Stripe is the payment gateway we recommend, and the module for it is published by CubeCart itself and free. This article explains what the module does, and how the payment methods your customers see are decided.
The customer pays on Stripe's own page
When a shopper reaches the payment step, the module hands the order to Stripe and the shopper is taken to a page hosted by Stripe. They pay there and are returned to your shop, and Stripe tells your shop separately that the payment succeeded. No card details are ever typed into your site, which keeps the security obligations with Stripe rather than with you.
Which payment methods appear is set in Stripe, not in CubeCart
This is the part that surprises people. The module does not send Stripe a list of payment methods. Stripe decides what to show, based on what you have switched on in your Stripe dashboard, the currency of the order, and where the shopper is. So adding a new payment method is a change you make at Stripe, and it appears on your checkout with nothing to install and no change to your shop.
In the Stripe dashboard the list is under Settings, then Payments, then Payment methods.
The usual ones
- Cards – Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay – shown automatically to shoppers on a device that supports them.
- Link – see below.
Link, and the product with the confusingly similar name
Link is Stripe's own wallet. A shopper saves their card and address with Stripe once, and from then on they check out with a code sent to their phone or email instead of typing card details, on any shop that accepts it. For a returning customer this is the fastest checkout available, and it costs you nothing extra to offer. It is enabled under Wallets in the same payment method settings.
Do not confuse Link with Payment Links, which is a different Stripe product entirely: a standalone payment page you can send to somebody by email or social media, with no shop attached. It is useful for one-off invoices, but it is not part of your shop's checkout.
Local payment methods
Stripe supports a long list of country-specific methods, and because the module leaves the choice to Stripe, these work with your shop as soon as you enable them. Examples include Swish in Sweden, iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, BLIK in Poland and Klarna in several countries.
Two conditions apply to nearly all of them. The order has to be in the right currency, and the shopper has to be in the right country. Swish, for instance, needs the order to be in Swedish kronor and the shopper to be in Sweden. Some methods also have to be requested from Stripe before they can be switched on, so check the method's page in the Stripe documentation before promising it to customers.
Telling customers before they reach the checkout
The name shown for the gateway on your checkout is yours to set, in the module's settings in CubeCart admin. The default is "Debit / Credit Card (Powered by Stripe)". If you have enabled other methods it is worth changing it to name them, because shoppers decide whether to trust a checkout before they click.
Setting it up
- Create a Stripe account and complete their verification.
- In CubeCart admin, open Manage Extensions, then Payment Gateways, then Stripe.
- Copy the publishable key and secret key from the Developers area of Stripe into the module, and set up the webhook the module tells you about. The webhook is what keeps refunds and disputes in step with your orders.
- Use test mode and a test card first, place a full order, and check it reaches the right status. Then switch to live and place one real order and refund it.
Capture: immediate or manual
The module offers both. Immediate takes the money at checkout, which is what most shops want. Manual authorises the card at checkout and leaves you to take the money later from the Stripe dashboard, which suits made-to-order goods. If you choose manual, remember an authorisation does not last indefinitely.
Running Stripe alongside another gateway
You can have more than one gateway enabled and set which is the default. If you are moving to Stripe from something else, that is the safer way to do it: enable both, make Stripe the default, and turn the old one off once you are happy.
If you would like us to set any of this up for you, open a support ticket and we will do it.
