African payments company Paystack has launched South Africa’s first native onsite card checkout experience for Shopify merchants.
The update allows online shoppers to enter credit and debit card details directly within a store’s checkout page without being redirected to an external third-party payment gateway. Alongside the embedded checkout tool, Paystack introduced a direct Shopify integration for Paystack Terminal, its point-of-sale (POS) hardware device, unifying online and physical retail transactions onto a single operational platform.
Removing Checkout Friction Ahead of High-Volume Retail Periods
The launch addresses conversion drop-off points in digital commerce, where redirecting customers to secondary web pages during checkout introduces friction and causes cart abandonment.
By embedding card inputs directly into the merchant’s native checkout flow, the feature lowers purchase friction ahead of major retail events such as Black Friday and the end-of-year holiday trading season.
Early feedback from regional e-commerce development agencies shows immediate performance gains. Mario Tuscano, Managing Director at Shopify agency AskMario, noted that merchant clients participating in early testing recorded conversion rate increases of up to 15% simply by eliminating payment redirects.
Thomas McKinnon, Country Lead at Paystack, emphasized that completing a payment should feel like a natural extension of the merchant’s brand experience, giving South African retailers a way to accept payments with fewer interruptions at the point of sale.
Unifying In-Store and Online Retail Operations
Alongside online checkout improvements, the new Paystack Terminal integration connects physical POS transactions directly with a merchant’s Shopify back office.
Retailers operating brick-and-mortar storefronts alongside online platforms can now process card payments over the counter while automatically synchronizing inventory, transaction logs, and customer accounts in real time.
Mechiel Couvaras, Senior Account Manager at Paystack South Africa, noted that many modern retailers serve online and physical store customers simultaneously. Linking Paystack Terminal to Shopify centralizes offline and online transaction data, reducing manual reconciliation overhead for store personnel during high-volume trading periods.
South African merchants operating on Shopify can enable the onsite card checkout and connect physical POS devices through the official Paystack app on the Shopify App Store.
