Short answer: if Shopify’s notice says Shopify Payments can’t process what you sell, plan on a third-party provider; the notice we’ve seen said as much. That means a payment gateway, such as Authorize.net, connected to a merchant account from a processor that accepts your business type. Once we applied, it took a week: five days from the processor’s document list to approval, then cards the next day.
What owners usually ask
“How do I get Shopify Payments back?” is the natural first question when an urgent email from Shopify arrives and checkout stops taking cards. One owner skipped it and wrote to us: “I would prefer if you register and handle it.”
When the notice is about what you sell, the real question is what replaces Shopify Payments. Taking cards again depends on three things:
- A merchant account with a processor that accepts your business type. This is the approval that takes time.
- A payment gateway that connects that account to Shopify’s checkout.
- Someone who can change the store’s payment settings. On Shopify, that’s the store owner.
What’s usually happening
- Shopify’s banking partners won’t process what the store sells. Shopify says some business models, while legal, Shopify Payments can’t support, and the list varies by country.
- Stripe isn’t a way around it. Stripe is Shopify Payments’ banking partner. Where Shopify Payments is offered, Shopify says that if you can’t use it because of what you sell, standalone Stripe isn’t available either.
- A gateway alone isn’t enough. The gateway passes card details along; the merchant account holds the money before it reaches your bank. Authorize.net, for example, sells both together, or the gateway alone for a merchant account you already have.
- The new processor reviews you first. Expect to send documents and to show a site that meets its standards. The list we were given is under “How to check”.
- A new gateway can start in test mode. Shopify notes that Authorize.net accounts do, and that Shopify’s checkout can’t use it, so switch it off first.
- The fees stack. Third-party providers charge their own fees, and Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee on top. Both of Authorize.net’s published plans are $25 a month plus per-transaction fees.
How to check, in about ten minutes
- Read the reason in the notice. If it names your products, you’re choosing a new provider. If it asks for documents or verification, that’s a different problem. For checkout failures with other causes, see why customers can’t check out.
- Check your payouts. The notice we saw said holds from the review had been lifted and the payout schedule would update within 48 hours. Yours may say otherwise, so look at your payouts page.
- Look up your business type on Shopify’s list of prohibited businesses for your country.
- Find out who the store owner is. Shopify lets only the store owner add or change a payment provider.
- Check your site against a processor’s standards. The list we were given asked for a secure site; terms of service, privacy, refund and shipping policies; card brand logos in the footer or at checkout; “USD” next to prices; and a phone number, an email address and a physical address that isn’t a PO box or virtual office.
- List the documents you’ll need. Ours asked for a bank statement, voided check or bank letter; business entity papers; three months of bank and processing statements; where the inventory is kept and who ships it; the business and home addresses; and a recent phone or utility bill.
- If you’re thinking of moving platforms, check that the new platform’s payments will take what you sell before you move anything.
What we found on one site
One morning, a small store we work with got an urgent email from Shopify. Shopify’s banking partners had flagged what the store sold, and those products could no longer be processed through Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments and Apple Pay were disabled, and the store was no longer visible in the Shop channel. The notice named two third-party providers to consider, linked Shopify’s full list, and said the store would need an alternative provider to keep accepting payments.
The good news was in the same email: payout holds from the review had been lifted, so money from past sales wasn’t stuck.
We forwarded the notice to the owner six minutes after it arrived.
The next day we proposed moving the store to another platform where the owner already had an account. The owner agreed, and we built a storefront there that day. Later the owner decided against using that account for the store, so we went back to the first plan: a gateway on Shopify, connected to a merchant account from a processor that accepts this kind of business.
What fixed it
- Tell the owner within minutes, with a next step. Our note said the store needed a third-party gateway. Later that day we checked its price with the owner: $25 a month.
- Agree who does the work. The owner asked us to handle it, so we opened the accounts in the owner’s name and did the paperwork.
- Open the gateway account, once the owner chose to stay on Shopify. It had to be approved before it could take payments.
- Apply for the merchant account. After a call, the processor sent its list of documents and website standards. We sent where the inventory is kept, who ships, the addresses, and the store’s financial reports from Shopify. The owner sent the bank and business documents and a utility bill. The application was then signed electronically.
- Connect it to Shopify. Five days after the document list, the processor approved the account and sent the setup sheet that links it to the gateway. By the next day the gateway was connected in Shopify’s payment settings and the store was taking cards again.
- Confirm it with the processor. It wrote the following day that the store was live on Shopify with the gateway. Two months later it asked us to confirm the setup; we called and tested the checkout, and it was working.
What the evidence shows
- 26 days from Shopify’s notice to card payments on the same Shopify store.
- Seven days from opening the gateway account to taking cards, and five from the processor’s document list to approval.
- Two confirmations: the processor’s note that the store was live, and a checkout test two months later.
This doesn’t show what the gap cost in sales; we didn’t measure it. And the store’s card setup has changed since, so this isn’t a recommendation of one provider.
When to bring someone in
Call someone if:
- the notice says Shopify Payments can’t process what you sell;
- you’d rather not assemble statements, business papers and policy pages while sales are stopped;
- you aren’t the store owner in Shopify, or aren’t sure who is;
- you’re deciding between adding a gateway and moving platforms;
- a processor’s review has stalled, or asks for something you don’t have.