So I just completed my website yesterday. It’s a self defense website where I sell self defenses gadgets such as kitty knuckles, pepper spray, and kubatons. I received an email today stating that I’m not allowed to sell those accepting payments through shopify. I would have to accept payments either through Bankful or authorize.net but when I try to apply for those they ask for EIN # or what payment i’m using which all makes no sense to me. And i don’t have a ein number just yet because this is just a small business. But my website is not for any intentional harm it’s about women empowerment and women feeling safer with the products. I was wondering if anyone knows what else i can do in order to allow those items to be sold on my website???
Thank you for sharing those details and your experience here. I’d be happy to provide some additional information for you on this topic.
I would first like to clarify that Shopify Payments (the payment gateway powered by Shopify) is a separate entity from Shopify the website hosting platform. This means that Shopify Payments may have restrictions in place that Shopify, the hosting platform, itself may not have an issue with.
Your payment gateway is powered by various banking institutes that assess your businesses risk level, risk of chargebacks, and chance of legal repercussions. Selling self defense items or weapons would fall under a high risk category and would need a payment gateway that supports businesses of that nature. In this case, Shopify Payments has been deemed an unsuitable payment gateway for your business. This doesn’t mean your business is unsuitable for Shopify the hosting platform though. This is why our team recommended some alternate payment gateways more suitable to the type of business you have.
I understand that these gateways are requesting an EIN number. This is common practice and while it may not be a legal requirement for your business at this time, it can be a requirement for banking entities before a business account can be created for you. If your business is eligible to apply, you can apply for an EIN number through the IRS website here: Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) Online | Internal Revenue Service.
Shay’s got it, it takes like 5 minutes to get an EIN when eligible
Backups: Remember to record and print everything the EIN process gives you out to backups before exiting the site.
Policies do not care about ‘not for any intentional harm’.
Build redundancy for risk.
For payment gateways always keep in mind you are selling merchandise with a broader liability range than a t-shirt. so the hill to climb will always be harder.
Even after picking one gateway do not stop , build a list and process so you have redundancy in case of disruptions from even the most simplest of misunderstandings stopping payments.
The same goes for hosting prepare redundancy, shopify may allow such products today but they have a broad range of external influences for their policies , ontop of laws , so they constantly have to keep up with things that could lead to deplatforming through no fault of yours.
Received a similar notice today after a year and half of operating website. We build martial arts demo weapons, nunchakus in particular. They said they are “weapons” but in reality they are just hollow plastic tubes with shiney tape covering. After reviewing their shopify payments terms of use, I do not believe we are in violation of the policy at all. These are not anything listed in their policy, and I feel somebody reviewing this was acting outside of the parameters of what they are defining as a “weapon”. This also includes foam nunchakus we make, no danger. Whats your thoughts? We are already pursuing another payment processor at this point, as I’ve found shopify to not be good at responding and following up on details like this.