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.

We have two types of third-party providers: direct providers and external providers. If you’re using a direct provider, the buyer’s experience during checkout remains with Shopify. With external providers, the buyer will navigate away to a third party payment page hosted outside of your Shopify site, then return to the order confirmation page. 

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. 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.