WooCommerce launches native WooCommerce Payments feature

WooCommerce, the e-commerce platform developed by Automattic, is improving the payment feature with a native solution called WooCommerce Payments. The payment feature is powered by Stripe. Compared to previous payment solutions on WooCommerce websites, it is fully integrated with the rest of the platform.

In case you're not familiar with Automattic, it is also the company behind WordPress.com, Longreads, Simplenote and Tumblr. WooCommerce is built on WordPress, which means that you can create a website using WordPress and start accepting orders thanks to WooCommerce.

Previously, WooCommerce users could enable extensions to embed payment widgets on their websites. You could use Stripe, Amazon Pay, Square or PayPal for instance.

WooCommerce Payments takes this feature one step further by making it as easy as possible to get started and accept orders. Following a successful beta test, it is available to customers in the U.S. starting today.

The best part about WooCommerce Payments is that you can control payments directly in the WooCommerce back end. There's a new payment tab that lets you view charges, issue refunds and deal with disputes. You don't have to connect to your Stripe account or any third-party site.

When it comes to pricing, transactions on WooCommerce Payments cost 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. There's no set up fees or monthly fees. In other words, you'll end up paying the same fees when you use WooCommerce Payments or a custom Stripe integration.

In the future, WooCommerce plans to add the ability to save cards as well as support for subscriptions and in-person payments. The company also plans to roll out WooCommerce Payments to more countries.

Many merchants have started using WooCommerce over the past couple of months, probably due to the coronavirus outbreak. The number of active WooCommerce sites grew by 34% in two months while the number of shoppers grew by 70%.