In countries without Shopify Payments (eg. Hungary) are we required to pay the additional 2% (in the basic package) for every transaction for not using Shopify Payments?
For example if I were to use a local payment processor since Shopify Payments is not available I have to pay both their 1-2% fee and the 2% to Shopify for not using said system? That would be a fairly large chunk of the sales.
I couldn’t find an answer to this but it’d feel unfair to pay fees for not using something we don’t even have available locally.
Transaction fees are charges that apply for each transaction if you use a third-party payment provider to take customer payments. This fee covers the charge for Shopify to integrate with an external payment provider. You can avoid transaction fees by activating Shopify Payments.
Because of that, you just have to pay the additional 2% if you are in Shopify basic package for not using Shopify Payments.
I hope that this answer would find you well and mark it as a solution if you find it helpful.
But I do feel like this puts a bottle neck on Shopify’s growth in Europe especially since countries without Shopify Payments can’t ever opt-out from the 2% transaction fee.
I would gladly enable that payment processor to avoid the unnecessary fees if I had the option but without having the choice I’d just probably choose an alternative because those percentages add-up quickly over time.
I would recommend either waiving the 2% for countries without Shopify Payments or introducing it instead to more countries.
Couldn’t I just also use Stripe as an alternative, since Shopify’s solution is also powered by Stripe?
Hungary is eligible for using Stripe so you absolutely could use it as a third-party provider to accept payment. To active Stripe, you could follow these steps below:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.
In the Payment providers section, click Choose a provider.
Enter " Stripe" in search bar.
Enter your account credentials for the provider that you selected.
Click Activate.
Click Save.
I hope this answer finds you well and mark it as a solution if you find it helpful.
Thanks for sharing your query here in the Shopify Community.
I understand that this is a pain point for your business, and you’d like for Shopify Payments to be available in your location so that you can avoid paying these fees.
As @AvadaCommerce mentioned already, these fees are part of the Shopify business model and are necessary for us to process payments made via third-party gateways.
Ideally, you would have the choice to select the Shopify Payments gateway and not need to pay these transaction fees, but this option is not yet available to you.
We are working on rolling out the availability of our gateway to as many regions as possible, though obviously, this will take some time to reach more and more markets.
What I can do for you from here is file a feature request with our developer team, so they know that this is something our merchants are looking to see added to the platform in the future.
If you can share any other info on why this matters to your business I can use that to file the most accurate request possible.
Thanks again for taking the time to let us know about this!
I would appreciate if the dev team could expand the Shopify Payments option to more countries. I’m currently in the process of choosing a platform for a client. I’d prefer to use Shopify but I think the 2% additional transaction fee for something not accessible to our country makes clients second-guess whether it is the right platform for them.
I also looked into what major medium-large sized bussinesses use in our country with builtwith.com. I found very fewer using Shopify than international statistics would imply. I think Shopify’s lower share of the e-commerce market in countries like Hungary can partially be attributed to this additional transaction fee.
If I understand right using Stripe as a gateway would not replace Shopify Payments in our case either right? It would still mean applying transaction fees I suppose.
Thanks for getting back to me here and thanks for the detailed feedback you shared with me!
I can use this info to add that request as previously outlined, so I do really appreciate it.
To answer your final query here, I can also confirm that the use of any other payment gateway available for use in Hungary would mean you’re paying transaction fees as Shopify Payments is not available there.
I understand that this is not ideal for you and appreciate you taking the time to share this critical feedback with us so we can improve Shopify in the future.
Let us know if there’s anything else we can help out with at any point, please!