Custom Square Payment Gateway Development for Shopify

According to Statista, retail e-commerce revenue in the US is expected to cross $700billion mark by 2022. Source: Statista 2019

What amazes us more is the fact that it had barely touched the $500billion mark by the end of 2018.

The graph indicates the popularity of e-commerce purchases in the US and thus the entire globe in the coming times. Businesses are gradually expanding their reach among the online purchasers with flexible e-commerce development platforms. Parallel businesses like online payment gateways have played a crucial role in boosting these businesses and enhancing the user experience like never before.

In our past blogs, we have already discussed Shopify payment gateway integration with GreenMoney. This time, our expert Shopify developers had a more challenging task to perform- Connect Shopify to Square payment gateway.

About Square payment gateway

Squareup* is the leading online payment solution that offers flexible and secure transactions for both in-store and online retail. With over a decade of experience at handling payments for various business models, the platform is seen as a flexible method to make successful transactions. The solution is ideal for sellers who seek an omnichannel payment solution in their business.

Above all, the payment gateway is seen as one of the most cost-saving online payment methods. Compared to the rest of the gateways, Square charges Flat rate transaction fees lower than 3% of the total product cost. With its merchant-oriented policies, it claims to have saved nearly $40,000 for a client every year with its cost-saving working structure. 

Need for Custom payment gateway development

Shopify has its default payment gateway along with 1000 other third-party solutions. They can be integrated with minimal inputs from the developers’ end. But then again, tailor-made solutions render uncanny ways to simplify the back-end management along with branding benefits.

Square is among those payment solutions that can’t be integrated directly and often seeks out-of-box tactics. The reason is Square’s misaligned approach at fetching details and executing them, which is way different than how Shopify sets its standards.

The conflict disallows Square to get deployed with the Shopify store with that ease. The developers need to resolve issues at several fronts like

• Managing Square checkout from the Shopify Admin panel
• Managing card details
• Shipping and Billing address
• Dynamic price display
• Managing inventory with the Shopify Store

The Shopify developers need to go beyond the basic API integrations to let their merchants experience the extraordinarily designed payment gateway. 

Back to the original question, how to integrate Square payment processing with Shopify?

Our solution for Square Payment Gateway integration with Shopify

Self-hosted payment gateways are advantageous in several ways. The first one being the merchant can get their checkout pages customized in infinite means both by appearance as well as functionality. At The Brihaspati Infotech, we redirected the Shopify customer to the Square custom checkout page while keeping the overall experience being uniform and smooth. 

The basic idea was to not let the customer realize the change of platforms. Unlike hosted payment method discussed at Paycertify, with the self-hosted gateway, the user never feels like leaving the Shopify store while completing the entire checkout process.

Basic workflow for Shopify Square Integration:

• Shopify checkout calls out Square custom checkout page through URL redirection
• Square collects product information and inventory from the Shopify backend and displays on the checkout page
• Collects Billing and Shipping address at the checkout page
• Calculates the final cost by dynamically involving the user’s shipping address
• Takes card details to complete the checkout
• Uses product Id to update the Shopify inventory

Fetching Shipping and billing address with custom Square checkout page

Once the user hits the Buy Now option in the Shopify store, the store sends a call out to the Square custom checkout page. The Square API extracts Shopify liquid files to match the exact appearance of the store, offering a completely uniform experience.

The self-hosted gateway allows a smooth overlapping of URLs while our customizations let it happen without a hint for the user.

The picture above shows the custom checkout page designed for Shopify payment gateway. The page fetches the product image, along with name, price, and other details from the Shopify store. Integrating Square on Shopify is done right.

Managing costs with Square Shopify Integration

Square comes up with an enhanced feature that allows it to consider ZIP code. The API fetches the shipping address and utilizes it to determine the final cost of the product.

The integration also takes into account the discount coupons while finalizing the costs.

A custom order confirmation page

We have added a custom Thank you page once the order is confirmed. The order confirmation page displays the product, price break up, and addresses along with the payment method. 

Refunds made easier

We have made sure that making refunds stays as clutter-free as the purchasing process. To align everything, we have used the product details. The API interacts with the product ID, shipping address and the rest to determine the exact amount for refund. In the process, the API also updates the Shopify store inventory. 

It is noticeable that the custom Refund page includes the product details along with the costs involved and the option to restock the exact product quantity.

Security concerns with Self-hosted payment gateway

Self-hosted payment gateways are often secure and with an expert Shopify development team by your side, you can expect more than just a functional store. While establishing a custom URL, the Shopify development team at The Brihaspati Infotech makes sure that the callout is done on a secure layout. 

We have disallowed saving personal details like name and contact information on the website that secures the users from hackers and harmful breaches.

Benefits of Custom Square payment gateway integration on Shopify

Being powered by Square, the final store now possesses the following benefits:

• Low transaction costs per order
• Hassle-free order creation
• Well managed order cancellations for the merchant
• The merchant can now focus more on the store than on managing the costs

Final words on Square Payment Gateway integration with Shopify

Over years we have been approached by several businesses looking for a readily available solution. As of July 2021, our custom solution serves more than 20 Shopify-based stores.

While the app in its vanilla form is feature-rich, our experts have customized the app for most businesses.

Square offers a robust platform to develop highly customizable checkout pages. It isn’t the lone provider of the services but it surely is one payment gateway that can help you build a great store.

Custom implementation of the Square payment gateway on Shopify will provide a great advantage to businesses looking for cheaper, well-structured, and hassle-free platforms to resolve payment issues.

If your business also seeks custom integration on Shopify, you can contact us.