Need advice on CBD oil product sales without Paypal or Stripe?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

The Core Challenge:
Major payment processors (PayPal, Stripe, Shopify Payments) prohibit CBD product sales, forcing merchants to seek alternative solutions. Account freezes and rejections are common, even for businesses selling only CBD topicals or mixing CBD with non-CBD products.

Proposed Solutions:

  • Third-party processors: Multiple vendors offer CBD-friendly merchant accounts:

    • InclusivePay (mentioned by original poster)
    • IntegrityPay, EMB (Emerchant Broker), DigiPay, AllayPay, easyePayments
    • Rates typically range from 3-5% + $0.20-0.25 per transaction
    • Approval times: 3-10 business days for compliant sites
    • Most integrate via Authorize.net gateway

  • Google Pay workaround: One developer claims to integrate Google Pay as a manual payment option using custom API code, with zero transaction fees. However, this requires coding expertise and may not work for POS systems.

Key Complications:

  • Strict underwriting requirements (lab results showing <0.2% THC, specific policies, SSL certification)
  • Some processors reject startups or low-volume businesses
  • CBD flowers face additional restrictions
  • Mixing CBD with non-CBD products on same site often prohibited
  • Chargeback/fraud protection remains problematic
  • Square doesn’t integrate with Shopify despite some claims

Regulatory Note:
As of October 2019, selling CBD-infused foods via interstate commerce became a federal crime in the US.

The thread contains numerous vendor pitches but limited verified user experiences with long-term reliability.

Summarized with AI on October 26. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
42

Hi City Hemp,

Google Pay works fabulously for those who sell hemp-flower. I have a ton of clients that are using Google Pay to sell hemp-flower and not one single account has been shut down nor experienced a problem. The method we use to activate Google Pay as a checkout option is fully compliant with Shopify’s Payment Policy.

It’s important to keep in mind that anytime you’re selling a questionable “high risk” such as CBD flower you cannot engage Shopify as a payment option.

Happy Selling,

Kevin James

Shopify Approved Partner

Certified Full-Stack Developer / Coder

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