Critical Issue: Mada verification for Native Apple Pay (Saudi Arabia)

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: Shopify’s native checkout (as of 2026) doesn’t pass Mada card verification tokens for Apple Pay when using third‑party gateways (e.g., Paymob, Tab Payments, Checkout). Mada is Saudi Arabia’s domestic card network; its verification is required for a seamless Apple Pay flow with external gateways.

Impact: Merchants must redirect to hosted payment pages, causing trust concerns and lower conversion rates. Some stores are moving to local platforms (Salla, Zid) that support Mada + Apple Pay natively.

Context: Payment providers are prepared to support Mada verification, but are blocked by Shopify’s current checkout limitations for external gateways.

Request: Enable Mada verification for external gateways within Shopify’s native checkout. The author asks the product team to prioritize this and offers to help expedite implementation.

Status: No resolution or timeline provided. The issue remains open and is presented as a critical blocker for Saudi merchants seeking a seamless global checkout experience.

Summarized with AI on December 23. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this to highlight a major blocker for merchants in Saudi Arabia that still hasn’t been addressed.

As of 2026, Shopify’s native checkout still doesn’t support Mada card verifications when using third-party gateways (like Paymob, Tab Payments, Checkout on-site payments, etc.). Because the native Apple Pay button doesn’t pass the required Mada verification tokens, we can’t offer a seamless checkout experience. we can only shift users to a hosted creepy page where they basically quit the purchase due to trust issues.

This is hurting conversion rates significantly as you know based on your data and experience.

Many of us are seeing stores migrate to local platforms like Salla and Zid simply because they handle Mada and Apple Pay natively without issues. The payment providers are ready to support this, but they are blocked by Shopify’s current checkout limitations.

We really need a fix for this. We want to stay on Shopify we want to scale globally as shopify promise us that it is the global platform for merchants, but we need to be able to offer the same seamless payment experience that local competitors provide. so customers in the U.S, EU or anywhere else in the world can also checkout seamlessly.

Can the product team please look into enabling Mada verification for external gateways? How can I help in that process or assist in any way possible to expedite such support for the feature. Thanks a lot.