What Is Shopify Pay & Why Does It Matter For Merchants?

If you use (or are considering using) Shopify as your eCommerce platform, you probably have a vested interest in the customer experience during checkout. How can you guide potential customers through the payment process faster and keep the sale? How can you encourage a repeat sale? That’s where the Shopify Pay button comes in.

Shopify Pay is another payment button to add to your checkout process, but what’s behind it? Shopify Pay is powered by Stripe — the behind-the-scenes processor that powers huge brands including Lyft, Under Armor, and Target. It’s not a small potato by any means. Shopify began as a tool to help merchants get their wares online, but with Stripe powering its payment processing, the ecosystem is growing. Shopify now offers multi-channel sales support, invoicing, and even a full POS system for your storefront, among other things.

But before you opt for Shopify’s solution and add a new shiny button to your checkout flow, you probably have some questions. In this post, we’re going to cover the basics so you can make an educated choice about Shopify Pay for yourself.

What Is Shopify Pay?

Shopify Pay is an option you can provide your customers at checkout that lets them save their credit card, shipping, and billing information. In this way, Shopify Pay is an accelerated checkout flow that rivals other third-party checkout buttons like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal One Touch.

Once your customer opts to check out through Shopify Pay, their payments information is saved for future use at your shop and any other Shopify store they visit. In the example below, shoppers can pay via Shopify Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal.

Screen Capture of Shopify Pay Checkout Example

Any of these accelerated checkout options must be enabled in your payment settings for customers to see these as choices during checkout. Keep reading, and we’ll explore how to get Shopify Pay in your checkout flow as well as more of the nuts and bolts behind what makes this a unique option that you may want to consider.

How Does Shopify Pay Work?

Let’s look at how Shopify Pay works from the perspective of a shopper.

For your customer, Shopify Pay is very straightforward. By clicking on the Shopify Pay branded button at checkout for the first time (see the blue button in the image above), the shopper enters in all of their shipping, billing, and credit card information as usual. The key difference is that your customer has the option to save their information for a speedier checkout next time they visit you.

Shopify Screen Capture of Opt-In Flow for Shopify Payments

After entering their mobile number and linking their account this first time, your customer is all set with Shopify Pay. That means that the next time they visit you (or any other Shopify store) using their device, Shopify Pay whisks them directly to the order review page, where they click “Authorize Purchase”. Here, shoppers bypass entering in all of their information, and they only need to enter the unique 6-digit code that Shopify sends via SMS text message to their phone. After entering the digits on this one form, their order is complete.

If you decide you want to add this button to your checkout, the good news is that it’s fast, and you don’t need any technical expertise to do so.

Enabling Shopify Pay On Your Site

You can enable Shopify Pay just like you would any other third-party options like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, etc. Head back into Settings at your dashboard, then select Payment Providers. Once there, go to the Shopify Payments section and select Manage. 

Next, you’ll select Shopify Pay in the Accelerated Checkouts section. Make sure you save your changes, and then you’re all set.

Once you enable this or any other new payment button, your customers will be able to choose the payment method that they fancy most!

In case I lost anyone over the Shopify Payments and Shopify  terms, let’s clear up any confusion, and then take a moment to decide if Shopify Pay is a good option for your business or not.

Shopify Pay VS Shopify Payments

It’s important to understand that when we talk about Shopify Payments and Shopify Pay, we are talking about two different options, especially from your customer’s point of view. As we’ve already explored in the sections above, Shopify Pay accelerates future checkouts by allowing your customers to save their information, including their billing address and payment information. In contrast, you can think of Shopify Payments as the default checkout option that allows you to take payment from your customers. Shopify Payments takes shoppers through the full payment flow with no option to save payment information for future use.

Shopify Payments appears as the unbranded Checkout option in the screen capture below. Shopify Pay is the branded button with the shopping bag logo.

Screen Capture of Shopify Pay Checkout Example

Note that if your checkout doesn’t require a shipping address, then your customers won’t be asked to opt into Shopify Pay. The other thing I want to stress here is that even if you enable Shopify Pay, your customer isn’t forced into saving their information for an accelerated checkout. They can always opt to go through the full checkout flow and complete the order. Shopify Pay is just another option to give them.

Why Shopify Pay Can Be Great For Merchants

If you’re not sure whether or not you want to add Shopify Pay, consider a new angle we haven’t explored in this post quite yet: payment security. Because Shopify Payments utilizes SMS text verification with a mobile number, you get a security boost. While payment information breaches make the news fairly regularly these days, the added layer of security offered by Shopify Pay can benefit the merchant and the shopper through the linked phone verification step. Shoppers get to bypass entering in all of the standard payment information while creating a more secure transaction. As a bonus for you as the merchant, this authentication method can also make it more difficult for a shopper to claim they never ordered your product.

Another great thing is that Shopify takes care of payment security, and you don’t have to jump through hoops to get it — no technical expertise is required.  From this perspective, Shopify Pay seems like a well-rounded choice that’s easy to enable (and disable) if you see fit. That being said, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and I  also whole-heartedly recommend reading our full Shopify Payments Review to find out if the Shopify Pay is the right payment platform for your type of business overall. And if you haven’t yet landed on an eCommerce platform yet, there is still a lot to consider, isn’t there? Check out our full Shopify Review to find out more about all of the features, pricing, and other important things to consider.

If you are considering adding Shopify Pay to your existing Shopify storefront, rest assured that there isn’t really a downside to adding this checkout button. In fact, you may just find that your repeat customers visit you a little more frequently because it’s easier to buy, and that’s definitely worth a second look. In the very least, testing checkout options is a smart move to make. Do you have experience with Shopify Pay? We’d love to hear how it’s working for you.