Why does Shopify charge a 2% transaction fee for third-party providers?

[ccronje]

I recently started 3 new shops and was extremely satisfied with Shopify, until I received my first invoice and found that Shopify charges a 2% fee for EVERY TRANSACTION, just because I am using a third party payment provider (since Shopify Pay is not available in my country). So I am not only paying 3-5% per transaction at the third party, I am also paying 2% to Shopify (for basically doing nothing). 

How on earth can Shopify justify this?

This exorbitant fee has now forced me to move my shops to a different platform, so instead of making $25 per shop per month from me for years to come, Shopify will now probably lose me as a customer.

Am I missing something?

[ccronje]

Are you not able to comment here so that others with facing the same situation can also benefit?

[EastTexasDesign]

I am interested in seeing the response on this. I was told last week that Shopify doesn't charge for using third-party payment providers anymore. But I'm not sure if my source was accurate. 

[ccronje]

When I queried this with Shopify support the response was that they "use the funds for maintenance of the said gateway to ensure successful transaction for orders made on your site", which just doesn't make sense at all. 

[GDUB]

To avoid the 2% transaction fee from Shopify, please make sure to set up manual payment capture in Shopify. This means you should only capture payments through your third-party gateway. By doing this, you will only incur the fees from the third-party gateway and not the additional 2% fee from Shopify. If payments are captured on Shopify first, then the third-party gateway will charge twice. So, make sure to capture payments manually through the third party. I hope this helps!

[ccronje]

Hi Arman. As I mentioned, I am in South Africa and Shopify Payments is not an option here, so we have no choice but to use third party payment providers. Shopify is basically claiming 2% of my revenue for doing nothing. I really wanted to be a Shopify customer for life, but this is just unacceptable.

[ccronje]

My primary payment gateway is Payfast, which most shops use in this country.  Their fees are 3-4%, so you can imagine what a tough pill it is to swallow to pay an additional 2% on top of that to Shopify as well. As a matter of interest, Shopify alternatives like Woocommerce charge 0% transactional fees when using third party providers.

[ccronje]

Yes indeed, so I guess the only solution is to move away from Shopify. 

[Nikolai383]

I just came across this post due to having the same issue with a third-party payment provider. Another 2% on top from Shopify seems really unacceptable. And I just spent so much time building a cool shop just to find out this. Seriously suggest you soft this. Seems greedy. If not, I will get that you will absolutely not be the fastest growing e-commerce anymore. 

[ccronje]

I agree 100%, this is completely unacceptable, especially when Shopify pay is not available and using a third party provider is the only option.

Personally I am busy testing a different platform and will migrate my shop away from Shopify soon because of this.

[YA4]

Totally agree with you as the 2% charge is really not justified but we stuck with it. Have you found an alternate platform to use in SA?

[GDUB]

I have set payments to manual capture, processing them through a third party. So far, I haven't encountered the 2% fees. I'm in touch with a Shopify team member to get more insights

[reyph]

I have same issue and now I'll move my shop away from shopify because of this unacceptable fees from shopify!!

[GDUB]

It gets worse! Listen to this if the transaction was declined by 3rd party due to issuers bank and it gets captured on Shopify you will get stuck with the 2% fee even though you made $0 

[Seen_just_now]

April 2024 and I am experiencing the same horror and realization. I have submitted another post about My Horror of Realizing Shopify's 2% Transaction Fee for Third Party Payment Providers.

[zigarrenschweiz]

Shopify does not care about our complaints, it's their way of pushing out competing third-party providers. We have the same issue, we were rejected by Shopify payment aka Stripe as we are in the tobacco business. 

It's not only that Shopify is taking a bigger cut of the cake, but they are also on purpose not fixing bugs that affect the third-party providers negatively affecting user experience. 

Shopify might be the fastest-growing e-commerce platform at the moment (self proclaimed), but with this kind of practice that journey will likely come to an end. 

[ccronje90]

I ended up moving all 3 my shops to Woocommerce and now instead of earning a minimum of $75 per site per month from me for years to come, Shopify will earn $0 from me in the future. I guess they don't care about that, but I'm happy to be free of their greedy transaction fees.

[rocaces]

With Easy Pie Checkout for Shopify, a 3rd party Stripe powered checkout solution, you only pay Stripe commissions, so you don’t incur any additional Shopify commissions.

Video Preview List: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYcyegf4ttmGdfkCKK0QdRnMu9yUycbJb

With this solution, you can accept payments and subscriptions with many payment methods supported by your Stripe account.

@ccronje  @Nikolai383 @YA4  @GDUB  @zigarrenschweiz @Seen_just_now 

[ccronje]

Incorrect. This is still a 3rd party payment gateway and you will still pay 2% transaction fees.

[GDUB]

To avoid the 2% transaction fee from Shopify, please make sure to set up manual payment capture in Shopify. This means you should only capture payments through your third-party gateway. By doing this, you will only incur the fees from the third-party gateway and not the additional 2% fee from Shopify. If payments are captured on Shopify first, then the third-party gateway will charge twice. So, make sure to capture payments manually through the third party. I hope this helps!

[Yeyipov]

@rocaces @ccronje @GDUB 

No it is correct, because with this solution the payment is taken directly through Stripe, the payment does not go through Shopify, the solution creates the order in your store after receiving the payment. Also this is not a payment gateway solution this is a checkout solution.

[StudioJolie]

Hi! Can you explain how I can set this up? Can I also do it with third-party payment provider Mollie? Working with that already, but want to skip the 2% transaction fee. 

[Lohoreh]

Mollie is a payment provider (so you need to pay 2% transaction fee). This solution is a checkout solution powered by Stripe, so you only pay Stripe commissions. Visit the solution's website, the installation package is available there.

[ccronje]

Had a quick look at this and as far as I can see it's basically a custom checkout page that goes off Shopify. Could be a solution I guess, but not really an option in my country for example where we can not use Stripe.

[Lohoreh]

Yes, a Stripe account is required for this solution. If Stripe is not available in your country, you can open a Stripe account by opening a company in the USA. For this, there is a Stripe service called Stripe Atlas to create a company in the USA.

[zigarrenschweiz]

Thanks but we can't use stripe. We are now finishing the evaluation of another platform and are likely to change after 9 years of shoshopify ping. It's a pitty that they keep getting worse. 

[ccronje]

Yeah unfortunately I moved all my shops to another platform as well and this ridiculous 2% transaction fee was the only reason. it makes no sense to pay a monthly Shopify subscription, plus 2% transaction fee on top of the 3-5% fees you already pay the provider who actually processes the payments.

[GDUB]

To avoid the 2% transaction fee from Shopify, please make sure to set up manual payment capture in Shopify. This means you should only capture payments through your third-party gateway. By doing this, you will only incur the fees from the third-party gateway and not the additional 2% fee from Shopify. If payments are captured on Shopify first, then the third-party gateway will charge twice. So, make sure to capture payments manually through the third party. I hope this helps!

[ccronje]

Sorry but this won't help at all...you want your customers to pay on your website when they place the order. If you set up manual payments you would have to make contact with the customer with instructions on how to make payment outside of Shopify, which is a very bad idea.

[hakor]

The only solution seems to be the solution @rocaces recommends. 

Also when I look at Stripe Pricing, there are low commissions at cent level for iDEAL payment method.