If you want to sell stuff on Shopify you need a payment gateway. You can either use their own in-house gateway called Shopify Payments or you can use a third-party payment processor like Authorize.net.
However, Shopify prefers if you use their own gateway.
On their website you can find a pricing table with different processing fees and you’ll notice that they charge 2% for external gateways.
What does that mean?
It means, if you use a payment processor like Authorize.net or 2Checkout.com, Shopify will take 2% of every transaction. Now, technically, they don’t take the money from the transaction itself. What they do is this: They charge your credit card 2% of the transaction.
So let’s say you sell something for $20 on your store.
If you use Shopify payments you won’t pay any additional transaction fee. However, you’ll still pay the credit card processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for every transaction. This is because Shopify Payments is powered by Stripe, and that’s the fee that goes to Stripe itself.
So basically these are the fees for processing the credit card itself, which is taken by Stripe. And then Shopify takes another 2% of the transaction if you use a payment gateway other than theirs.
So to recap:
If you use Shopify payments, you pay 2.9% plus $0.30 for every transaction. This is what goes to Stripe, since they power Shopify’s built in payment option. If you use their option, they’ll waive any additional transaction fee since you’re already paying $29 a month.
However, if you use a third-party payment gateway then you’ll be charged the credit card processing fee of that particular gateway. That’s the money that goes to the third-party payment gateway.
And additionally to that money Shopify will charge you 2% of every transaction, because you aren’t using their in-house gateway.
Essentially, this can make a big difference if you’re selling high-volume. However, using Shopify Payments also comes with other downsides like currency and country limitations which can be a pain in the ass. So sometimes it’s worth paying the additional 2% fee.
At the end of the day you should build a business that leaves enough profit even if you have to pay that additional 2% free. Think of the bigger picture and don’t let that small fee hold you back in any way.
All Posts
Website
