Choosing the Right Payment Gateway for Your Online Store

So far, we’ve done a lot together:

✅ We built your Shopify store
✅ Picked the right theme (and skipped that expensive upsell)
✅ Wrote content that actually converts
✅ Discussed image strategies (real vs. AI)
✅ Set up checkout flows that reduce costs and boost conversions

Now, let’s complete the final puzzle piece – setting up your payment gateway.

What is a payment gateway, and why do you need one?

Think of it like this:

You’ve built a beautiful showroom (your website).
You’ve added compelling product displays (descriptions + images).
Your customer browses, adds a product to the cart, and clicks Buy Now.

Now comes the final moment:

💳 How do they pay?. That’s where the payment gateway comes in.

It securely processes the payment, ensures the transaction is encrypted, and transfers the money to your account. It also handles UPI, credit/debit cards, wallets, and sometimes even EMI.

So, which payment gateway should you choose?. Let me make this super simple.

There are two paths:

1. If you’re using a checkout solution (like GoKwik, Razorpay Magic Checkout)

You don’t have to choose a separate payment gateway. These checkout tools already come with their own payment integration.

For example:

• GoKwik bundles payment via Easebuzz

• Razorpay Magic Checkout uses Razorpay internally

So, you don’t need to set up Razorpay or Paytm separately. In fact, doing that might confuse your backend or mess with the order flow.

Stick to the payment provider your checkout solution already supports.

However, there’s one thing to keep in mind 👇

These checkout providers (especially GoKwik) charge a minimum guarantee. Back when I used GoKwik for Offnorth, they charged me:

₹13,500/month OR 2% of total orders – whichever is higher.

That means, if I made under ₹4.5–5 lakh/month, I was losing money. If I crossed ₹5 lakh, I saved about ₹10,000+ every month (by avoiding Shopify + gateway 4% fee)

So, GoKwik makes total sense if you’re already scaling. If you’re just starting, maybe wait till your revenue crosses ₹2–3L/month.

2. If you’re not using a checkout solution

Then yes – you need to set up a standalone payment gateway.

Here are my top 5 – 6 recommendations (India-only):

If you’re just getting started → go with Razorpay. Their interface is clean, onboarding is smooth, and they integrate perfectly with Shopify.

Now, before we wrap, few customers usually ask this. It may look small, but a lot of my startup customers have this question in mind.

Why can’t I show my UPI QR code and collect payment? Why pay a 2% transaction fee?

And it makes sense. When you make 10 lakhs in revenue a month, you have to pay 20000 rupees to PG. Why pay them? We can save it with normal UPI, right?