Choose a payment model
Who collects the money, who owes the tax and who answers chargebacks under each payment model, and how ShopFast prices both.
Every order is placed under one of two payment models. The model is recorded on the order with its fees, so changing models later never changes orders already placed.
Merchant of record (ShopFast Pay)
ShopFast is the seller of record for the payment. The buyer’s statement shows ShopFast’s processor, ShopFast:
- charges the buyer the order total plus sales tax or VAT for their country, and remits that tax;
- pays the processor fee itself (it is not taken from your share);
- deals with the processor on chargebacks; the outcome and the processor’s dispute fee are yours (see buyer protection);
- holds your share until it clears, then pays it out in crypto to your payout wallet.
Your share of an order is: order total after discounts, minus the platform commission, the fixed fee per order and the merchant of record fee, at your plan’s rates (today’s rates; Money → Fees & billing shows yours), and your share is paid out in crypto. Applying for ShopFast Pay needs a plan that includes it. Tax is added on top for the buyer, so it never comes out of your share.
Your own gateway
The buyer pays your own account: Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Razorpay, Paystack, NOWPayments or Cryptomus connected with its keys (how), your BTCPay Server, your own crypto wallet (an xpub or address in Money → Payments → Crypto: BTC, LTC, ETH, USDC and USDT), a manual method you confirm by hand, or a sandboxed Lua payment plugin. The money never passes through ShopFast:
- you are the seller of record and handle sales tax and VAT yourself;
- your processor charges its own fee, which comes out of your share;
- ShopFast takes no fee on these orders: no commission, no fixed fee;
- chargebacks follow your processor’s process.
There is no merchant of record fee under your own gateway either. ShopFast’s fees apply only when ShopFast Pay collects the payment.
The same fee engine
Both models are priced by one function, the same one checkout uses, so the fees you see in Money → Fees & billing are the fees your orders get. For each way to get paid, Money → Payments shows what you keep on an example sale. Processor rates for your own gateways are ShopFast’s estimates; the processor’s reported fee replaces the estimate on the order when it reports one.
| On a $24.00 sale (example rates: 10% commission, $0.30 per order, 3% merchant of record fee) | ShopFast Pay | Own gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Commission 10% | −$2.40 | none |
| Fixed fee | −$0.30 | none |
| Merchant of record fee 3% | −$0.72 | none |
| Processor fee (about 2.9% + $0.30) | paid by ShopFast | −$1.00 |
| You keep | $20.58 | $23.00 |
Under ShopFast Pay, your plan’s payout fee also comes out of each payout (not each order); some plans have none. See payouts.
Money → Fees & billing shows the rates that apply to your store. ShopFast can set a custom rate for your store; that page says so when it has.
Choosing and switching
You choose at the top of Money → Payments → Ways to pay, under Who takes your buyers’ payments: two options, Your own gateways and ShopFast Pay. The one taking payments now is marked Taking payments. Picking the other asks you to confirm and says what happens to new checkouts. Orders already placed keep the way they were paid.
- To ShopFast Pay: your store must be able to use it (open to all, or approved). Until then the option says why it cannot be picked (not applied, in review, more information needed, not approved, paused) and links to your application.
- To your own gateways: connect at least one way to get paid first. While ShopFast still holds money for you, the switch waits until it is paid out, unless ShopFast moved you off ShopFast Pay itself (then held money keeps paying out).
When ShopFast switches for you
A new store starts set to ShopFast Pay. While ShopFast Pay cannot take your payments (you have not applied, your application is in review or was not approved, or ShopFast Pay is paused or turned off), a store set to it could not take any payment at all. So the moment you connect a way to get paid that can take payments (a gateway with its keys, Stripe or PayPal onboarding once the provider confirms your account, Shopify once you approve the app, BTCPay Server, crypto to your wallet with coins switched on, or a manual method you turn on), your store moves to your own gateways by itself. The panel you connected in says Buyers now pay through your own gateways, and your audit log records it as a change to how the store gets paid.
ShopFast never moves a store that ShopFast Pay is serving: when you are approved and on ShopFast Pay, connecting a gateway only adds it, and you switch yourself if you want to. The same rules as your own switch apply to the automatic one (your plan must include your own gateways, and no money ShopFast holds for you may be left behind).