Your shop needs a way to take card payments, and the company that does it takes a fee from each sale and pays the rest into your bank. Most UK dropshipping shops use one of three: Stripe, PayPal, or the payments built into their shop website, such as Shopify Payments.
This guide compares what each charges for a UK customer's card and how long the money takes to reach you, from their own websites.
Stripe
Stripe works with most shop websites. It charges 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card, 2.8% + 20p for a premium UK card, 2.5% + 20p for cards from the European Economic Area, and 3.15% + 20p for other international cards, with 2% more if the money has to be changed from another currency. It has no set-up or monthly fee.
Stripe says your first payout usually arrives within 7 to 14 days. After that, UK accounts are paid daily, for payments taken three working days earlier.
PayPal
Many customers like paying with PayPal. For a UK sale paid from a PayPal account, PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30p, with more for buyers outside the UK. It charges less on card payments from customers who don't have a PayPal account, so read its fees page for the way your customers will pay. It also offers lower rates on request once you sell more than £4,000 a month.
Shopify Payments
If your shop is on Shopify, its own payments are built in. A UK card costs 2% + 25p on the Basic plan, 1.7% + 25p on Grow and 1.5% + 25p on Advanced, and American Express and international cards cost a percentage point more. If you use another payment company instead, Shopify adds its own fee on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
Shopify says the money takes at least three working days to settle in the UK, longer when you first start, and then up to three more days for your bank.
Which to choose
If your shop is on Shopify, Shopify Payments avoids the extra fee. On other shop websites, Stripe is usually the simplest, and you can offer PayPal alongside it for customers who prefer it. Whichever you choose, the fee comes off every sale, so put it into your prices. Our card fees guide compares the shop websites' own payments side by side.
Plan for the wait
When you dropship, you pay your supplier as soon as the order comes in, but your customer's money takes days to reach your bank, and longer at first. Make sure you have enough in the bank to pay suppliers for your first few weeks of orders.
