Challenge
During the pandemic, customers grew accustomed to fast, seamless online buying experiences. Customers maintained those expectations for convenience, speed, and simplicity as businesses returned to in-person sales, challenging merchants to rethink their checkout experiences. However, for many retail merchants, adding modern payments hardware was a complex, maintenance-heavy option. And e-commerce merchants experimenting with in-person sales were forced to rely on cash or disconnected peer-to-peer payments that complicated revenue management across in-person and online sales. For both types of merchants, the customer experience was at risk.
“Almost overnight, contactless options like contactless cards and digital wallets became the go-to payments expectation for consumers,” recalled Erica Lefaive, senior product marketing manager for retail at Shopify. “But a bad checkout experience, like waiting for an available checkout or otherwise inconveniencing customers, simply adds friction that can easily ruin an otherwise great overall experience.”
Shopify built its brand on helping merchants create stellar online and in-person customer experiences, which includes seamless transactions. It wanted to expand Shopify Payments’ in-person payments offering, so merchants could design the best checkout experiences for their businesses, including easily accepting in-person payments without additional hardware.
Solution
Shopify had been using Stripe for years, so it naturally turned to Stripe again to give its merchants an even easier way to accept in-person payments anywhere using Tap to Pay on iPhone.
“Adding Tap to Pay on iPhone gives all merchants another way to get creative and seize new sales opportunities,” explained Lefaive. “Our retail merchants can instantly create additional mobile checkouts, hold a sidewalk sale, accept payments curbside, or sell at a local event. Our e-commerce merchants can take payments at their workspace, offer cash-on-delivery options for local customers, or pop-up at markets and fairs. We’re excited to see how merchants will innovate with Tap to Pay on iPhone.”
Tap to Pay on iPhone and the Stripe Terminal SDK let Shopify merchants accept all types of in-person, contactless payments with only an iPhone. It’s an easy, secure, and private way to accept in-person payments seamlessly, no matter where they do business, and it unifies payments on Shopify to ease revenue management – all without additional hardware.
Results
Shopify merchants can easily accept in-person payments anywhere – with only an iPhone
Tap to Pay on iPhone and the Stripe Terminal SDK provide a unified mobile payments offering on Shopify’s point of sale that any Shopify merchant can deploy in minutes – without buying or maintaining traditional hardware that can take weeks to receive and roll out.
Lefaive said, “What’s most exciting about it is the accessibility of Tap to Pay on iPhone. Whether it’s the cost of payments hardware or the urgency to take advantage of an in-the-moment opportunity, Tap to Pay on iPhone with Shopify POS eliminates those barriers to making sales – it’s a card reader you can always have with you.”
Shopify can deploy Tap to Pay on iPhone faster using its existing Stripe integration
Tap to Pay on iPhone and the Stripe Terminal SDK let Shopify easily and quickly offer more in-person payments options by using Shopify’s existing Stripe integration.
Chris Saldanha, development manager for retail at Shopify said, “Adding Tap to Pay on iPhone using the Stripe Terminal SDK was fast and easy since our engineering team used our existing investment in Stripe Terminal to spin up this new product with minimal effort.”
Merchants and Shopify have more ways to reach more customers
Shopify helps merchants capture new revenue and grow their business by accepting in-person payments in new settings – like field events, tourist attractions, and anywhere they are on-site with customers.
Lefaive said, “Tap to Pay on iPhone using the Stripe Terminal SDK lets us give our merchants another option for in-person selling. Businesses like Summer Solace Tallow, which sells its organic skincare and home goods products online and at Bay Area farmers’ markets, can connect with new customers, increase loyalty, and grow their revenue while managing their entire business on the Shopify platform.”
