Where Do My Shopify Payments Go? (6 Helpful Answers)

If you’re selling through an online platform like Shopify, you may feel a bit detached and hands-off from some aspects of the selling process, since Shopify is facilitated by an online third-party.

Knowing what channels your money moves through can help you feel a little more in the loop. Fortunately, there are some pretty good answers to account for your Shopify payments.

Where Do My Shopify Payments Go?

Your Shopify payments ultimately go to you. However, you won’t see them immediately because payments are scheduled, usually through a regular pay period, which may not be the same for everyone. This depends on what third-party payment processing system you’re set up with.

Knowing the requirements that your third-party payment processor operates through is important in knowing exactly when or how you will be paid.

How Does Shopify Make Payments to Shop Owners?

All of the payment providers supported by Shopify go through a third-party provider to be processed, so there will be a time delay between the transaction and when you, the shop owner, receive payment.

The funds will be transferred into your Shopify merchant account once it’s passed through processing. How payments make their way to you can vary based on what payment provider you use, such as PayPal.

To find out exactly how you’ll be paid, you’ll need to with the service directly to find out what they’re payment methods consist of.

Can I Use PayPal to Get Paid From Shopify?

PayPal is one of Shopify’s default payment processing methods.

Shopify will create a Shopify PayPal Express Checkout when you set up your Shopify account. If you already have a PayPal account, you can use this one if you prefer not to start a separate account.

However, you’ll need to switch it from a Personal account to a Business account so that it will be compatible with transactions from your Shopify store.

You can also use your PayPal to issue refunds, and accept manual or credit card payments instead of payments from other PayPal accounts, but you’ll need to make sure and enable these actions in your Shopify and PayPal settings.

Any Other Options?

If you don’t want to use a third-party payment provider, Shopify has its own payment provider, Shopify Payments, which can be a simpler method than setting up a PayPal or other type of provider account.

Otherwise, Shopify is compatible with over a hundred direct and external providers, so you can choose how you want to accept payments.

In addition, you can use Shopify Point-of-Sale to sell your products in person, along with selling in your online shop, on social media, and in other online markets.

Using a third-party provider instead of Shopify Payments may be the only option for some sellers. For example, if you’re selling in a currency that is different from the main currency of the country in which your shop is located, you will not be able to use Shopify Payments.

Just remember that any third-party provider may charge its own transaction fees, and it can quite often take a bit longer for the payments to reach you.

Will Shopify Take a Percentage of My Payments?

As Shopify seller, you will have some bills that are charged to you by Shopify, but Shopify does not deduct these amounts from your payments.

Your recurring bills will include:

• Subscription fees
• Apps
• Shipping
• Transaction fees

You may occasionally have one-time charges, such as:

• One-time app charges
• Domains
• Themes
• Brokered services
• Shipping labels/adjustments

You can set the intervals for how you often you’d like to be billed.

For U.S. stores, as long as you have sufficient funds in your Shopify Payments account, this balance will be the default balance from which your bills will be withdrawn.

However, if your Shopify Payments balance is too low, Shopify will withdraw them from the credit card you have on file.

Can Shopify Hold Your Money?

Most payments through Shopify Payments take no more than 24-72 hours to be processed and transferred into your account.

Other third-party providers have their own “pay period,” which may be a bit longer, so you’ll want to find out how your third party’s processes work.

If there are any issues with your account, Shopify will put a temporary hold on your account until the issue is resolved. If this happens, check your email.

Shopify will send you a message telling you what the problem is and how to get the hold on your account lifted.

What Are the Reasons Shopify May Hold My Payments?

The Shopify Help Center doesn’t give a lot of examples for why a hold may be put on your Shopify account.

The main issue that you may run into is a failed transfer, which can happen if your payment processing system doesn’t have the right account information, or another similar technical error occurs.

If the transfer was sent in on a business day (any day but Saturday, Sunday, or a national holiday), and it doesn’t appear in your account in the usual time frame, you should receive a notification from Shopify (as long as you have this feature enabled) about a failed bank transfer.

If a failed transfer occurs, follow the “Failed Transfer” banner in your Payouts page, and this should lead you to the problem and how to fix it.

How Long Should I Wait Before I Get Paid?

How long you end up waiting for your payments depends on your payment processor’s pay period, and may in rare cases, also depend on your product line. Depending on what products your shop sells, your pay period can be up to 30 days. However, this length of pay period only applies to specific products.

Otherwise, you can find out directly from your third-party payment provider how long their pay period is, and this will help you to know how long you should wait before expecting payments, and whether you’re receiving your payments on time.

Unfortunately, Shopify is unable to shrink an account’s pay periods, but they are making efforts to shorten pay periods across the board.

Get Started and Get Empowered!

Hopefully, now that you know where your money is going, you can feel empowered as a seller.

Shopify has plenty of excellent resources in their seller handbook so that you know what to expect. There’s even information about selling outside of the U.S., how to set your prices, and what types of third party payment processing platforms are available to you.

Shopify is also nice and flexible, and they’ll allow you to sell your products on other online platforms, and even in person. So go sell!