There are a plethora of options to choose from when deciding which shopping cart, credit card merchant facility and payment gateway to choose from. In part 1 of this guide I’ll give you an overview of the best New Zealand payment processing options we’ve used for our many e-commerce installations that do not require a payment gateway. In part 2 I’ll take a look at credit card merchant facilities and payment gateways and in part 3, shopping carts or e-commerce platforms.
The more services you use the more monthly fees you incur. There’s a fee for the shopping cart, the payment gateway and the credit card merchant account. In this guide I’ll introduce my favourite all-in-one payment facilities.
PayPal is the original quick set up, low monthly fee payment processor with no fixed monthly fee. They charge 3.4% + 45c per transaction. Paypal is a good option if you want a quick set up and it’s a particularly good option if you have customers who like paying by Paypal. Almost every shopping cart and ecommerce system supports Paypal. Paypal is a big system and it can be confusing if you’re new to it.
When Stripe came to New Zealand in 2016 they changed the game. Stripe can be set up in less than half an hour (including all the verification steps), their fees are lower than Paypal and it is beautifully simple. They charge 2.9% + 30c per transaction. Stripe is a great option if you want a low cost, simple credit card payment facility and you don’t already have a credit card payment facility in your premises.
Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment solution. It’s based on Stripe and it removes another layer of fees when you’re using Shopify as your e-commerce platform. With Shopify Payments there is no payment gateway transaction fee from the shopping cart (only a credit card processing fee) and it’s the fastest set up of all because it’s built into Shopify. Their fees start at 2.7% + 30c per transaction.
For a detailed comparison of fees from Shopify Payments, Stripe and Paypal see our e-Commerce Credit Card Processing Cost Comparison.
Keep an eye out for parts 2 and 3 of this guide, coming soon.
Happy marketing,
Phil