Expanding Payment Options Through Stripe Connect—Buy Now, Pay Later

In March, WP Engine announced our partnership with Stripe, which included a dedicated Stripe Connect solution integrated with WP Engine’s portal and provided free with our eCommerce plans. The Stripe Connect integration makes it easier and more secure to connect and manage payments in WooCommerce. 

Since launch, we’ve been working to expand our payment options to help store owners on our eCommerce plans quickly expand into new markets and make it easier to sell globally. Studies have shown that businesses with a Buy Now Pay Later option (BNPL) see a 20–30% increase in conversion rate on average, which is why providing BNPL options as part of our solution was a key focus for our team.

Now, WP Engine has expanded the payment options that are available through our Stripe Connect integration, giving eCommerce store owners the flexibility to accept more kinds of customer payments with easy-to-setup options right inside the User Portal.

What is Stripe Connect?

Stripe is a multinational payment service provider that offers all the tools you need to accept payments online and in-person from customers around the world. Its Stripe Connect integration is the fastest and easiest way to bring Stripe’s payment functionality into your site or online marketplace.

By deeply integrating Stripe with WP Engine’s platform, our teams have eliminated the need to download and manage additional plugins or pay for costly add-ons to complete payment processing—Stripe Connect is so embedded into the WP Engine eCommerce experience that it’s preconfigured to work seamlessly without requiring technical expertise.

WP Engine’s Stripe Connect Capabilities

The Stripe Connect integration has supercharged eCommerce experiences for sellers on WP Engine. ​​It minimizes user error thanks to a fully connected onboarding experience, supports transactions in more than 35 countries and 14 languages, and accepts payments from more than 180 countries.

Stripe Connect truly facilitates a globalized eCommerce experience, accepting more than 130 presentment currencies (the currency your customer pays with) and 15+ settlement currencies (the currency you as the seller are paid out in). 

Our eCommerce integration makes activation and setup a seamless part of both spinning up a new site or migrating an existing store. It reduces integration complexity, with a frictionless one-minute setup, more secure key and account credential management, and toggle control for activating additional payment options integrated with the WP Engine portal.

It’s easy to set up a new Stripe account or connect an existing account without sharing credentials or copying and pasting keys. Simply toggle control sandbox or test mode and regenerate keys without jumping between platforms.

Even with all these capabilities baked in, our eCommerce team recognized there are more ways we can enhance the selling experiences of our own customers and the purchasing experience of the end user.

In 2021, about 60% of online shoppers reported using buy now, pay later at least once. Because BNPL is being used by such a large market sector, and because offering BNPL can have such a positive effect on your conversion rate, opening up this capability was a huge focus for our eCommerce team (and it’s an easy way to quickly boost your sales as you prepare for the holiday season).

With our Stripe Connect integration, WP Engine eCommerce store owners can now provide their customers with even more flexible payment options, including BNPL, directly from their User Portal.

Cards 

Stripe Connect accepts payment from all major debit and credit cards from customers in every country, and store owners can even authorize refunds directly to the card used for payment. Acceptable payment methods include:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• American Express
• Discover
• JCB
• Diners Club
• China UnionPay
• Debit cards

Digital Wallets 

The integration also eliminates the need for customers to manually enter their card and billing information, offering a quick and convenient way to pay via digital wallets including:

• Apple Pay
• Google Pay

Bank Redirects 

Bank redirects offer customers a more convenient and secure way to pay from their bank account, because payments are authorized using the customer’s online banking credentials. Acceptable systems for bank redirect payments around the world include:

• Bancontact
• BLIK
• EPS
• FPX
• Giropay
• iDEAL
• Przelewy24
• Sofort

New Feature! Buy Now Pay Later 

The newest feature available to WP Engine customers is Buy Now, Pay Later. BNPL offers flexible payment options that increase your customers’ purchasing power, leading to more conversions. Stripe Connect integrates seamlessly with the most popular BNPL software, including:

• Affirm
• Afterpay / Clearpay
• Klarna
• Zip

No matter how your customers choose to pay, they can do so quickly and securely on WP Engine-hosted eCommerce sites that use Stripe Connect for payment processing.

Process Payments Seamlessly with Stripe Connect

Get even more insights on how to keep payments secure by watching this DE{CODE} session: Simplifying Payment Processing in a Shifting Global Economy.

Or, if you’re ready to get started, check out our eCommerce plans and discover the simplicity of WooCommerce that just works! For a limited time, new customers can get 4 months free when they sign up for any new WP Engine hosting plan using the promo code WooReady23.