Shopify Payment / Stripe Suspension - High Value Items

[Nepenthesman]

Hi all,

Over the past year I have been setting up my Shopify Business and we recently launched our product range last month, In the first month we received 3 orders which averaged out to be $9,000- $10,000 per order.

Sadly Shopify Payments flagged our business as high risk, suspended payments and is now holding $28,000 for 120 days. Meaning we will have to use our start up capital to fulfil the orders are cease taking new orders going forward. I am in the process of appealing however from the forum responses i can see that this is unlikely to be successful. 

I have attempted to set up a Stripe account as an alternative however this was also automatically blocked us as 'high-risk' and my attempt to appeal was declined just a few minutes after submitting it.

Can anyone recommend an alternative payment solution that will integrate with Shopify or is there any advice on how to appeal suspended accounts to allow us to continue working with Shop Pay / Stripe?

I know for a fact that three of competitors that are selling the same products, using the same manufacturer and distribution centre to fulfil the orders and yet they are able to accept Shop Pay / Stripe. Therefore it seems they are selective over which sellers they are and are not willing to work with but I do not know what their requirements are in order to make the necessary adjustments to meet them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[JP44]

Hi Nepenthesman, 

Stripe’s policy is to evaluate each merchant application on a case-by-case basis. They consider factors such as the merchant’s business model, financial history, and industry regulations. If Stripe determines that the merchant poses too high of a risk, they will reject the application. 

Maybe you can find some more information here on this website and this company can help you perhaps further to find a 3rd party payment provider for your shopify store. 

https://payprocc.com/stripe-reject-merchants-in-high-risk-industries/

[Nepenthesman]

Thanks for your response - I've carefully read through the Stripe terms and  cannot see how my business is violating any of their terms. I sell home fitness equipment (Pilates Reformers) which clearly don't fall into any of their prohibited categories. 

My concern now is that having an account closed by both Shopify and Stripe within 48 hours of each other will result in my business being reported to MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk) or TMF (Terminated Merchant File). Does anyone have any experience with this?

I am now struggling to find a Payment Processor that will work with my business when selling such high value items. Particularly because I am a UK citizen running a business in the US through my LLC.

[JP44]

I understand your concern and potentially getting on the MATCH is a real concern and will make it very difficult to find payment processing in the future potentially. 

Perhaps reach out to [email protected] she is knowledgable on these situations and perhaps can help you further with your situation. 

[Nepenthesman]

Thanks I've reached out to her!

[Nepenthesman]

For anyone else reading this. Please be aware the PayProcc charge 6,000Euro to set you up a payment processor account.

[Nepenthesman]

Quick update for others in a similar situation. I've now spoken to 14 payment processors and most have been unable to help on the basis of not being able to provide the following:

1. 6 months of transaction history from another processors
2. An SSN Number

These include:
- Directpaynet
- Authorize.net
- 2Checkout
- Payment Cloud
-  EasyPayDirect
- Adyen
- Paypal
- Worldpay

It seems that whatever provider is used, they will need to hold 10-20% of total funds received as insurance against charge backs. Or potentially provide an upfront $50,000 bond.

I have also got calls scheduled with the following providers to see if they can work with my Pilates reformer business.

- Nuvei
- Mollie (European)
- Link Money

- Pay.com

A potential work around for this seems to be to setup a company in my home country (UK) and register with a payment processor here and then integrate this with my existing Shopify store. Once I've got 6 months of transaction records then this could be used to support an application with one of the above payment processors.

[Nepenthesman]

A quick update on my attempt to find a payment processor.

The below have been ruled out based on the following reasonings:

- Directpaynet (6 months history required)
- Authorize.net (SSN)
- 2Checkout (SSN)
- Payment Cloud (SSN)
- EasyPayDirect (SSN)
- Adyen (Not large enough)
- Paypal (UK accepted but not US)
- Worldpay (SSN)
- TrustPayments (Cannot work with exclusively US based operations)
- Nuvei (US resident signatory required)
- Mollie (Does not connect with USD accounts)
- Link Money (SSN)
- Pay.com (Not taking new customers until 2024)
- G2Pay (Does not integrate with Shopify)

If anyone has any other suggestions of payment processors to approach I would be grateful for your input!

[London_person]

Hi there,

I am currently going through a similar issue, with Shopify suspending my business (the website and payouts) on November 27th.

I know that Shopify has form when it comes to appropriating customer funds without prior warning, so I tried to preempt this by speaking to Support before launching the site. I asked if they had any concerns in regards to my business type and value of my items. They said that there were no issues so I proceeded in developing/creating the site on Shopify (I won't make this mistake again).

I was selling bikes ranging in price between $500 - $1,500, and Shopify are refusing to return $3,000 in sales (they have also refused to tell me whether these funds will ever be returned to me or my customers).

Shopify won't return my theme file either, so I can only recover work I did on the site up until my last them file export (I did not do this regularly).

As I can no longer sell these items on Shopify, I have planned to switch to Wordpress, however my worry is similar to yours, in that I assume that Stripe/Shopify has issued a strike against me.

I'll let you know the outcome of my direct application with Stripe or whether I can find an alternative payment processor, but I would recommend saving your theme file immediately and then look at the cost of switching to a new platform such as Wordpress.

[SergeySmith]

You can start an LLC in Delaware for around $150 and then get an ITIN number which will be used instead of an SSN for payment gateways. You'd then need to file your taxes in the US, collect and remit sales taxes and so on. 

[Quadrapay]

Hey Nepenthesman, I understand the frustration of seeing your business hit a roadblock. I recommend maintaining clear communication with Shopify Payments to expedite a resolution. If you haven't found a solution yet, consider exploring offshore processors. Keep in mind that while they may cooperate with your business, they might not offer direct integration with Shopify. In such cases, you can leverage third-party CRM solutions. To provide more tailored suggestions, could you share details about what you sell, the average transaction size, and the primary source of traffic? This information will help in offering more targeted advice. Hang in there, and I hope this guidance proves helpful.

[the_natural]

I understand this is old and hope that you have been able to resolve it. But for others reading this with the same issue, in cases such as this you will likely need a provider who specializes in high risk or international processing. It's going to be hard to get around the 10-20% reserve requirements at first, but with time and a good processing history you can get this lowered and remember, even though it's in reserve it's still your money unless there are chargebacks.

At any rate a high risk processor like Durango Merchant Services, Paykings, or Soarpay might fit the bill for others having similar issues. I know that Durango has operations in the UK, US, Canada and the EU and in addition to helping find account underwriters, they understand international payments landscapes and the gateways are multi-currency capable. So sorry to hear about your problems and hope you were able to find a suitable solution and that others who land here with a similar issue find this helpful.