My summary of Shop Pay before using it? Shopify’s new proprietary payment method.
How does Shop Pay explain itself in the first minute? If I go to the Shop Pay website the first thing that I notice is that the site doesn’t mention Shop Pay. Instead, it talks about “Shop”: “Set up Shop and turn first-time buyers into lifelong customers.”
When I scroll down, it reads: “The integrated experience loved by over 100,000,00o shoppers worldwide. Shop is more than an app with Shop Pay’s accelerated checkout — it’s a complete ecosystem always working for your next sale.”
In short, Shop Pay is Shopify’s checkout functionality, and part of a wider ecommerce app.
How does Shop Pay work? (1) ‘Accelerated checkouts’ is the key capability that Shop Pay provides, similar to competitors like PayPal and Apple Pay. Accelerated or express checkouts save customer payment and shipping information. When a customer returns to a store that offers an accelerated checkout method, their saved shipping and payment information is automatically populated at checkout.
How does Shop Pay work? (2) Shop Pay is part of Shopify’s Shop app. Shop is a digital shopping assistant that enables customers to check out quickly and easily, track the delivery of their order and be alerted about their favourite brands.
When a customer checks out using Shop Pay, they’re taken to the order review page. If a customer uses the Shop app, then they’re prompted to verify their purchase through the app. If the customer uses only Shop Pay and not the Shop app, they can verify their purchase with a unique six-digit code that is sent via text message or email.
When a customer completes a purchase with a store on the Shopify platform that has Shop Pay enabled, they’ll be able to save their payment details to Shop Pay. Next time this user returns to the same shop, they can automatically check out with Shop Pay if they’ve saved their payment info. Interestingly, Shop Pay also includes a ‘pay in instalments’ feature, Shop Pay Instalments, thus following in the footsteps of the likes of Klarna and Clearpay.
Main learning point: More than Shop Pay, I’m interested in the Shop app, Shopify’s virtual shopping assistant. This app feels like a true platform play; combining the checkout, payment, delivery tracking and personalised discovery capability built into Shopify’s platform.
Related learnings for further learning:
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/26/fast-raises-102m-as-the-online-checkout-wars-continue-to-attract-huge-investment/
- https://www.affirm.com/press/releases/affirm-launches-adaptive-checkout
- https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shop
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/accelerated-checkouts
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shop-pay/shop-pay
- https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shop
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/shopify-expands-its-checkout-system-to-facebook-and-instagram-11612879201
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200428005278/en/Shopify-Unveils-Its-Consumer-App-Shop
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shop-pay-installments
- https://stratechery.com/2019/shopify-and-the-power-of-platforms/
