Author: Rodney Laws

Shopify remains the default recommendation for so many people in the ecommerce industry.

It’s convenient, intuitive, scalable, well-supported, and offers a powerhouse combination of native features and expandability through the superb Shopify App Store. But it isn’t the best option for everyone, and there are more strong competitors than ever before.

Squarespace, meanwhile, has picked up a lot of buzz through strong marketing, and it’s already carved out a decent piece of the ecommerce pie despite not fundamentally being intended for online retail. It’s a low-cost, all-purpose website-building solution that generates slick and visually-arresting layouts with minimal effort, making it great for beginners.

Here, then, we have a competition with no clear loser. Anyone looking to create an ecommerce store would do well to pick either of these platforms. Each one covers all the basics and can capably do everything the average merchant would need it to do.

But if you’re going to commit your time, energy and financial resources to building a store, you don’t want something that’s merely good enough. You want the best ecommerce platform you can find — so why would you pick the runner-up?

In this comparison, we’re going to pit Squarespace against Shopify in the ecommerce arena to see which one is the better option for you. Is there a clear answer to the titular question, or are things somewhat more complicated? Shopify vs Squarespace, pros and cons: let’s find out.

Tier pricing and differences

It’s typical for an ecommerce platform to offer more than one level of service, so how do these huge brands frame their online retail solutions? We’ll start with Shopify since it has the most interesting range of options by a significant margin.

Shopify pricing

Tier	Shopify Lite	Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced Shopify	Shopify Plus
$ per month	$9	$29	$79	$299	$2000+

There are essentially three categories for these five pricing tiers:

Shopify Lite doesn’t actually produce a Shopify store. Skipping the website builder, it allows you to use the Shopify back-end to add basic buying functionality to a non-Shopify store. If you already have a website and want to casually monetize it (or want to establish a point-of-sale setup with no online store), this is a solid way to make that happen (and it’s cheap at just $9 per month).

Shopify is the tier aimed at the average ecommerce entrepreneur. It provides a fully-operational Shopify store, and will likely suffice unless (or until) you grow your store to the enterprise level. Note that the Basic and Advanced tiers pertain to things like reporting and payment (the higher the tier, the better the options, and the lower the transaction fees), but don’t change the game.

Shopify Plus, starting at $2000 per month, is the smart choice for big businesses that can justify its weighty price tag. It brings out the full force of the Shopify platform, leaving no features in reserve and enabling the kind of rich customization needed for enterprise selling.

Squarespace pricing

Tier	Business	Basic Commerce	Advanced Commerce
$ per month	$18	$26	$40

Things are much simpler for Squarespace, because there are only three tiers with the features necessary to run a functional ecommerce store:

Business technically needs to be included because it has integrated ecommerce functionality, but it isn’t a strong recommendation because it doesn’t provide in-domain checkout processes. To buy from your store, a shopper would need to be sent elsewhere to pay for their order. That isn’t very convenient and it makes a brand look sloppy and unprofessional.

Basic Commerce covers the gaps left by the cheaper tier, adding a native checkout process and doing other useful things like supporting user accounts and providing enhanced analytics. If you don’t need anything too sophisticated for your store, this tier will be the right choice.

Advanced Commerce bumps up the features once again, allowing sellers to offer subscriptions in addition to products (very useful if you want to sell training courses, for instance), set up abandoned cart emails to improve conversions, and even build custom integrations.

Features (native and extended)

Shopify was built from the outset to do just one thing: sell online. This is reflected in its range of features and in its industry-leading App Store. Whatever you want to do to boost your ecommerce business (whether it involves marketing, conversion-rate optimization, or social media engagement), you can find the functions to help you do it.

Squarespace, on the other hand, wasn’t developed for ecommerce. That functionality was added later. This doesn’t mean that it’s incapable when it comes to online retail, but it does mean that you can’t expect the kind of focus you’d get from Shopify.

Just look at how the range of Squarespace extensions fares. At the time of writing, there were just 24 extensions with official support (plus a handful of Premium integrations limited to the Business tier and above). If you want to use an email manager other than Mailchimp, such as Constant Contact, you’ll need to use Zapier or configure it manually.

In Shopify, you can just use the official Constant Contact app. This makes life so much easier, and gives you a huge range of freedom when it comes to the business software you use. Squarespace and Shopify are both competent here, but when it comes to making an online store, Shopify is the clear winner.

Design quality and flexibility

Unless you’re using Shopify Lite, you’re going to be using your chosen platform to design your ecommerce store — and you want that process to be as productive as possible. So how do Shopify and Squarespace compare when it comes to design?

Well, Shopify has always been great at simplifying the ecommerce process. You can get an online store built very quickly and easily, taking advantage of free templates that look solid, allow reasonable customization of design elements, and work well on all devices. With that said, you can’t usually do that much to rearrange those themes. They’ll have set structural patterns.

Squarespace grants much more freedom through its focus on drag and drop block-based building. You can freely add, remove or rearrange all your on-page elements. This allows you to create the exact layout you want, all without doing anything more complicated than you’d need to do in Shopify. It also has far more themes to pick from. Due to this, I have to give the nod to Squarespace here.

Performance and SEO

A good ecommerce site needs to load quickly and consistently — and to rank well in Google’s SERPs, it also needs to cover various other SEO basics (such as featuring page metadata). There’s no sense in creating an attractive store if it can’t handle a lot of traffic, or can’t attract it in the first place because technical issues prevent it from competing for search rankings.

Put simply, Shopify has the edge in almost every regard here. Squarespace offers marginally more flexibility in some ways (when it comes to custom URLs, for instance), but Shopify has the kind of grip on ecommerce demands that you’d expect from a service built for online retail. It makes technical SEO elements clearer, generates decent metadata, and — very notably — will continue to be updated whenever useful with a retail-first approach.

There’s nothing much wrong with Squarespace here, and you certainly can create a Squarespace store with strong ranking potential. If you’re an ambitious business owner looking to maximize your chances of competing for top keywords, though, Shopify is the obvious choice.

Customer support reliability

Every hosted ecommerce service needs excellent support options. If you encounter a major issue with your site at a particularly-inconvenient time, it can cost you immensely. Making a good platform choice will allow you to proceed with absolute confidence that the developer will have your back when things go wrong (particularly vital if you’re a beginner).

Shopify is known in the ecommerce world for its industry-leading support service, and you can find glowing endorsements wherever you look. Whether you want to log a support ticket, send an email, reach out via social media, or even place a phone call, the Shopify support team is there to accommodate — and it’s even available on a 24/7 basis. 

Throw in the weight of ecommerce advice Shopify provides through its blog and knowledge base, and you have a range of support options that ticks all the boxes.

But that doesn’t mean that Squarespace is a slouch in this area. Feedback is comparably positive, with the Squarespace support team being reliably communicative and helpful. Live chat is available during regular business hours, and email support is available 24/7.

There’s no phone support, though, and the range of instructional materials isn’t as expansive (though there are plenty of help guides and webinars to choose from). You can’t go wrong with either support service, but if you have to pick one, Shopify is the way to go.

Shopify vs Squarespace: our verdict

Having looked at some of the key concerns for prospective ecommerce sellers, we can now reach a verdict. Shopify vs Squarespace, Squarespace vs Shopify… which should you choose? 

Well, though it depends on your specific circumstances, the rational answer is Shopify.

Squarespace is a fantastic platform for sites of all kinds, offering superb versatility with a great aesthetic and enough features to assemble a custom store that looks outstanding. If looks are key for you (if you’re planning to sell luxury items, perhaps), choosing Squarespace will allow you to punch above your weight with your general store design.

But Shopify is too strong in too many areas to get second place here. It’s a commonplace recommendation for good reason. It offers an exceptional range of ecommerce features, top-class support, and an intuitive design approach that allows enough room for variation without overwhelming beginners.

And when you factor in the strength of the Shopify App Store, it’s priced very competitively, with its Basic Shopify tier comparing favourably to the Advanced Commerce tier of Squarespace. Shopify or Squarespace? When in doubt, give the win to Shopify.

Should you look at alternatives?

We’ve only looked at Shopify and Squarespace here, and there are many more ecommerce platforms on the market. If neither of these systems covers all your needs, then, should you look elsewhere? Absolutely! The more research you can do, the better prepared you’ll be to make an informed decision, and the happier you’ll be with the results.

This guide is all about settling things between two particular systems, helping you proceed if you’ve already whittled your options down. If you’re curious about systems like Magento or WooCommerce, check out our other reviews. Good luck!

Shop Pay is an accelerated checkout that streamlines the payment journey for customers. A smooth checkout experience is essential for ecommerce businesses, and Shop Pay makes it easy for customers to buy online from any Shopify store.

In this piece, we look at exactly what Shop Pay is, how it works, its benefits and features, and what customers and vendors need to know.

What is Shop Pay?

Shop Pay (previously Shopify Pay) is an express checkout launched by the ecommerce platform Shopify, that lets shoppers save their personal and payment details, such as email address, payment method, shipping and billing information.

Image Shopify

This allows customers to save time each time they check out from any Shopify store that uses Shopify Payments.

When a speedy checkout process is so important for customers, adding Shop Pay is all but essential for ecommerce businesses that use the Shopify platform.

How does Shop Pay work?

Shop Pay (what used to be Shopify Pay) is a type of accelerated checkout, designed to make the payment process simpler and more streamlined for shoppers on an ecommerce website. Consequently, the actual process of using Shop Pay is quick and easy.

First-time users of this service will need to select the Shop Pay button as a checkout option , when they make their first payment on a Shopify store. This will prompt them to enter their personal details, including email address, phone number, shipping, and billing information. 

They will also be prompted to save their information for faster checkout next time.

When they next make a purchase with any store that uses Shop Pay, customers will simply need to enter their email address. They will then receive an SMS message with a six-digit verification code to enter on the checkout page to authorise their payment — it’s as simple as that.

How to use Shop Pay

For vendors, using Shop Pay as a payment choice for their customers couldn’t be easier. All they need to do is select Settings in the navigation menu of your merchant account, then select Payments, and then Manage.

In the Accelerated Checkouts menu, vendors need to select Shop Pay, and then click Save.

For customers who wish to use Shop Pay, the process is even simpler. All they need to do is click Shop Pay in the payments navigation menu when checking out from a Shopify shop, then select Save my information for a faster checkout.

Customers then need to enter their personal information for payments and complete their order. They will then see a confirmation notification on the order status page, letting them know their details have been saved to their Shop Pay account.

Next time they checkout from a Shopify shop, all your customer needs to do is enter their email address and click Authorize purchase. They will then receive an SMS message with a six-digit code to enter on the page. After this, their payment information will be automatically provided.

What are the benefits of Shop Pay?

Shop Pay offers a number of great benefits, both for merchant accounts and customers.

It’s easy to use

One of the biggest benefits of using Shop Pay is that it makes the payment process for orders simple, quick, and easy for the customer.

Every ecommerce merchant knows that a long or complicated checkout is one of the biggest reasons why customers abandon their carts before paying. Shop Pay reduces friction during the checkout process significantly, removing the need to enter lots of personal payment information when completing orders. 

As a result, it helps create a positive customer experience, encouraging repeat purchases with a store into the bargain.

It’s also easy to set up for vendors too.

Store owners simply need to navigate to the Settings section on their Shopify dashboard and select Payment Providers. Here, vendors can select from a number of different providers. Click on Shopify Payments, and then select Manage. In the Accelerated Checkout section, toggle the Shop Pay option on, and save your changes.

It provides solid security for vendors and customers

Security is a significant concern for an ecommerce website, both for merchants and customers. When shopping online and making a payment, you want to know that your credit card information and shipping information on a website is safe and secure.

As well as being quick and easy to use, the Shop Pay payment solution also offers payment security to customers and vendors.

The SMS verification text message process adds an extra layer of security to the online payment journey. With more and more people turning online to make purchases, particularly post-COVID, this is essential.

Store owners want to offer their customers the best and most secure environment to pay, providing them with peace of mind and contributing to a positive checkout experience.

Best of all, Shopify store owners don’t need to worry about setting up all the technical elements of the Shop Pay checkout feature. It is all handled by Shopify, so merchants (and customers) can rest easy knowing that their credit card information is safe and secure.

It offsets carbon emissions

Another interesting feature of Shop Pay is that it offsets any emissions generated during delivery by protecting trees.

Shopify is known for its environmental commitments. It has a number of eco-friendly initiatives, including carbon-neutral operations and renewable energy for its headquarters.

Image Shopify

Shopify also invests in LEED-certified office spaces for its workers, and uses the Google Cloud to power its ecommerce platform instead of data centers, which are known for generating greenhouse gas emissions.

Shopify’s carbon offsetting initiative through Shop Pay is another one of its environmental commitments.

Trees are essential for reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turning it into oxygen. But rather than planting trees (which can take years to develop), Shopify ensures existing trees in the Peruvian rainforest are protected. This is one of the biggest rainforests in the world, and is an important carbon sink, capturing a significant amount of human-generated carbon dioxide. To date, Shopify has protected over 123 million trees.

For environmentally-minded ecommerce merchants and customers, Shop Pay’s carbon offsetting programme is a huge benefit.

Shop Pay (Shopify Pay) vs Shopify Payments

It is important to make a distinction between Shop Pay and Shopify Payments.

Shopify Payments and Shop Pay are both types of payment options available to Shopify account owners.

Shop Pay is a branded checkout option that significantly reduces the time involved during the payments and checkout journey. Once a customer has saved their shipping and billing information to their Shopify account, whenever they use Shop Pay as a payment method for future orders, it’ll just take a few clicks to make their purchase.

Image Shopify

Shopify Payments, on the other hand, lets your customers check out in the usual way, by providing their email address, shipping address, desired payment option, billing information, and so on. It is unbranded, meaning customers won’t see the Shopify logo on the button, and is similar to other standard checkout processes.

Can customers use gift cards or discount codes with Shop Pay?

One a customer has used Shop Pay once, it will automatically use their saved payment information for future purchases when selected.

However, this does not mean that customers can’t use gift cards or discount codes from your online shop if they have them when they use Shop Pay.

Thankfully, your customers can still easily use any gift cards or discount codes they have been provided with. During checkout, customers simply need to select Add a discount code or gift card, and then enter the unique code they have been given.

Shop Pay is one of many Shopify payments on offer to ecommerce businesses, but it is certainly one of the best. 

There are various reasons why ecommerce businesses should consider adding Shop Pay to their payment options. 

First and foremost, it speeds up the checkout journey dramatically. A slow, complicated checkout can put customers off a website and can even result in cart abandonment, but an accelerated checkout option like Shop Pay makes the entire journey quick, easy, and convenient for the customer.

Secondly, Shop Pay offers solid security throughout the payment journey, giving businesses and their customers peace of mind when shopping on an ecommerce website.

Finally, Shopify offsets all carbon emissions generated during delivery. Whether you’re eco-minded or not, this is a key selling point, both for businesses and customers.

Easy to use, convenient, and good for the planet, Shop Pay is essential for any ecommerce vendor.

Printful vs Printify, titan vs titan: these two popular services compete in the print-on-demand marketplace, and now we’re putting them head-to-head in our comparison. 

We’re going to do more than just cover the basics of what they bring to the table, though. We’ll also be looking at the print-on-demand option in general, explaining why it’s so appealing to so many.

If you’re curious about getting into ecommerce and eager to choose an accessible route that gives you the creative freedom to stand out, you’re in the right place. Let’s get started by succinctly explaining what print-on-demand actually means (beyond the obvious!), then move on to the titular battle. Here we go:

What does print-on-demand mean?

The typical ecommerce process goes like this: merchants stock up on products from suppliers, list them in their stores, take orders, and ship them out when needed. This is how physical retail has always worked, and it’s a good approach for those who have warehouse space.

The popular alternative to this approach is dropshipping. Dropshipping merchants don’t stock any products: instead, they list items that are stocked by third-party suppliers like AliExpress (adding margins for profit), then pass the orders they receive to those suppliers for processing and fulfilment. That’s it: it’s a simple process.

The chief similarity between these pathways is that the products themselves don’t change. The sellers can present them differently online, or even tweak the packaging if they keep their own stock, but the products that go to the buyers are fundamentally the same.

For those who want their products to stand out, there’s the option of selling custom products through partnering with a production facility (or creating a new one), but that’s a challenging path that requires a lot of research and design expense.

So where does the print-on-demand model fit into this? 

The name is a big clue, but let’s clarify what it means. The fundamental products of print-on-demand operations — T-shirts, shoes, baseball caps, etc. — are entirely generic (and often processed and shipped through suppliers), yet there’s a custom element produced through the printing process.

You could, for instance, create a store and list a simple T-shirt with a custom logo on the front.

Upon receiving an order, you would pass it to a print-on-demand supplier that would take a plain T-shirt, customise it with the required logo, then ship it out. The result? You get to sell unique products without doing any product development or even managing your own stock. Hit a good level of print quality and you’ll look great. If you’re a great artist and/or have a great business idea, even better.

Because the items are only produced when ordered, you can (and should) provide as many options as you can think of. Multiple colour variants, alternative designs, rethought layouts… Throw together a large number of options, and you can create a well-rounded store (while collecting invaluable data about what your customers choose and what their preferences are).

How do print-on-demand companies work?

When we talk about print-on-demand companies, then, we’re talking about the services to which print-on-demand orders get passed. They offer ranges of generic products along with printing and shipping options, process the orders they receive, and profit by charging more than it costs them to buy the original products and create their prints.

Printful and Printify work in this way, though they also differ in various ways that we’ll detail shortly.

In general, print-on-demand companies can make themselves unique through concentrating on specific areas. One might aim to produce the most high-quality products and price its items accordingly, while another might focus on being cheap and efficient with its order fulfilment.

As a merchant aiming to sell print-on-demand products, it’s important that you choose the service that best fits your unique needs, preferences, and intentions. While you won’t typically need to make a long-term commitment to a given service, pivoting from one to another might cause confusion with previous customers and lead to various other practical issues.

You also need to factor in the platform you’re using for your online store. Using a native integration with a print-on-demand business will make it much easier to use (each of these services is available through the Shopify App Store, for instance). The alternative of adding custom code can cause difficulties, particularly if you don’t have much technical expertise.

What does Printful offer?

Founded in North Carolina in 2013, Printful has since become a dominant force in the print-on-demand industry, and for good reason.

Image: Printful

It’s a hyper-convenient service that can handle production throughout the USA, Europe, and Mexico (and ship globally). Once you’ve created your free Printful account and connected your store (there’s an integration for every popular ecommerce platform), you can get started with fleshing out your print-on-demand inventory.

This is all handled through the intuitive Printful mockup generator. If you want to produce your custom file elsewhere and upload it directly, you can, but this requires you to know how to set the right dimensions and choose the right DPI. It’s much easier to create your designs within the mockup generator, uploading images if needed or just using the available resources (including rich text options, numerous clipart categories, and even an integration with Getty Images).

Image: Printful

As noted, the Printful service is free, and this goes for every account. You pay the amount quoted for a particular product (plus the shipping you add), and make your money through raising the price in your store. Printful will even ship the items in packaging with your branding (for an added fee, admittedly), so you won’t need to do much — and if you don’t sell anything in a given month, you won’t be required to pay anything.

What does Printify offer?

Founded in 2015 in Riga, Latvia, Printify offers a similar service to that of Printful, only with a focus on partnering with various print providers around the world.

Image: Printify

You sign up for a free account, choose your products, define your custom designs using a simple mockup generator, push them to your ecommerce store, then leave the orders to be dealt with on your behalf. As you’d expect, the service can fulfil orders throughout the world with global shipping (if you want to sell in New Zealand, that won’t be a problem). And if you want to order samples to try things out, you can do this directly through your on-site shopping cart (to add product designs to your store, you’ll need to use the relevant integration).

Image: Printify

The Printify mockup generator differs from the Printful equivalent in some notable ways that we’ll get into next, but you can get decent results with either one. The same can be said for the pricing, too, so let’s move on to the meat of this article: looking at the distinctions between these two services and attempting to gauge which is better.

How do Printful and Printify differ?

Two popular services, each with essentially the same business model. Why should you choose one print-on-demand company over the other? Here are the biggest differences between them:

• Printful concentrates on its own production facilities, while Printify partners with various regional facilities around the world. The biggest consequence of this is that Printful is known for greater quality control and more accurate estimation of production and shipping times. Printify’s partner-centric approach does allow it to offer distinct options for some products (with some production companies providing more colours, faster delivery, or better shipping rates), but Printful is simply a much bigger company, and this makes it markedly more reliable for large orders.
• Printify can provide better previews and handle more complex embroidering patterns, but won’t always allow custom text or resizing. A notable strength of Printify is that it will actually accept and faithfully adapt photograph-quality images for embroidered designs. Printful will allow any images but will reduce them to simple designs with minimal colouring. Another strength of Printify is its superior preview feature: Printful has a mockup view, but it only appears sometimes (while Printify’s preview option is a reliable staple).

In other regards, though, Printful holds the edge. It offers the option to create a custom pattern from a provided image, for instance, which is something that Printify doesn’t feature. It also allows the addition of custom text far more frequently (it’s only supported on some product types in Printify), and allows all image additions to be resized (for some reason, an image added for embroidery in Printify can be stuck at whatever size is automatically selected).

• Printful is free at all tiers (you only pay for the products and add-ons), while Printify has paid tiers with extra options and monthly fees. This seems like a clear win for the Printful pricing plan since you never need to worry about paying when you’re not making any sales. Yes, you need to pay for custom packaging elements (or packing slips, otherwise known as pack-ins), but that’s also true with Printify when they’re available: since they’re handled by the third-party production companies, you can’t rely on custom packaging for every product type.

It’s true that Printify’s tier system can allow you to get greater profit margins on your sales through discounts, but if you sell enough items through Printful then you’ll get bulk discounted rates too. Either way, you’ll cut your costs if you ramp things up — though maybe Printify can be preferable if you have a really solid idea of how much you’ll sell.

• Printful has far more integrations available, while Printify may require the custom use of its API. If you want to send your custom products to Shopify or eBay, either system will accommodate you — but if you want to send them to something like Amazon, only Printful will have the native integration for it. Your only option there is to set up a custom integration using the Printify API, or find a middle-ground system for it.

Printify vs Printful: which should you choose?

Printify and Printful are two leading print-on-demand companies, and each provides a good service that’s accessible to any ecommerce business, so there’s no clear loser here. The product quality before customisation won’t differ too much: one cotton T-shirt is akin to any other of a similar price.

And since each has distinct strengths and weaknesses, your circumstances will determine which is best for you: if Printify offers the lowest prices for the product type you’re relying on (and the partner you’ve selected has a reputation for quality), for instance, then it may be your best option.

Overall, though, the nod has to go to Printful. Having its own production facilities with the quality-control process of a big business allows it to achieve a greater level of quality, leading to custom products that look better and last longer. Its larger size also allows it to provide 24/7 customer support through live chat, leading to a superior average user experience.

Additionally, its various options for custom packaging make it much more desirable for those sellers who want to take advantage of the dropshipping model while retaining extensive creative control.

Can you use Printful and Printify?

The answer, of course, is yes. Each of these services has a free tier that you can use indefinitely, and each will remain linked to the products it pushes to your store. If one seems better for a given product type (better shipping costs, perhaps) but the other is preferable for all others, you can use the former just for that product. Be wary, though, as this can easily cause confusion.

What happens when a customer contacts you to note that their purchase hasn’t arrived? You need to first determine which company it went through, complicating your support process. And then there’s the matter of using the mockup generators. Do you want to spend the time comparing the rates for each new product you add before you proceed?

This will prove an arduous task that will likely waste enough of your valuable time to defeat the purpose of attempting it in the first place. 

Unless you have a truly compelling reason to use multiple print-on-demand services at once, you should pick just one print provider and stick with it — and Printful seems like the way to go.

With around 286 million active users, PayPal is perhaps the best-known payment gateway in the world. This is enough to make it the 21st largest bank in the United States, if it were a traditional brick-and-mortar financial organisation. 

But it’s not the only payment processing solution available to business owners. There are some other great options you can choose from and it may even be they’re a better fit for your company. 

We’ve highlighted seven great payment gateways for ecommerce stores (we haven’t included Venmo because it’s owned by PayPal), explaining what type of business they’re ideally suited to, their customer reviews, cost and some other key details you need to know about them. 

Read on to find out more below. 

What are the best alternatives to PayPal that I can use? 

Taking PayPal out of the pictures, these are the seven best gateways you can use for your ecommerce checkout process:

1. Amazon Pay
2. Apple Pay 
3. Google Pay
4. Payoneer
5. Quickbooks Payments
6. Shopify Payments
7. Skrill

They’re ordered alphabetically (just because Amazon Pay is number one it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s our favourite). 

Below, we’ve given you the key information on each gateway, so you can make your own mind up about which one you want to add to your ecommerce platform. 

**We’ve taken the customer reviews rating from Trustpilot**

Amazon Pay 

Credit: Amazon Pay

If there’s one brand operating in the payment gateway domain that’s better known than PayPal, then it’s Amazon. Amazon Pay has packages for SMEs, big companies and nonprofits, making it ideal for a wide range of businesses. 

• Best for: Business owners who want a trusted payment gateway
• Customer reviews: 1.9/5
• Cost: Variable — 
  • • Less than 50,000 orders: processing fee (2.7%); authorisation fee (£0.30)
    • Over 50,000 orders: you can apply for a discount by contacting Amazon 
• Apps: iOS and Android 

Adding Amazon payments to your business is quick and simple. Check out the site to find out more about how to add it to your ecommerce store. 

Apple Pay 

Credit: Apple Pay

Apple Pay claims to be “faster than accepting traditional credit and debit cards and other payment methods”. This is great for ecommerce businesses because their customers can make payments and check out with a single touch.

• Best for: Companies that want a fast and secure payment method 
• Customer reviews: 3.6/5
• Cost: Apple charges no additional fees 
• Apps: iOS

If your company accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and/or China UnionPay then adding Apple Pay should be pretty straightforward. Review Apple Pay’s merchant checklist to find out what you need to do. 

Google Pay 

Credit: Google Pay

Alt-text: Google Pay is one of the best PayPal alternatives

Formerly known as Google Wallet, Google Pay allows your online business to accept payments from customers who have added their credit or debit card to their Google Account. This makes for a quick checkout process for shoppers and companies alike. 

• Best for: Store owners looking for a simple and trusted gateway 
• Customer reviews: 2.1/5
• Cost: free for your business and its customers 
• Apps: Android and iOS 

One of the other great things about picking Google Pay is that it supports SCA, the two-factor authentication process that was introduced for most online payments from 31 December 2020. Find out how to add Google Pay to your store by visiting the website. 

Payoneer

Credit: Payoneer

Payoneer is a payment solution that allows your business to receive credits from and pay freelancers who complete any work for your company via Upwork, Fiverr and similar platforms. 

• Best for: Ecommerce businesses that outsource work to freelancers 
• Customer reviews: 4.4/5
• Cost: Variable — 
  • • Card payments:  3% fee
    • Via eCheck (USD): 1% fee
• Apps: Android and iOS

As a cross-border payments platform, Payoneer can be a good option for global ecommerce businesses but it’s more of an all-round business payments platform than a pure ecommerce checkout. Read the resources on Payoneer’s site to learn more about this payment gateway.  

Quickbooks Payments 

Credit: Quickbooks Payments

Quickbooks Payments integrates with some of the biggest ecommerce platforms, including BigCommerce and Shopify. It allows you to accept card payments from your customers and does so securely through 128-bit SSL encryption.

• Best for: Companies who want integrated payments with key ecommerce platforms
• Customer reviews: 1.5/5
• Cost: Variable — 

• • • Simple Start: £12 per month 
    • Essentials: £20 per month 
    • Plus: £30 per month 
    • There are also transaction fees
• Apps: Android and iOS

Unlike some of the leading PayPal alternatives, you have to pay both a monthly cost for using Quickbooks Payments and individual transaction fees when your customers make payments. You can discover more about these charges at the Quickbooks Payments site. 

Shopify Payments

Credit: Shopify

Shopify is one of the biggest ecommerce platforms, with more than 500,000 businesses across the globe using it. Shopify Payments is its payment gateway and the big benefit of using it is that your company doesn’t need to sign up to another third-party provider. 

• Best for: ecommerce stores built on Shopify 
• Customer reviews: 1.4/5 (rating for Shopify as a brand) 
• Cost: there’s no transaction fee for most payments — businesses based in Austria, Belgium or Sweden are charged a fee for orders processed through a third-party payment provider
• Apps: Android and iOS

Shopify Payments is free to use for Shopify customers. However, while you don’t pay transaction fees, this does mean you need to pay a monthly subscription charge to use the Shopify platform. You can find out how much that is by hedging to the Shopify website. 

Skrill 

 

Credit: Skrill

Skrill is a digital wallet that ecommerce businesses have been using since the beginning of the 21st century. It offers a quick checkout, digital wallet, rapid transfer and shopping carts. 

• Best for: ecommerce owners who want a reliable digital wallet
• Customer reviews: 4.2/5
• Cost:  
  • • Local payment methods: 1%
    • Global payment methods: 1% 
• Apps:  Android and IOS

Skrill gets one of the best customer satisfaction ratings of any payment gateway. You can see what your fellow ecommerce business owners think of it by reading the reviews at Trustpilot now.

Is it a good idea for my business to use a PayPal alternative?

PayPal is used by people and businesses across the world, with millions of personal and merchant accounts benefiting from its service. 

There are many payment gateways like PayPal, so your company can choose to use an alternative. The question, though, is why you’d choose to use these providers when these are the benefits you get from PayPal: 

• Secure payment gateway
• No recurring bills (no pre-set monthly or annual fee)
• Broad ecommerce integration  

One of the reasons you might choose to use an alternative to PayPal is that it charges processing fees, levying a charge per transaction to business owners. These fees include:

• Commercial transactions: 2.9% + a fixed fee
• QR Code Transactions:
  • £10.00 and below: 2% + a fixed fee
  • £10.01 and above: 1.5% + a fixed fee

So, while there’s no recurring billing, you can expect to pay a regular fee to PayPal if you choose to use it as your payment gateway. 

Why can’t customers just pay directly from their bank account?

PayPal — and PayPal alternatives — aren’t the only way your customers can buy products from your ecommerce business. 

Instead of setting up an account with PayPal or PayPal competitors, shoppers can simply pay directly from their bank account in the following ways: 

• Debit cards 
• Credit card payments 
• Bank transfers 
• Mobile payments 

The problem is that if you limit your customers to just these payment methods then it can turn some of them off. This is particularly true of people global customers making international payments, as their bank might charge them a fee for doing so. They may also not feel comfortable or protected using these methods, which is something to keep in mind.

So, while you should allow your customers to buy your goods with pay as you go via their mobile, credit cards, debit cards and bank transfer from their bank accounts, we recommend that you give them some other payment options too.  

We’ve given you a list of seven great alternatives to PayPal. We’ve told you how much they cost, what type of businesses they’re good for and why they’re a top card processing provider. 

What we’ve not said, though, is that you could use some of these alongside PayPal — Amazon Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay are prime examples of this. 

You may choose to use PayPal and you may choose not to. What’s most important is that you make your decision based on the payment methods your customers use. Why? 

Because if your customers can’t buy your products in the way they want to then they’ll simply purchase them from your competitors. 

A rise in online orders can be a blessing and a curse for companies. 

If your ecommerce logistics are in a position to cope with this increase in business then it’s the former. But if you don’t have everything set up then it’s the latter. 

If you’re not in a position to cope with this influx of business then you might need to review your warehouse management system, your product creation process or a range of other factors. 

We’ve highlighted four tactics that you can use to deal with a rise in online orders, giving you the tools to cope in the best and worst-case scenarios. 

1: Expand your existing supply chain management operations 

Credit: Needpix

Our first tactic looks at what you can do if you’ve got enough stock but your supply chain can’t cope with the rise in orders. It’s probably the best position to be in because it has the simplest solution — either use a third-party distributor or handle the deliveries in-house. 

Using a distributor should be pretty straightforward. 

The top ecommerce platforms allow you to link your store to your pick of organisations whose fulfilment centres can handle your orders. Indeed, it may be that you have an existing provider who can support this. 

One thing to keep in mind is shipping costs; if your uplift in orders comes from end destinations in far-flung regions of the world then you might need to pay higher delivery costs. If this is the case then you’ll need to make sure your customers from these areas are fully aware of the price of getting goods delivered from your business.

Credit: Pikist

Handling deliveries in-house is another straightforward option. 

It’s pretty simple — you just get your employees to deliver products directly to your customers using company vehicles (an investment, but one worth making if you’re really scaling up). You can use software such as telematics to track the journeys made to make deliveries. This creates an insurance policy to ensure your drivers don’t drive erratically and risk damaging the goods during transition. 

This is important because your company will have to cover the costs (literal and reputational) if your customers receive products they aren’t happy with. 

So, if your orders have gone up and your supply chain can’t cope then use a third-party distributor or handle the deliveries in-house. 

2: Increase the sales offering for your online business  

Credit: Wallpaper Flare

Our second method tackles a scenario where your supply chain is able to deliver your goods but your stockpile/supply of products isn’t sufficient to meet demand. We won’t lie, this can be a tricky situation to resolve. 

The reason it’s a tough problem to fix is that you might not be able to simply request more products from your suppliers or boost your internal resources. We’re talking here about if you sell bespoke goods. 

The issue with this is that if you’re the only person who can create the products then you can’t simply duplicate yourself. However, there are a couple of things you can do: 

• Bolster your internal resources by hiring staff who can do your less-skilled tasks 
• Introduce caps on order sizes to limit the number of products sold at any one time

Of course, if your ecommerce business doesn’t sell tailor-made items, then things are much simpler. You can meet the increased product interest by getting more staff or placing more orders with your suppliers. 

Take the approach we’ve outlined based on the nature of the ecommerce goods you sell. Doing so will keep your supply of goods high enough to meet the increased demand. 

3: Direct your customers to complementary items your company sells

Credit: PX Here

Our third strategy looks at a worst-case scenario for your ecommerce company: you’re out of stock of your best-sellers and there’s no way around it. You can’t easily increase the number of products you have and the cost of bolstering your supply chain is too great. 

It’s a horrible position to be in but there’s a way of dealing with it in real-time, while you resolve the issues with your inventory management and the ecommerce logistics associated with distribution. You direct your customers to existing, complementary products on your website. 

You’ll need new content to be able to redirect your customers, something you can do via a 302 redirect page. 

We’ll explain the why and how of this but be warned, it needs to be dealt with carefully to ensure your company retains a high level of customer service. 

Credit: Wallpaper Flare

A 302 page effectively takes down your product page. Your customers can still arrive at it but it won’t display your products. 

Instead, it’ll explain that the page is temporarily unavailable. This is where you add content explaining that these products are currently out of stock but you have other great — and available — items they will love. 

If you create a 302 redirect then the content on it must sensitively address your customer’s expectations. You need to apologise for the inconvenience and give them an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the situation. 

Because of this, we recommend that you add the details of your customer services team to your 302 redirects. This way you have a chance to proactively address any concerns your customers have with your business and assure them that you’re in control of the situation. 

4: Create a reserve list while you review your ecommerce logistics 

Credit: Pexels

Our fourth approach to dealing with a rise in online orders is the worst-case scenario.

It’s where you simply can’t offer your customers any alternative but to wait while your business readjusts to the increased demands for your services. 

This is a customer service nightmare because you’re not really offering your customers anything aside from your word that you’ll one day be able to give them what they want. However, you can make this work if you create a reserve list for your customers to book in an order. 

Credit: Pexels

Giving your customers the opportunity to reserve an order, so they can buy it when it’s back in stock means you don’t lose their business. The payoff is that you extend the buying process, so you need to work hard to keep them happy. 

Something that’s non-negotiable in this situation is that you need to notify your customers as soon as the item they’ve reserved is back in stock. You might also want to give them individual tracking numbers so they can check in on the progress. 

One thing that’s up to you is whether you offer a discount. We highly recommend that you do offer this because this then gives your customers compensation for the inconvenience you’ve put them through. 

So, if you’re really stuck and need time to speak to logistics providers and come to terms with the increase in your online orders then create a reserve list. Just make sure you look after the customers that take this up. 

Expanding your existing supply chain, increasing your sales offering, directing your customers to complementary items and creating a reserve list are all great ways to deal with an increase in online orders. 

So, use the approach that’s appropriate to your company and you’ll soon be in a position to take advantage of the new business that’s coming your way.