Shop Pay Review 2025: What It Is and How It Works
Customers use Shop Pay to store and autofill their credit card and billing information for a quicker checkout process on Shopify online stores.
Overview
The bottom line:
Shop Pay, an accelerated checkout function for Shopify storefronts, is a great solution for online businesses trying to reduce cart abandonment and make the checkout process as convenient as possible. Customers can use it to securely store their payment information and finish shopping in one to two clicks. It lets them complete purchases from a Shopify store, social media or the Shop app.
Software details
Payment processing fees
N/A
in-person; 2.9% + 30¢ online with Shopify’s Basic plan.
Monthly fee
$39
and up for Shopify’s e-commerce plans.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Included if you use Shopify Payments as your processor.
Accelerated checkout may help decrease cart abandonment rates.
Shop Pay Installments lets you offer buy now, pay later options.
Cons
Limited to business owners already using Shopify’s POS system.
Shopify costs can quickly add up.
Shop Pay is best for businesses that:
✔️ Already use Shopify.
✔️ Make online sales.
✔️ Have repeat customers.
Are you a shopper who came across Shop Pay during checkout?
Shop Pay streamlines the checkout process by allowing you to save your credit card and billing information for next time. You can also use it to purchase items straight from Instagram or Facebook without leaving the site. While NerdWallet doesn’t have a specific article dedicated to how customers use Shop Pay, we do have resources on buy now, pay later options
How does Shop Pay work?
Shop Pay is an accelerated checkout service offered by Shopify POS
If you already have a Shopify storefront, you can enable the feature from your admin page. It lets customers store credit card, email, shipping and billing information. Then, when they return to your store, the checkout fields are automatically filled out. Shop Pay allows customers to pay in installments, too.
See Shop Pay's checkout flow
Aside from making the checkout process almost instantaneous, Shop Pay also lets you sell directly from your business’s Instagram and Facebook pages. That means customers don’t have to leave social media to complete their purchases. To activate this feature, you’ll need to install the Facebook and Instagram channel from Shopify’s app store and go through the onboarding process to begin marketing your products on social media.
Shop Pay vs. Shopify Payments
» Looking for third-party payment processors? Check out our list of best payment processing companies
Is Shop Pay safe?
Shopify follows standard security protocols by encrypting customer payment details and storing them on its PCI-compliant servers. The data is only available to stores when an order is placed. NerdWallet’s article on PCI compliance
Not a fit? Consider these alternatives
PayPal Checkout: Best accelerated checkout alternative. PayPal Checkout is another accelerated checkout option that functions a lot like Shop Pay. It lets customers use their PayPal information to complete transactions using a variety of methods, including PayPal, Venmo and other payment types that include buy now, pay later options. You will need a PayPal Business account to use Checkout. Read our full PayPal Business review
Square: Best POS system alternative. Square is an all-in-one product that offers POS hardware for in-person sales, a website for selling online, POS software and payment processing under the same roof. This makes it a good solution for businesses that do both in-person and online sales. You can also use it to send abandoned cart email nudges to customers who didn’t complete a transaction. Read our full Square POS review
Stripe: Best for customizing online checkout flows. Like Shopify, Stripe is mostly intended for online transactions, though it’s more focused on processing transactions than building out your website. Its key feature is its customizability. Unlike Shop Pay or even Shopify Payments, for example, Stripe can be integrated with your existing website to process a variety of payment types. Read our full Stripe review
Deciding factors
» MORE: Shopify pricing and plans
Where Shop Pay stands out
👍 Comes included with Shopify Payments
You should be able to enable Shop Pay in just a couple of clicks if you already have a Shopify account and opted to use Shopify Payments (the company’s integrated payment processing service). And since Shop Pay uses Shopify Payments’ transaction rates, your transaction fees will decrease as you subscribe to higher-tier plans.
👍 May decrease cart abandonment rates
When you’re shopping online, it’s tempting to just click over to the next tab in your browser when you see how much information you need to fill out to complete a purchase. Since Shop Pay streamlines the checkout process, it has the potential to decrease your online shop’s cart abandonment rates and give your customers instant gratification.
👍 Enables buy now, pay later options
To qualify for Shop Pay Installments — a buy now, pay later option from Affirm — your business must be located in the U.S., sell in USD and use Shopify Payments. Additionally, customers’ purchases must be between $50 and $20,000.
Typically, the following customer payment options are available:
- Four interest-free payments every two weeks for orders between $50 and $999.99.
- Monthly payments made on orders between $150 and $17,500.
For customers, the annual percentage rate, or APR, on these installments ranges from 0% to 36% of the purchase price. A premium option is also available to eligible merchants and allows for interest-free payments on longer repayment terms than two months. Generally, your business pays a fee of 5% to 6% for each Shop Pay Installments transaction, based on various business factors and Affirm's underwriting.
Where Shop Pay falls short
👎 Only available for Shopify users
Shop Pay is built exclusively for business owners who already use Shopify. If you’re using a different POS system or e-commerce platform, switching over to Shopify just for Shop Pay is likely not worth the effort — especially since other accelerated checkout options are available (see below).
👎 Shopify costs can add up
Shopify’s base-level plan pricing is reasonable, but things get expensive when you opt to add POS Pro capabilities to your subscription. POS Pro, which costs another $89 per month, adds additional in-person selling features to your POS plan, like inventory management, staff management and omni-channel selling. Additionally, some of Shopify’s higher-end website templates cost extra upfront.