What We Learned Analysing 1000 Shopify Payment Gateways
Shopify offers payment gateway options for over 100 providers across the world.
Why?
So that you can provide your customers with the options most likely to suit them.
A2X supports thousands of Shopify sellers with their accounting. No matter the payment gateway used, A2X interprets bank deposits and ensures that sellers have all the information they need to be able to manage their finances properly.
With access to this kind of data, we can help sellers determine which gateways are proving most popular among our subscribers.
Here, we share our top takeaways from our own customer insights along with tips on how to apply them to your store.
Our 5 Key Findings at a Glance:
- Shop Pay is the top gateway of choice.
- PayPal takes the second spot, followed by gift cards.
- Amazon Pay is popular, but only in the United States.
- Afterpay is the most popular Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option.
- Other most popular BNPL options, in order, are: Klarna, Affirm, Laybuy and Zip.
Now let’s dig a little deeper into each of these and what they could mean for your Shopify store.
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Shop Pay Takes Top Spot
Shop Pay (formerly Shopify Payments), is Shopify’s built-in payment processing system, introduced to eliminate third-party payment processing and simplify the process for users.
If buyers are required to sign up for new gateways in order to checkout, sellers risk higher cart abandonment.
An option like Shop Pay makes the checkout process quick, hassle-free and more attractive to buyers.
Other benefits of Shop Pay:
- You can skip third-party providers altogether, saving on extra fees.
- You can choose to use them still if you wish to, integrating with your Shopify store.
- Minimal transaction fees.
- Shopper analytics are available on your dashboard.
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PayPal is Next, Followed by Gift Cards
PayPal is one of the most popular payment gateways in the world and luckily, Shopify has offered this option for years.
In our research, we found that it came close second to Shop Pay as the gateway of choice for the customers of our subscribers.
Interestingly, the third on our list was gift cards, closely followed by payments using a combination of gift cards with PayPal.
What this indicates to us is that choice and flexibility is key for buyers.
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Amazon Pay and Market-Specific Gateways
Amazon Pay features highly on our list, but as it is available to US-based customers only, this will be unique to the US.
What this indicates to us is that sellers should research the gateway options most relevant to the location of them and their buyers. Don’t assume that popular payment gateways globally will also be both available to and the preference of your audience.
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Afterpay Ranks Top for Buy Now Pay Later Options
According to our data, Afterpay is the top choice for BNPL providers.
With a significant global footprint including the US and UK, Canada, Australia and NZ, sellers can make this popular option available to their buyers across the world.
With instant approval and no extras charged unless payments are made late, it’s a stress-free option for buyers and one that many will be familiar with.
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Following Afterpay are Klarna, Affirm, Laybuy and ZipPay
These various Buy Now Pay Later options each come with their own terms and conditions but offer largely a similar service: split payments with low or zero interest, simple or no sign-up required and some even offer choice on payment schedules.
The benefit of these programs? Sellers can achieve more sales from buyers who might otherwise have abandoned their cart, and they are protected from any late or missing payments.
The Top 7 Payment Gateways for Shopify Stores
The most popular payment gateways are somewhat dictated by location, with some options only available in certain countries.
“To capitalize on a global customer base, you need to offer the payment methods that are most commonly used in the countries in which you operate.”
- Stripe.
Here we will look at where gateways are available, and their popularity among A2X customers for these locations.
Shop Pay Availability
As we have seen above, Shop Pay comes out top dog, but it is only available in the following countries:
- Australia
- Canada
- Denmark
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Japan
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- Spain
- The Netherlands
- UK
- US
It is important to understand where your primary customer base is located before deciding on whether Shop Pay is your best payment processing option.
When Shop Pay isn’t available, you can use a credit card payment gateway in its place.
Next Most Popular Gateways in the US
- Paypal
- Amazon Pay
- Afterpay
- Stripe
- Klarna
- Sezzle
- ZipPay
For a full listing of all available gateways compatible with Shopify in the US, click here.
Next Most Popular Gateways in Australia
- Paypal
- Afterpay
- ZipPay
- Stripe
- Splitit
- Klarna
- SecurePay
For a full listing of all available gateways compatible with Shopify in Australia, click here.
It is worth noting that the top-performing gateways are mostly those that offer BNPL schemes. This serves to highlight the trend of BNPL as a preferred payment method and the need to offer this to consumers.
The Next Step: Picking the Right Options for You
So now that we’ve provided you with the most popular Shopify payment gateways, how do you know which one or ones you should activate for your store?
Our evidence-based research indicates that you should:
- Consider your target market: Choose a gateway that is popular in your region and used regularly by your target market.
- Review your business’ maturity level and goals: Are you hoping to sell locally or on a global stage? What currency will you be selling in?
- Consider the fees involved: Review all fees carefully and ensure they won’t detract from your profit margins. You’ll also need to work these fees into your pricing.
- Look at what cards the gateway accepts: At a minimum, they should accept Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
- Plan for expansion: If you want to expand, choose a gateway that is accepted globally.
- Prioritize fraud detection: Protect yourself and your customers by only choosing secured gateways.
- Optimize the shopping experience: You want your customers to enjoy an easy, streamlined process.
- Pay attention to reputation: Do your research and see which gateways are popular and have great feedback.
Shopify Edited Orders and How to Account for Them
With multiple payment gateways and orders streaming in, what happens when an order is edited? Thankfully adding gateways doesn’t have to create issues with edited orders.
Shopify permits orders to be edited up to 60 days after the order was first created. This can easily create headaches and issues in the accounting process.
By utilizing A2X, edited orders are no longer a concern. To ensure no errors or delays in reconciliation, A2X detects these edits and creates a special payout entry to account for them.
This ensures your books will still balance without the need for hours of manual adjustments.
You can read more about this in our detailed guide from our support center. This guide also covers what to do with edited payments before linking your A2X and Shopify accounts.
Multiple Options Means Multiple Fees: How to Handle Them
More gateways will mean more fees and charges to track, right? If you’re worried about the extra admin accounting for these, try A2X for Shopify.
Shopify works seamlessly with A2X and your accounting software to ensure a smooth accounting and reconciliation process. As Shopify allows you to sell online, via POS, globally on a large or small scale, it can get hard to keep track of the financials.
Don’t waste time manually reconciling your Shopify payouts and figuring out complicated fees, refunds, or adjustments. We created A2X for Shopify to automate that manual process, transforming what took hours into a few minutes once or twice a month.
A2X for Shopify posts Shopify store sales automatically to your accounting software, and reconciles your payouts so that you know everything has been accounted for correctly.
No Matter the Gateway, A2X Collects
Given that a Shopify store can be linked to multiple payment gateways, tracking all payments and their associated fees can be complicated.
A2X ensures that no matter which gateways you use, which currency you’re paid in, or where the transaction takes place - everything is captured and laid out for you in an easy to manage (and accrual-based) format.
A2X means no transaction is ever missed, no fee overlooked and no hours are wasted manually collating data. Simply connect and let A2X do the hard work for you.
Boosted sales and a successfully scaled Shopify store? Who doesn’t want that?
Try A2X for Shopify today.
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