The 7 Best Payment Gateways for Dropshipping Stores in 2024

Are you setting up your new online store and looking for the best dropshipping payment gateways? Then you've come to the right place! In this article, I will tell you all about the best payment gateways available for your dropshipping store.

But first, let me explain what a payment gateway exactly is and what things you should consider before picking one.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is essentially the tool that lets a customer buy something in an online store. Payments gateways handle all money transactions for an online store.

Let's say a visitor would like to buy a product from your store. He adds it to his cart, fills in his address, and starts filling in his payment information. This is the moment the payment gateway steps in.

First of all, the payment gateway makes sure that the payment information is processed securely, and the funds are deducted from the visitor's account.

After that, the funds are deposited onto your account, and you will be able to withdraw it to your bank account. The payment gateway often takes a small percentage of this transaction as a fee for their service.

Most important things to consider before choosing a payment gateway

When choosing a payment gateway for your dropshipping store, you can't just pick one and expect it to work. Maybe the one you picked doesn't even support dropshipping

Don't worry though, for this list I only added payment gateways that will not ban you just because you are dropshipping.

Still, here's a short list of things to consider before choosing a payment gateway for your dropshipping store.

Does it work with the country and currency of your target audience?

One of the first things to consider is which countries you will be selling to. Make sure to check that your payment gateway supports those countries and also supports any different currencies used in those countries.

Ideally, you should pick a payment gateway that people in your target country will recognize (the more popular payment methods in that country).

Warning: This list is more internationally orientated, if you are planning to target a specific country, always research what the most popular payment method in that country is beforehand. For example, Klarna is a very popular payment gateway in Germany, and adding it to your dropshipping store will increase your conversion rate if you have customers in Germany.

If you want to learn more about payment gateways in your country or region, you can get payment information sorted by country here!

And if you're not sure yet which country you're going to target, then take a look at this article here with plenty of examples. That article even contains countries that are better to be avoided when dropshipping.

Does it support dropshipping?

Some payment gateways will reject you once they get to know that you are dropshipping. They claim that dropshippers get many chargebacks and therefore associate everyone who is dropshipping as part of a "high-risk" group. For this reason, they generally don't want to do business with dropshippers.

Other payment gateways have restrictions for certain product groups, like here:

In general though, most payment gateways don't have an explicit rule in their terms of service stating that dropshippers are not allowed. Often, they just do not like working with dropshippers.

However, if you make sure to keep your customers happy and the number of chargebacks low, you will rarely have problems with your payment gateway.

If you want to keep your customers happy, check out our complete customer service guide for dropshipping stores!

What are the transaction fees?

If you are planning to scale your store, this is an important point to consider. When dealing with large volumes of orders, an extra percentage point in transaction fees can impact your profit quite significantly.

Under certain conditions, you can get free transactions with some payment gateways, while the expensive ones can charge up to 4.9%!

How is the customer service?

For your own peace of mind, it's better to pick a payment gateway with excellent customer service.

I often see some horror stories pass by of people claiming that their whole account has been set on hold while the customer service doesn't even reply. Sometimes, they even have to stop their advertisements because their cash flow has stopped.

In conclusion, a good payment gateway puts your money on hold less quickly, and if it happens, should have great customer service to resolve the issue with you.

Best payment gateways for dropshipping stores

Now that you know what criteria to look out for when picking the best payment gateway for your dropshipping store, let's start with the list!

I will discuss each dropshipping payment gateway in the following layout:

• Introduction
• Pros
• Cons
• Pricing

1. Shopify Payments

If you have your online dropshipping store on the Shopify platform, this is definitely a payment gateway to set up!

Shopify Payments is completely integrated with the Shopify platform. It takes just a few clicks to set it up on your Shopify dropshipping store!

P.S. If you are looking for a free 3-day Shopify trial to start your dropshipping venture, claim it here!

Note: Recently, Shopify have also made their own payment gateway app called Shop Pay. You can read more about them here. You can activate Shop Pay through Shopify Payments. Shop Pay will remember important details, so your customers can focus on filling their carts instead of forms!

Pros

• Extremely easy to set up with your Shopify store
• Completely integrated with Shopify
• Accepts all major credit cards
• Supports some country-specific payment methods
• Payouts every 3 business days
• Only pay credit card issuer's rate, no additional transaction fees
• If enabled, removes extra 2% transaction fee for other payment gateways enabled on your store

Cons

• Shopify Payments deducts 15$ for each chargeback you get. However, if you win the chargeback, you get it back
• Only available in certain countries
• Some types of businesses and services are not permitted to use Shopify Payments
• Only available on Shopify

Tip: If you want to win your chargebacks, consider using Chargeflow. It's a company that uses AI to fight your chargebacks for you.

Chargeflow offers an industry-leading win rate, and you only pay when they successfully recover a chargeback, so it's worth checking out!

Pricing

The credit card rates start at 2.9% + 30¢ for the Basic Shopify plan, lower to 2.6% + 30¢ for the Shopify plan, and are the lowest at 2.4% + 30¢ for the Advanced Shopify plan.

Related article: Shopify Payments: The Definitive Guide (2024)

2. Paypal

Who doesn't know Paypal, this might be the most popular payment gateway for both dropshippers and the general public! Although not always being perfect, the fact that many people know and trust this payment provider makes it a great addition to your dropshipping store.

Pros

• Very well-known and trusted all around the world
• Available in more than 200 countries and supports 25 currencies
• Supports all major credit cards
• No startup costs, no termination fee, no monthly fees
• Withdraw your money at any time & for free (assuming it isn't on hold)

Cons

• Poor customer service
• For no apparent reason, your money can be put on hold for up to 180 days. If you are struggling with Paypal holds or don't want this to happen to you, check out my article about Using PayPal for Dropshipping: How to Not Get Banned.
• High fee (3.5-4 %) when converting currencies (e.g. if you have USD on your account, but want to convert it to EUR for your payout)
• In general, relatively high transaction fees

Pricing

The transaction fees depend on the country you're from. If you are from the US, and you receive funds from a Paypal account inside the US, you will pay 2.9% + 30¢.

But, if you receive funds from a Paypal account outside the US, you will pay 4.4% of the transaction amount plus a fixed fee based on the currency.

3. Stripe

Stripe is a payment gateway, which is a popular alternative for Paypal. It also has strong partnerships and integrations with Shopify. Stripe actually provides Shopify with their Shopify Payments gateway! It's US-based and currently available for businesses in 40 countries.

Important: For those that are wondering if you can use Stripe while dropshipping, check out this article here for more information.

Pros

• Modern user interface
• Flexible and customizable
• Supports 135+ currencies
• Automatically transfers the funds to a bank account
• Transparent pricing

Cons

• Requires a little programming knowledge to customize
• Transaction fees are similar to Paypal's
• Money transactions & payout speed could be faster
• In comparison to the number of currencies, merchant accounts can only be created in a limited amount of countries.

Pricing

Similar pricing to Paypal. See this page for Stripe's detailed pricing.

For international payments, they charge 2.9% + €0.25, and if currency conversion is required, an additional 2% fee will apply.

4. Amazon Pay

Who doesn't know Amazon, the giant technology company that just doesn't stop growing? Amazon Pay is their own payment gateway, which means that people who are familiar with the brand will trust it. In the US alone, Amazon Prime already has 112 million users, and it's growing every day.

Amazon Pay is convenient as well; consumers can just log into their Amazon account and use their pre-saved payment information to buy your product.

Pros

• Low-barrier payment method for Amazon users, they know and trust Amazon Pay's interface, and their payment information is saved
• Available on all devices
• Excellent fraud protection
• Offers extra features like voice shopping

Cons

• Not the cheapest, Amazon Pay's transaction fees are similar to Paypal's
• Programming knowledge is required to set up Amazon Pay on your online store unless you use Shopify (in that case, Amazon Pay is integrated with Shopify Payments)
• Sometimes, you will have to pay extra fees like domestic processing fees and cross-border processing fees

Pricing

For a US domestic transaction, Amazon Pay charges a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30, while they charge a transaction fee of 3.9% + $0.30 for cross border transaction. For detailed information about Amazon Pay's pricing per country, check out this page.

5. Google Pay

Google Pay is another payment gateway from a trusted and well-known brand, perfect for your dropshipping store!

If you have ever used Google Pay yourself, you will know that it is a very fast, easy, and convenient payment method. It also lets you store and save your credit card on your Google account, which makes paying online for a product, app, or service even faster.

Pros

• Fast, convenient, and cheap transactions
• Integrated within Shopify Payments (for those with a Shopify store)
• Protects your payment info with industry-leading security technologies
• Loyalty programs, rewards, and cashback available for customers
• Free bank transfer and debit card transactions
• Can save your payment information & address

Cons

• For some phones and countries, the features of Google Pay are limited
• While rising, the number of people using Google Pay is still relatively low

Pricing

Bank transfers and debit card transactions are free. However, if using credit cards or Paypal through Google Pay, you will be charged 2.9% of the transaction amount in total as a fee for the credit card issuer or Paypal.

6. Apple Pay

As a dropshipping payment gateway, Apple Pay has similar characteristics to Google Pay. The main difference is that Apple Pay targets Apple users.

Besides being awesome for internet purchases, Apple Pay is the most popular payment gateway for mobile wallet transactions. In this study, they account for 77% of mobile wallet transactions.

Pros

• Let your customers pay without having to create an account or fill out lengthy forms
• Secure payments just take one touch with Touch ID
• Beautiful & simple user interface
• Integrated with Shopify Payments (for those with a Shopify store)
• Accepts all major credit & debit cards

Cons

• Only available for Apple product users

Pricing

Apple Pay only charges a fee of the credit card's issuer and doesn't charge a fee on top of that for themself. For a standard credit card transaction, the fee will be the industry average of 2.9%.

7. Crypto Payments

Next up is something that you might not expect; crypto payments!

Yes, that's right. You can also start accepting crypto payments in your dropshipping store.

We wrote an awesome article about this where we cover three crypto payment gateways, and we cover the reasons why people start accepting cryptocurrencies:

How To Accept Bitcoin (& Other Crypto Payments)?

The only thing is that the article is focused on Shopify, but if you're not using Shopify, then don't worry!

They all integrate with other ecommerce platforms as well, so check out the article here.

Bonus: Wise (Formerly TransferWise)

As a bonus, we will cover Wise! Wise offers a solution to customers who want to pay via a bank transfer and is a relatively new PayPal competitor.

This money transfer service is specialized in making cheap and fast international transactions. It is specifically made for people who make lots of international transactions, and they claim to be 19x cheaper than PayPal!

So, if you send money abroad often (for example, to pay your supplier), then definitely check out Wise!

Don't forget that Wise isn't a payment gateway, but we added it here because it can save you a lot of money if you need to send money to, for example, your supplier.

Pros

• Fast and cheap transactions. Thanks to their real exchange rate system, you could save 75.21 EUR when making a 1000 EUR payment to a GBP account. Also, the payment arrives in seconds (see picture above). Compare their transaction cost with Paypal's here
• They are well-known and trusted for international transactions, having over 8 million customers
• Transparent pricing
• Support for over 50 currencies with their multi-currency account service

Cons

• Not many extra features like recurring billing
• Can only be used for bank transfers

Pricing

At Wise, the transaction fee is different for each transaction. You can experiment with their fees yourself here. One thing is for sure though, you will pay less than you would with Paypal!

Bonus #2: Juni.co

As a bonus tip related to payments, we would like to tell you about Juni.

It's a product you simply must know about if you are worried about how you will manage all these different payment gateways!

Juni (juni.co) is a fintech solution made for digital entrepreneurs operating in the UK, Europe, and Norway.

With Juni, you can connect your ad networks (Google Ads, FB Ads, etc.), payment gateways (PayPal, Stripe, etc.), and bank accounts in one place.

The benefit?

You will be able to track the ROI across all your business's activities and improve cash flows!

If you’re running multiple Shopify stores, Juni makes creating this financial overview effortless with its Shopify integration.

Simply follow the steps below to activate it:

One of Juni's most significant perks is that you can get up to 1% cashback on all eligible card spending. This may not seem much, but when scaling your business, it can really add up!

Other benefits include:

• Virtual cards. With Juni, you can generate as many virtual cards as you need in GBP, USD, and EUR.
• Get savings relevant to your business. For example, as Juni's customer, you can get a 20% discount on the Loox Shopify app or a 15% discount on the BeProfit Shopify app.

So, what does all of this cost?

Turns out, not much!

Juni tried to eliminate as many fees as possible, as you can see on their pricing page.

As a result, you can sign up, get insights, create IBAN accounts, and generate all the virtual Juni cards you need for free!

The only thing that isn't free on Juni's pricing page is the account transfer FX fees, which can cost up to 0.25% of the transferred amount.

If all of this sounds interesting to you, you can find more info about Juni on their website here!

Conclusion

Picking a payment gateway for your dropshipping business can be a hard task. As I have mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are quite a few things to pay attention to. Each payment gateway has its pros and cons!

If you are just starting out, I recommend you not to look at things like pricing too much.

The most important factor is that your customers will be able to pay in their preferred payment method! This will cause you to get extra sales, which will more than compensate for extra transaction fees.

So, first, find out which countries you would like to sell to and what the most popular payment methods in those countries are. Then, I would recommend picking the most popular payment methods like Shopify Payments and Paypal. If you have trouble with those, you can always try and test some of the smaller ones.

You should also check out this article here, which will go over the best payment gateway combinations for dropshipping!

I hope you have learned something new today by reading this article! If you have any questions, don't be shy to contact me or simply leave a comment down below.

Good luck with choosing a payment gateway for your dropshipping store!

Getting Started with Dropshipping in 2024

So, are you ready to get started with dropshipping? Or maybe you have already started, but you’re looking to get some inspiration?

If so, then I suggest reading this complete Shopify dropshipping guide.

It’s a huge article, but it contains everything that you need to know to create your own Shopify dropshipping store in 2024. It’s like a dropshipping course, but then for free!

Reading this article will surely help you to get started and to stay motivated while beginning and continuing your dropshipping journey.

Just don’t forget that success takes time. Keep improving each and every day!

Shopify Dropshipping: A 20-Step Guide to Starting Your Store

And here are the articles I suggest you read next:

• 23 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
• Using a Credit Card for Dropshipping: What You Should Know
• 8 Amazing Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Dropshipping Store
• How to Find Winning Dropshipping Products (13 Research Methods)

And also, if you didn’t create a Shopify account yet (to get your dropshipping store online), then you can click here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!