Shopify payments fees are not one number, they are a stack of separate charges collected by different parties for different reasons. Part of that stack is set by the card networks and nobody negotiates it. The rest is where a hemp or CBD store either saves real money or quietly loses it every month.
What are you actually paying for?
Five things, usually, bundled into whatever single figure appears on your statement.
Interchange goes to the bank that issued your customer’s card. It is set by Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover, published by them, and it is the same for every merchant on the same card type and transaction type. Assessments go to the card network itself. Between them, those two are the floor. Nobody sells below them and anyone implying otherwise is repackaging the same cost.
On top sits the processor’s markup, which is what you are actually shopping for. Then the platform fee for running the storefront, and, if your checkout runs through a gateway other than Shopify’s own product, an additional per-transaction charge that Shopify publishes by plan on its pricing pages.
The last group is the one that surprises people: chargeback fees, monthly minimums, statement or PCI charges, and a reserve if your account carries one. None of those appear in the headline rate anyone quotes you.
Which shopify payments fees can you change?
The markup, the structure, and the extras. That is the honest list.
Interchange and assessments are fixed by the networks. A processor that promises to cut them is describing something that is not theirs to cut. What a good account does instead is price its own margin transparently and keep the extras small and named.
Structure matters more than most owners expect. A card mix heavy in rewards cards, an average ticket well above or below typical, a lot of keyed or card-not-present volume: all of these move your real cost, and a pricing model that suits one store punishes another. We keep our approach to that on our pricing page, and the short version is that the schedule goes to you in writing before you sign anything.
Why a restricted category prices differently
Hemp and CBD sellers are underwritten as higher risk, and risk is priced. That is not a moral judgement about your business, it is an acquirer pricing the chance of chargebacks, of regulatory change, and of a portfolio loss.
The underlying cause is worth understanding, because it explains why the premium exists at all. Compliant hemp products are federally lawful within the 0.3% delta-9 THC limit on a dry weight basis that the 2018 Farm Bill uses to define hemp. But state law varies, classification of specific products is genuinely difficult, and marketing claims in this category attract regulatory attention. An acquirer prices that uncertainty. The full picture is in what makes CBD high risk.
How do you compare two offers without a spreadsheet war?
Send both providers the same month of processing statements and ask each for a full written schedule against it. Not a headline rate. The schedule.
Then read the four lines people skip. What is the chargeback fee, and does it apply to representments you win. Is there a monthly minimum, and what happens in a slow month. Is a reserve held, in what form, for how long, and what releases it. What is the term, what is the early termination cost, and how do you leave.
An offer that looks cheaper on the first line and worse on those four is not cheaper. It just moves the cost somewhere you did not look.
The costs that never appear on any rate sheet
A week without a working checkout costs more than a year of markup difference. So does a hold on settled funds while you explain your catalogue to somebody who did not know what you sold when they approved you.
That is the real argument for boarding with an acquirer that underwrote your products deliberately rather than one that classified you loosely and may reclassify you later. The mechanics of running that on Shopify are on our Shopify CBD payments page, and what the account itself involves is on our CBD merchant account page.
What to do before you renegotiate anything
Pull three consecutive months of statements. Total everything, including the lines you have been ignoring, and divide by your processed volume. That single figure is your effective cost, and it is the only number that lets you compare two offers honestly.
Bring that number to any conversation about switching. If you want a second read on what your statements are actually telling you, send us what you have and we will go through it with you.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone get me a rate below interchange? No. Interchange goes to the card-issuing bank and is set by the card networks, not by any processor. Anyone quoting a total below the network floor is either excluding costs that will appear later or describing a fee structure that hides them somewhere else on the statement.
Is a flat blended rate always worse? Not always. Blended pricing is simpler and can suit a store with a consistent card mix and small average ticket. Interchange-plus shows you the split and usually rewards a store with volume or an unusual card mix. The right answer depends on your actual statements, which is why we ask to see them.
Why does my effective rate move month to month? Card mix. Rewards and corporate cards carry higher interchange than standard debit, and the proportion shifts with your customers. Keyed and card-not-present transactions also price higher than swiped ones. A stable markup with a changing mix still produces a moving effective rate.
Does a reserve mean the processor distrusts me? Not personally. Reserves are a portfolio tool in higher-risk categories, and they are common rather than punitive. What matters is that the terms are written down: the percentage held, the rolling period, and the specific conditions that release it. Get all three in writing before you sign.
Should I switch just to save on markup? Only after you have priced continuity. In this category the cost of losing acceptance dwarfs a small markup difference, so the account that stays open is worth more than the one that quotes best.