can activate it from your Stripe settings in the Shopify admin
2. If you use a gateway that supports 3D Secure through CardinalCommerce, your Shopify admin will prompt you to enable the connection with Cardinal. Find out more here
3. If you use a direct provider that does not support 3D Secure out of the box or via CardinalCommerce, you can’t enable 3D Secure at this time 
4. If you use an offsite provider, you may be able to use 3D Secure if the solution supports it. Please discuss it with the third-party provider directly

Transaction Fees

Transaction fees are fees that Shopify charges to broker a payment, in addition to platform fees, that are related to the use of the platform. Details of the transaction fees can be found in your Shopify Plus contract. If you use a third-party solution, this fee applies to you in addition to the fees you pay to your third-party provider. One of the benefits of using Shopify Payments is that transaction fees are waived (in most countries), not just for payments made via Shopify Payments, but also with other methods like PayPal, or alternative payment methods.