When you have configured your shipping and taxes on Shopify, the next thing that you’ll move onto is your payment solutions. From the payments page, you can set up multiple payment options and decide just how you are going to take payments. As with shipping, there are payment options that are offered by Shopify itself, and fees are again based upon your tier choice, as well as a number of other payment options. We’ll discuss all of the choices that you have for accepting payments and which ones are best for the type of selling that you will be doing. First, let’s get to the page where you configure your payment options.
Customizing Your Payment Solutions
You can navigate to the page where the payment options may be set by clicking on the gear icon and clicking on payments. There are several payment options that are integrated right into Shopify and options to set up other payment methods as well.
Shopify Payments
Shopify Payments is the first option on the list and it is definitely the easiest way to accept payments with a Shopify store. However, Shopify Payments cannot be used everywhere. It is available only in the UK, Australia, the United States and Canada. Shopify Payments is easy to set up and removes the need for a third-party gateway, and has more credit card acceptance options than many other payment systems and it comes fully integrated into your store.
Benefits of Using Shopify Payments
- You can accept all major credit cards including American Express, Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards. In addition, if your store is based in the United States, you can accept Diner’s Club, JCB and Discover cards as well.
- You decide what credit card fees you are going to pay by the Shopify plan that you select.
- You can see when your next payout is and how much is expected at any time via your Shopify admin area.
- Shopify provides solutions to help you avoid and respond to chargebacks.
- Shopify charges no additional fees other than the percentage fees that are part of your payment plan.
- PCI Compliance fees are already included in your credit card processing fees.
How to Configure Shopify Payments
There are a few things that you need to configure if you are going to use Shopify Payments. First, you need to decide if you want Shopify to notify you whenever you receive a payment. This will be done via email. Next, you need to decide upon what security precautions you are going to use to prevent fraud. There are two standard debit or credit card security options that can be used with Shopify Payments in every country except Australia, in which neither can be used. The first verification is the CVV – the three digit number on the back of the card. The second verification is the address verification where the zip code needs to match the address on file for the credit or debit card. You can choose to turn these verifications off, but you will have no fraud prevention and may receive orders on stolen credit card numbers.
You’ll also need to enter some additional information like a store name and telephone number that will appear on the billing statements of the credit cards of your customers. You’ll also need to add your bank account and choose the currency that you want your store to be based upon.
Paypal
You can also set up your store to accept Paypal payments. What you need to keep in mind here is that you must have a Paypal merchant account in order to take payments through Shopify. However, you don’t have to set it up the first time that you launch the site. In fact, you can set up Paypal payments on your site and only create a merchant account once you have actually received a Paypal payment, so you can always have it offered, but not necessarily need to use it.
One thing that you do want to be aware of if you decide that you are going to set up Paypal payments on your Shopify store is that if you want to be able to process Paypal refunds or accept payments automatically you are going to need to deactivate the default Paypal account that is included and then re-activate it. This will allow you full use of the Paypal function. You do this by clicking the gear icon and going to Settings and then clicking on Payments. From there, you will see the Paypal function in your payment options. Then click Edit, Deactivate and then choose your Paypal type and select Reactivate.
Amazon Payments
The next payment method that you have to choose from is Amazon Payments. This is a well-known method for making purchases using the payment information and shipping details that they already have in their Amazon account. There are only three countries that are eligible for Amazon Payments with a Shopify store: The United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
To activate Amazon Payments there are three steps that need to be taken. First, you need to register your merchant account with Amazon. You’ll start in the Amazon Payments section, and click Activate to take you to the Amazon page where you can set up your account. If you already have an account, you don’t need to register a new one. Instead, just enter your login information on the Amazon Payments site. Otherwise, there is the option to create a new login.
Now, you’ll want to configure your account using the link in your Shopify store. When you configure your account, it will give you the keys that you need to use with you Shopify store. The next thing you’ll need to do is set up ‘Login with Amazon.’ This has to be done from your store, so it might be prudent to go back to your store admin and navigate once again to your Amazon Payments account from your Shopify admin page.
Once you arrive back at Amazon, look at the top menu bar and use the dropdown to select “Login with Amazon” and then click “Create Application.” Enter the name of your application. This will be what the customer sees when they use their Amazon account to pay. You’ll also want to enter a description of your application and link to your privacy notice. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to find a generic one on the web and fill in the details to make it fit your store. You’ll also have the opportunity to upload a logo, which will also be on the page that customers see when they are paying with Amazon.
You’ll also need to do some configuration within the Amazon Payments site to make sure that Shopify is allowed to function as it was intended. Start with expanding the ‘Web Settings’ within the application and add the following URLs in the ‘Javascript Origins section.
https://checkout.shopify.com
https://.myshopify.com
You must also add the following URL in the ‘Allowed Return URLs’ section
https://checkout.shopify.com//amazon_payments/callback
You’ll also need to enter the Client ID from the application into your Shopify admin page.
For this last step, we’re going to start at your Shopify admin page once again and click the gear icon to get back to settings. Then click Payments and go down to the Amazon Payments section. Click Activate once again and then you’re going to connect your account, using the link provided. Enter your username and password and then use the check boxes to allow Shopify to access your Amazon account from your store. You’ll also use the keys and numeric values you generated on Amazon to set values for Client ID, Seller ID and Authorization Token. As soon as you are done completely, Amazon Payments will become active within your Shopify admin page.
Alternative Payment Methods
There are over 70 alternative payment methods that Shopify can be configured with and which ones you have access to will depend entirely upon which country your Shopify store is located in. For example: if your store is within the United States, you’ll be able to configure Dwolla, BitPay, CoinBase, GOcoin and Affirm.
Manual Payments
Of course, you can also set up your store to accept manual payments. By default, Shopify includes bank draft, COD and money orders, but if you prefer, there are other payment methods that you can set up within your manual payment settings.
