Shopify Payment Gateways in Kenya - How to Accept Payments on Your Shopify Store

How fast and conveniently shoppers can make payments on your Shopify store is critical for your success. Discover the best Shopify payment gateway in Kenya.

If M-Pesa is not one of the payment methods on your Shopify store in Kenya, you are losing sales. It’s a blunt statement, but there is no better way to say it.

Another candid fact is that M-Pesa shouldn’t be the only way shoppers on your online store can pay, especially if you are also targeting shoppers from outside Kenya.

In today’s post, you will learn what options you have for Shopify payments in Kenya. Even better, we will show you how you can accept M-Pesa, Visa, Mastercard, and even Bitcoin payments on your store using the same Shopify payment gateway.

Ready?

Let’s do this.

Shopify Payments in Kenya - How to Accept Payments on Your Shopify Store

So if you own a Shopify store in Kenya, every time a customer fills their cart and is ready to check out, you want them to see this:

There’s not one, but 4 payment options there. Your customers in Kenya have Visa, Mastercard, Bitcoin, and - crucially - M-Pesa as alternative ways to pay and complete their purchases.

When you have more than one way for your customers to pay on your Shopify store, you boost your chances for more sales. If a customer has run out of funds in their Visa or Mastercard, they can use the balance in their M-Pesa mobile money wallet.

Shopify is one of the best no-code eCommerce platforms in the world. It allows anyone to quickly set up an eCommerce store and start selling to customers worldwide.

Setting up your store is one thing. Receiving payments from customers is another. To start accepting payments on your Shopify store in Kenya, Shopify requires you to integrate with a payment gateway.

Let’s talk about what a payment gateway does.

Shopify Payment Gateways - What Are They?

A payment gateway is an eCommerce application that processes payments when customers pay for goods and services online. It acts as a gateway or an intermediary between a paying customer and an online business.

Payment gateways facilitate safe, secure financial payments. They process the flow of information between a bank (where a customer’s funds are held) and your e-commerce website.

When you host your online store on Shopify, the e-commerce platform requires you to add a payment gateway from its apps library.

Shopify store owners in the US and a few other countries have Shopify Payments as the default payment gateway, but those in the rest of the world - including Kenya - must use a third-party payment gateway.

We are biased, but we believe that IntaSend Payments is the best Shopify payment gateway for online store owners in Kenya. It is a local company, which means the customer support is local and, therefore, more accessible.

With a Shopify-supported payment gateway like IntaSend, customers can make payments easily, and merchants can receive payments without hitches.

The whole payment process takes place seamlessly without you the store owner having to lift a finger or monitor the process. Multiple shoppers can make payments at the same time, and all the payments will go through without any lagging.

Advantages of Using a Verified App for Your Shopify Store Payments In Kenya

Online shoppers have more than a few options at any given time. If your checkout process is complicated and payments are slow, they will pogo-stick back to Google and click through to the next store the search engine suggests.

Here are other reasons you want to use a reliable Shopify payment gateway:

1. Minimal delays

When you use a Shopify payment gateway, you minimize delays and process transactions faster. Gone are the days of waiting to receive a bank alert or wire transfer before processing customer orders. Everything is automated and in real-time, so you can process orders faster and make more money.

2. Seamless payment processing

With a payments app like IntaSend Payments that integrates with M-Pesa installed on your Shopify store, the processing of payments by customers in Kenya is seamless. It is highly convenient for your customers in particular.

For you the store owner, you don't need to confirm anything or call your bank for multiple checks. Everything is done for you, whether you are online or offline. You only need to follow up on the order later.

3. Confidentiality

Your personal and confidential information is secured with a Shopify payment gateway. You don't need to reveal your bank account details, phone number, and other personal information to customers.

The payment gateway handles all that for you. Other than their secret PIN, customers also do not have to enter personal information on their mobile phones or computer. This improves convenience for both you and your customers.

4. Fraud prevention

Unfortunately, not everyone who presents themselves as potential customers online aren’t well-meaning. A growing number are scammers looking to steal your money or personal information.

Payment gateways can help detect and prevent fraud detection. IntaSend Payments, for example, uses advanced data encryption technology to protect you from fraudsters that pose as customers. If you are handling payments manually, you won’t be as safe.

5. Fast and easy setup

You can easily set up and integrate your Shopify store with your chosen payment gateway using simple API integration. You need just one install of the approved app to integrate with every payment provider. This will save you a lot of time.

6. Multi-source payment facilitation

Payment gateways allow you to accept payment from various sources, including M-Pesa, VISA, Mastercard, and Bitcoin if you are using IntaSend Payments. You only need to integrate one API to your store to add all these as payment methods on your Shopify store.

With Bitcoin now widely accepted for payments, we feel a modern e-commerce store should accept payment through it. Cryptocurrency is a decentralized payment scheme that uses the Blockchain to verify and process payments.

Just like mobile money wallets, crypto is the present and future of payments. If you want to position your business for the future, use a payment gateway to facilitate Bitcoin payments on your Shopify store.

The IntaSend Shopify payment gateway ensures that the exact crypto value of the items to be purchased in your Shopify store is tied to a stable currency and converted in real time to protect you from the volatility of crypto assets. You get the full value for your merchandise regardless of how the value of a cryptocurrency fluctuates.

How to Choose A Payment Gateway for Your Shopify Store

The following are some of the features that you should look out for when selecting a Shopify payment gateway:

1. Location

You need a payment gateway provider that works well for your location where most of your customers are based. Shopify has different accredited payment gateways for each geographical region. If most of your customers are in Kenya, it makes sense to choose IntaSend because it is a Kenyan company.

2. Many payout capabilities

A good payment gateway for your Shopify store in Kenya should be one that allows you to withdraw funds to your M-Pesa account mobile wallet or your bank account.

That will give you more options as to how you can manage your money, whether you want to pay wages, make payments to suppliers, or transfer to your bank account.

3. Fast payouts

A good Shopify payment gateway allows for fast payouts. You don’t want to wait a week for your international payment gateway to wire process your transfer to your local bank account.

This is why using a local payment gateway makes sense. For example, IntaSend offers instant withdrawals for M-Pesa and 2 days for bank account withdrawals. This gives you faster access to your money so you can pay suppliers and workers and keep your business running smoothly.

4. Overall customer experience

If your customers’ experience when paying for orders is poor, they may not return again. That means you lose repeat sales from them. You will be constantly spending money on lead generation to keep your sales figures up, which isn’t sustainable.

Your customers should be able to make payments for their items using whatever payment option is most convenient for them. So the payment gateway you use should have the most widely used payment methods.

A significant percentage of online shoppers abandon their carts and leave e-commerce stores if they get frustrated with the payment process. You do not want to lose sales due to your poor choice of payment gateway.

5. Multi-currency payment facilitation

A good payment gateway should have the ability to process currencies from almost any country worldwide. So, whether a customer uses dollars, pounds, euros, or other currency that is easily convertible, they should be able to complete purchases on your store.

Using a reliable Shopify payment gateway that processes payments in multiple currencies will open up your business to more people. Your choice of payment gateway must also anticipate that your business will grow and may serve other markets in future. You don't want your payment gateway to limit your business growth.

A good payment gateway provider should be PCI DSS compliant to accept credit and debit cards from any provider. Ensure that you check this before selecting a payment gateway.

6. Reasonable pricing

Like IntaSend Payments, a good payment gateway for Shopify should be reasonably priced and free to install. If it feels like fees and charges from your Shopify payment gateway are eating into your store margins and severely reducing your profits, you must review your choice.

It’s crucial that your payment gateway provider has no hidden fees. Chargeback fees, monthly fees, settlement fees, termination fees, and minimum account fees should all be disclosed. Ask about them and any other charges before signing.

7. Fast account setup

If you are a registered business, payments for your Shopify store should be set up and activated within 24 hours. There should be no delays from your payment provider as long as that information has been supplied.

If it takes several weeks to set up payments for your Shopify store, you have chosen the wrong payment gateway. You should long have started operating and accepting payments from customers by then.

The setup process should be easy and devoid of many technicalities. It should be something that almost anyone should be able to get done. Learn how to set up IntaSend Payments in this article.

8. 24/7 customer service

If you need help setting up payments or clarification on how certain parts of the payments app work, you should be able to get it without hassles. Ideally, you should be able to contact customer support using a medium most accessible to you.

IntaSend even has easy-to-read guides on all its services that customers can refer to if there is something they are struggling with. That’s on top of the standard contact and general inquiries options.

9. Transaction reports

Businesses run on data. If you don’t know how many payments were processed when and where the customers were from, it is difficult to strategize and run your business.

A good gateway for Shopify payments must have different reports that you can pull any time you want to dig into your payment data. If you want to know a breakdown of payments processed during a specific period, you should be able to easily get it.

10. Payment notifications

If you are duly registered as a business, your payment gateway should be able to give you payment notifications for all payments made for goods on your Shopify store. This allows you to quickly review your orders and prepare to ship the ordered product.

What Is The Best App For Shopify Payments in Kenya?

Shopify has partnered with various payment gateways around the globe to process and enable payments for vendors worldwide. It has an approved list of payment gateways specifically for Kenya.

The best payment gateway for Shopify in Kenya and East Africa is Intasend. Intasend offers the enables the easiest Shopify M-Pesa integration. As well as M-Pesa, the IntaSend Payments app also gives your customers the option to use Visa, Mastercard, and Bitcoin to pay for their purchases.

How to Integrate the IntaSend Payments App With Your Shopify Store

Intasend uses an API to automate and process customer payments on Shopify stores. Below we will show you how to install the IntaSend Payments Shopify app and integrate the API:

Step #1: Register on Intasend.com

The first step to take is to register at IntaSend. Registration is seamless and free—register using your email address and phone number.

Step #2: Install the Intasend Payments Shopify App

Navigate to the Shopify App Store and search for the IntaSend Payments app. You will find it here. Click the Add button.

After you click the Add button, an installation verification page will come up. Click on Install App to install the Shopify app.

Step #3: Setup page

After you initiate installation, you will see the Click here to complete setup button. Click the button. Following that, you will be asked to enter the phone number you used to set up your Intasend account.

You will also be asked to enter your Public key and your API token. You can find it by following this navigation path:

Account -> settings -> API keys.

The API key will be revealed just once, so you have to copy it to a safe, private place after generating it. Otherwise, you will have to generate another one.

Once you enter all that information, click Submit.

Step 4: Select payment options

You can now select the payment options you want to show on your Shopify store’s checkout page. Enable test mode if you want to verify that everything is working as it should.

Satisfied that all is as it should be, click Activate Intasend Payment Gateway.

Congrats! IntaSend Payments app is now installed and the API is now integrated. You are ready to start accepting payments.

Learn more about the IntaSend Payments app and API integration here. You can also watch this video guide.

Please note that you will be asked to complete a KYC (Know Your Customer) process. Only necessary questions will be asked. This is a legal requirement that helps us protect your funds and privacy.

Choose The Right Shopify Payments Processor And Never Lose A Sale

You should never lose sales on your Shopify because of inadequate payment methods. With the IntaSend Payments app for Shopify, your customers have multiple ways to pay.

If a customer’s Visa or Mastercard is depleted, they can use their M-Pesa, or Bitcoin if they have some in their IntaSend account.

By choosing IntaSend over other payment gateways you benefit from 24/7 local customer support. You benefit from customer support delivered by people who speak your language and understand your unique business challenges.

Choose a payment gateway that understands your language and grows with your Shopify store. Because your online store never closes its doors, you need a payments processor that is never in sleep mode so you never lose a sale.

Sign up with Intasend and add the IntaSend Payments app to your Shopify store today.