Stripe Payments vs Shopify Checkout

Overview

The Recommended Exchanges feature is supported through two payment gateways: Stripe Payments and Shopify Checkout (i.e. your regular checkout flow). While either gateway can be used to process payments for exchanges, they both have pros and cons. 

Note: A payment gateway is needed to process payments when exchanges result in an additional charge such as shipping, handling, and restocking fees, or from upsell payments while using Recommended Exchanges. You can enable Exchanges for products with identical prices without adding a gateway, however, Recommended Exchanges open up additional choices and drive incremental ROI.  

Use the guide below to determine the best gateway for your specific use case.

Stripe Payments

Setup

Stripe Payments can be set up and configured without assistance from Narvar. Stripe provides an in-app guide that will walk you through the process. 

Note: You can create and connect a Stripe account in the Account Settings of your Narvar Returns & Exchanges app if you have not already done so.

Recommended Use Cases

• Retailers (i.e. accounting departments) that do not need fees processed by Stripe to appear in the Shopify payout dashboard.
• Retailers that do not need to hold orders for fulfillment in Shopify.
  • With Stripe Payments, the new order for an exchange won’t be created until you receive the original item for return and are ready to ship the replacement.

Things to Know

• If you decide to switch from Stripe Payments to Shopify Checkout you’ll need to submit a support request to make changes.
  • Payment methods cannot be changed if you have exchanges in progress.
  • Requires special arrangements to switch to Shopify Checkout once exchanges have been initiated and marked as paid. If accounting has an issue due to exchanges that have been initiated, this will be difficult to resolve in later stages.
  • Stripe Payments cannot be disabled if there are transactions processing in Stripe. 
• Payments are captured outside of Shopify.
• The credit card payment form displays at the end of the return flow, so customers can’t pay with Shop Pay.
• You can create and connect a Stripe Payments account on your own to start processing upsell payments immediately.
• An advantage of Stripe Payments is that the payment form appears directly in the exchange process, which simplifies the shopper experience.

Shopify Checkout

Setup

Using Shopify Checkout to collect payments requires assistance from Narvar. Please submit a support request if you want to use Shopify Checkout instead of Stripe Payments.

Note: Shopify Checkout is only available for retailers on Shopify Plus.

Recommended Use Cases

• Retailers that use Netsuite or other ERP systems (generally, these are large retailers).
  • Minimal changes will be required in your ERP system.
• Retailers that can hold inventory (or retailers that are okay with exchanges becoming instant orders).
  • Shopify Checkout does not have a native way to hold a portion of inventory and fulfill the rest. However, the Narvar Support team has alternative solutions that your fulfillment service can use to hold exchange orders until shipment.
• Retailers with multiple payment methods and/or international customers.
  • Existing payment methods (such as Paypal, ShopPay, BNPL, and others) are unaffected and will continue to work.

Things to Know

• There are a few requirements to be able to use Shopify Checkout, contact your CSM for further assistance.

• Exchange orders become instant orders.
  • With Shopify Checkout, Narvar uses a tag ("narvar_exchange_hold") on exchanges to manage the desired delay. Based on the retailers’ general “mark as paid” rule, the hold tag gets removed and the exchange gets released. Without a hold tag, exchange orders are shipped when the exchange is initiated.

• The credit card payment form displays after a return form has been submitted, resulting in slower payment processing (~10 seconds).
• Shopify Checkout adds one extra screen/step in the shopper experience when compared to Stripe Payments.