Have you been looking at how to accept Credit Cards on Shopify in the Caribbean but have been unable to find the information you need to take advantage of the Shopify platform?

Well, this article is for you.

The name Shopify is pretty synonymous with E-Commerce and for most Caribbean folks, when they think of launching a product-based business…the first platform that comes to mind is Shopify.

It’s a dedicated E-commerce platform designed to help you build your online store without the need or worry about tech skills use and is also one of the top platforms that you can use if you are looking to start a dropshipping business as it offers a wide variety of integrations to drop shipping partners.

Listen the platform is feature-packed and tailor-made for E-Commerce.

Now in saying all of that…there are tools on the market that can analyze the websites coming out of a country and check on the tech that they are using.

Surprisingly but not surprisingly….there are 295 websites that are using the Shopify platform in Trinidad and Tobago.

There are 208 websites using Shopify in Jamaica.

One of the reasons why these numbers are low is due to the payment options…getting paid on Shopify is something that most people do not know how to do.

Pulling up a few websites in Trinidad and in Jamaica.

Some businesses offered Credit Card but most did not make this option available and instead opted to allow for Cash on Delivery, Bank Deposits or even taking credit card payments over the phone.

So let’s break down how to go about taking credit card payments on Shopify and hopefully, this will open things up for you.

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Step 1 – Merchant Account

You need a Merchant Account from your Bank, it may also be referred to as an E-Commerce account. So you can reach out to the business team where your business account for your business is set up…and ask them about the Merchant accounts…There is a fee associated with these accounts and it varies with every single bank. 

I can only give you the figures for these accounts here in Trinidad & Tobago…but no matter the island you are listening to this podcast from, you can get those numbers when you call.

For T&T, the fees for the merchant account are as follows:

Scotiabank – $200usd a month. 25c USD per transaction and you negotiate the percentage  fee

Republic Bank – $75usd a month. 50c USD per transaction, 3-5% per transaction fee 

Royal Bank – 150usd a month, 50c USD per transaction, 3% per transaction fee

First-Citizens Bank – $100usd, 25c USD per transaction, 3% per transaction fee

Cibc – $300k capital, 15c USD transaction fee, 4% per transaction fee (monthly fee unknown)

Now, remember…these fees are just for the merchant account…you still have to pay your Shopify Fees on top of that.

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Step 2 – Setting Up First Atlantic Commerce Account

The 2nd step is to contact First Atlantic Commerce and you must open up an account with them. It is mandatory that you have a Merchant account because FAC is just the tech to process your payments online and they need to deposit those funds to the bank.

You can also contact FAC and they can help you get your merchant account set up in your country if you do not want to deal with the bank directly.

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Step 3 – Setting Up Tilopay

Tilopay charges your business 1% per transaction. This would be on top of your F.A.C fees and in addition to what the bank would charge you for your merchant account. After setting up your merchant account, your First Atlantic Commerce Account, you will then set up your Tilopay account and they will connect your F.A.C gateway, to Shopify.

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You can also use PayPal

If you don’t want to use First Atlantic Commerce, then you can set up PayPal as your Shopify Payment processor.

Check out this article to learn how to set up PayPal for the Caribbean —> PayPal.

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Now even though this sounds like a lot…Remember, if you were going to get a Brick & Mortar store…you would be spending a whole lot more money for a physical space. This is where you need to look at your break-even points, understand how much money you need to make per month to cover your business expenses and make sure your products are priced in a way that gets you to profitability. 

We have gotten so used to being able to sign up for Free on Social media that we scoff at paying for anything online that falls under tools for our business. You might sign up to use Social Media for free but we all know that we pay for a heck of a lot of things to be able to create the content to go on to social media.

So that’s it from me folks…If you are looking to use Shopify and you want to know how to get paid…this is the way to go about it. 

The FAC, Bank integration is an official payment avenue on Shopify…The Wify plugin isn’t an official method but is a workaround for you guys.

I hope this helps get started with accepting credit cards on Shopify in the Caribbean.

Do let me know if this information was helpful to you, I know the topic of Shopify and using it to get paid has come up a lot since the pandemic and hopefully, this allows you to level up your game.

If you have any other questions about how to accept credit cards on Shopify in the Caribbean, please reach out to me via my contact page.