The Best Payment Gateway for Shopify South Africa

Do you sell on Shopify in the South African region? Are you wondering which payment gateway for Shopify is the best to power recurring payments smoothly and with a high level of security? This blog will walk you through all the top options of payment providers for Shopify popular in the African market at large, and the South African market in particular.

A Word on Subscription E-Commerce in Africa

Africa’s e-commerce market size grew to 241.6 billion USD in 2022 and is expected to grow by 15% during 2023-2028. African eCommerce, particularly mobile eCommerce is only going to get bigger and Shopify has been a big player in this game.

Why sell subscriptions in the South African region? The local subscription economy is currently worth $530 million and is projected to be worth $820 million by 2025. These numbers are testament to the fact that subscriptions in Africa are on the rise and here to stay. E-commerce subscriptions particularly took off in recent years with businesses selling subscription-based water, vitamins, OTC medicine, beauty essentials, hobby kits and pretty much anything you can think of.

With the right tools subscription-based eCommerce in Africa is highly lucrative. In the second section let’s talk about three tools that can help you win your fair share from the subscription eCommerce market in Africa: SubscriptionFlow, Shopify & one of the top Shopify Payment Gateways.

Shopify Payments

Shopify offers a payment solution called Shopify Payments. This payment service works by allowing you to accept payments directly through Shopify without the need for merchant accounts with separate payment entities and integrations with third-party payment processors. Although it offers the convenience of managing everything within Shopify, it is currently not operational in the South African region. Check Shopify’s official help center for supported countries for Shopify Payments to see if that changes in coming years.

Due to the unavailability of Shopify Payments and other reasons, many businesses opt for a dedicated payment service provider either in the form of a merchant of record or simply a payment gateway integrated with Shopify. In this blog, we will be going over a list of payment gateway options for Shopify stores.

PayStack for Shopify Merchants in Africa

Most eCommerce merchants selling subscriptions through Shopify stores use the PayStack integration to power recurring payments in South Africa. PayStack for Shopify merchants is the first payment solution for recurring payments in South Africa. It quickly gained popularity due to its reach & availability of local payment methods that are preferred in this market including mobile money. It has further gained traction since Stripe acquired it in 2020. However, PayStack Nigeria does not currently support direct integration with Shopify for subscription checkouts and recurring payments.

Most Shopify merchants integrate their PayStack merchant account with Shopify through SubscriptionFlow’s subscription management system which helps them sell both one-off and subscription-based products while managing and growing their eCommerce store.

What are payment gateways and why do you need them?

Section 1: How to Choose the Best Payment Gateway for Shopify

Why Do You Need a Payment Gateway?

In essence, payment gateways serve as intermediaries in online transactions, ensuring that buyers and sellers have secure encrypted exchange of data and funds. They manage the safe passage of payment information from the browser of the buyer to the server of the seller and ultimately to the payment processor. In addition, they perform cool functions like currency conversion and fraud detection for hassle-free and secure transactions.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Shopify Payment Gateway

A few important factors should be considered when assessing payment gateways for your Shopify store:

1. Compatibility with Shopify: The first and foremost should be its ability to integrate with Shopify. Shopify compatibility is essential for smooth integration and best performance.

2. Security: The next top priority should be its security architecture that it utilizes to protect sensitive client data, like SSL encryption, tokenization and fraud prevention.

3. Pricing: Take into account pricing structures and transaction fees to make sure they fit your budget.

4. UI/UX: Another important consideration for software is its user-friendliness for both retailers and consumers. This guarantees a simple and satisfying online buying experience for your customers and a smooth way for you to receive payouts.

You can choose a payment gateway that not only fits your company’s requirements but also improves the efficiency of your e-commerce operations by carefully evaluating these factors.

Best Payment Gateways for Shopify in South Africa: A-List

Section 2: What is the Best Payment Gateway for Shopify in South Africa?

Best Payment Gateways for Shopify in South Africa: A-List

1. PayStack

PayStack was founded in Nigeria in 2015. Stripe later acquired it in 2020 making it the most dominant player in the market with a marked importance in the African fintech landscape. Some of its features include:

Multiple payment channels
Granular user permissions
Advanced fraud protection
Automated chargeback alerts
Split payments
Financial insights
High success rate

2. PayFast

One of your options should be PayFast, a well-known payment gateway that accepts a variety of payment methods, such as debit cards, Instant EFT, Masterpass, SCode, RCS store cards, and MoreTyme. Incorporating PayFast with your online store is simple be it through a custom-built solution or a plug-and-play shopping cart. It offers instant access to alternative ways to make payments on verified accounts.

Secondly, if you are in South Africa then you should really take advantage of its quick, scalable and secure payment processing. PayFast, which is trusted by more than a whopping 100,000 South African companies, takes a proactive approach to prevent chargebacks to protect your business from fraud. However, recently many merchants have been looking to shift from PayFast to PayStack or Peach Payments due to technical complaints.

3. Peach Payments

Peach Payments is another highly popular option. It provides a comprehensive and safe online payment solution. Shopify merchants can process payments from customers anywhere in the world. It streamlines the process of collecting subscription payments and offers advanced one-click checkouts. It is most loved for its streamlined payouts and free daily settlements. Peach Payments also has advanced safety and fraud prevention measures, seamless integration with almost every major e-commerce platform, and round-the-clock support.

Notably, some of the entire African continent’s most vibrant companies have trusted Peach Payments.

4. Yoco

Let us mix up things a little with this new payment gateway. Yoco is an excellent option for South African Shopify merchants searching for a simple payment gateway. It provides a quick, easy, and safe method for processing credit card payments online. Yoco Gateway is easy to set up and takes only a few minutes to get up and running & works well with common website builders such as WordPress, Wix, WooCommerce, and Shopstar. What makes it a particularly appealing option is that there are no minimum or monthly fees. Just a tiny fee per transaction that gets smaller as the volume of your sales increases.

Additionally, Yoco Gateway offers comprehensive information and notifications on your revenue and goods through your Yoco Portal and facilitates payments from customers in other countries. You can feel secure knowing that Yoco’s commitment to local support is protecting both your money and your clients.

5. Ozow

Ozow is a reputable online payment gateway that offers quick EFT solutions specifically designed for the South African market. Through its vast database of nearly fifty million account holders, Ozow connects businesses with ease, enabling safe transactions without the need for cash or cards.

Working with leading South African lenders, Ozow complies with the strictest global security and safety regulations. Furthermore, Ozow provides bank the API solutions for easy payouts and refunds, guaranteeing SaaS companies give their clients a simple and easy way to make payments.

Shopify South Africa: Which Payment Gateway Comes Out on Top

As mentioned above, each of the five well-known payment gateways for South Africa has unique benefits that are suited to various requirements. PayFast is notable for its ease of use and effectiveness, accepting a wide range of payment options and processing them quickly and securely. Peach Payments offers extensive features, international payment processing, and excellent support.

Yoco offers a convenient choice with easy credit card processing, no recurring charges, and seamless integration. In the meantime, Ozow is an expert in quick EFT solutions. It offers bank API options for efficient payouts and makes use of a large network for safe transactions. Keeping all this information in mind, you can select a gateway that best suits your needs based on factors like ease of use, worldwide reach, cost, or speed.

Section 3: Complete Payments Solution

With a payment gateway you can start processing payments for one-off purchases through Shopify but for subscription checkout you need SubscriptionFlow’s complete subscription management solution. It makes subscription management a breeze including setting up flexible subscription plans, executing flexible billing logic, automating invoicing, billing and proration, monitoring customer behaviour and producing informative reports.

You can customize checkout, offer multi-currency support, act as a merchant of record and automatically recover failed payments to eliminate soft declines. It also automates dunning cadences to recover payments from hard declines. SubscriptionFlow also lets you reduce checkout abandonment in Shopify through checkout submission tracking so you can re-engage leads and influence them through CRM marketing.

SubscriptionFlow is compatible with all of South African payment gateways mentioned in the previous section. In combination with any of these payment gateways, SubscriptionFlow’s users can improve their subscription management process through tokenization, fraudulent prevention and PCI compliance. SubscriptionFlow also uses machine learning to monitor consumer habits, rate of churn, rate of retention, and help you grow your revenue by identifying growth opportunities. It is a comprehensive solution for subscription eCommerce startups in Africa looking to scale.

Final Remarks

To summarize, Shopify Payments is a dependable choice for businesses in supported regions However, its unavailability in South Africa requires exploration of alternative shopify payment gateways. PayFast, PayStack, Peach Payments, Ozwo and Yoco are 5 popular options from which PayStack and Peach Payments are most coveted. Businesses can find their best fit for Shopify South Africa by considering the features offered by each & their business’s specific needs. SubscriptionFlow integrates seamlessly with all these and more to supply a frictionless payments experience while offering a comprehensive subscription management toolkit for South African merchants.