Selling physical products online is straightforward to start — a BigCommerce store can be live quickly, and you can outsource fulfillment and focus on driving traffic. But none of that traffic becomes revenue until customers have a smooth, trusted way to pay. Payment configuration isn't a back-office checkbox; it's a primary conversion factor, and getting it right is one of the highest-leverage setup tasks an eCommerce owner has.
The deeper point: how customers can pay directly determines how many of them actually do. A meaningful share of shoppers abandon a purchase when their preferred method isn't offered, and an unfamiliar or clunky payment step at the final moment is one of the most expensive places to lose a sale. BigCommerce supports a broad range of methods — major credit and debit cards, PayPal, digital wallets, "buy now, pay later" providers, ACH/checks, and purchase orders for B2B — and works with most major payment gateways, so the platform rarely limits you. The work is choosing and configuring the right mix.
A correction to the original version of this article: it listed "Google Checkout" as an option. Google Checkout was discontinued in 2013 (it evolved into Google Pay). Today the equivalent choices are digital wallets like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Shop Pay, plus modern processors such as Stripe and PayPal — covered below.
Choosing the Right Payment Methods
Don't enable everything indiscriminately; choose based on your customers and economics. A few principles:
- Offer a real card processor, not just PayPal. Many shoppers won't complete a PayPal-only checkout. Direct card acceptance through a processor like Stripe, PayPal's card processing, or another gateway is close to mandatory for general retail.
- Add the digital wallets. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay dramatically reduce friction on mobile by removing manual card entry — which matters because most traffic is now mobile.
- Consider "buy now, pay later." For higher-ticket categories, BNPL options can lift conversion and average order value; weigh the provider fees against the gain.
- Match B2B needs. If you sell wholesale, purchase orders and account-based terms may matter more than wallets.
BigCommerce works with multiple gateways out of the box, so whichever card processor you choose, the payment module is generally already integrated — you're configuring, not building.
Steps to Configure Payments in BigCommerce
- Sign in to your store control panel.
- Open the Settings tab and select the Payments menu.
- You'll see available providers, typically including Stripe (a common default; suited to many store sizes) and PayPal, among others.
- To enable a method, toggle it on (or check its box) and save.
- Tabs appear for each method you've enabled.
- Open each method's tab; BigCommerce provides step-by-step instructions for creating the provider account and completing the integration.
- Enter the credentials/details for each gateway exactly as the provider specifies.
- When every method is configured, save and close.
Test Before You Trust It
The step most stores skip and most regret: actually test the live checkout. Use each gateway's test/sandbox mode to run a full transaction, then place at least one small real order per enabled method and confirm the funds, the order, and the confirmation email all flow correctly. Test on a real phone, not just desktop, since that's where most customers and most wallet payments are. A misconfigured gateway can silently reject or fail to capture payments, and you usually discover it only when sales mysteriously stall — testing turns that into a five-minute check instead of a costly mystery.
Don't Overlook Security and Compliance
Taking payments brings obligations. Card payments are governed by the PCI DSS standard; using BigCommerce's hosted/iframe payment fields and a reputable gateway keeps most of the sensitive card handling off your servers and greatly reduces your PCI scope, which is both safer and simpler — favor that over any setup that routes raw card data through your own pages. Display trust and security cues at the payment step (recognizable processor and security badges, https everywhere), because visible reassurance at the moment of payment measurably reduces abandonment. And keep gateway credentials secured and rotated like the sensitive secrets they are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is PayPal alone enough? Usually not. Offer direct card processing and digital wallets alongside it; a PayPal-only checkout loses shoppers who won't use PayPal.
Which processor should I start with? Stripe and PayPal's card processing are common, well-documented starting points; choose based on fees, payout timing, and your region and revenue.
Do I have to worry about PCI compliance? Yes, but using BigCommerce's hosted payment fields plus a reputable gateway minimizes your PCI scope versus handling card data yourself.
Payment Setup Is a Conversion Project, Not an IT Task
The framing that gets the most value out of this work: payment configuration is conversion-rate optimization that happens to look technical. Every decision here maps to revenue. Offering the wallet a mobile shopper already has set up removes the single biggest mobile checkout friction. Adding a familiar processor reassures the shopper who distrusts an unknown one. A "buy now, pay later" option can lift average order value in the right category. A tested, fast, secure checkout prevents the most expensive losses — the ones that happen after the customer already decided to buy. Treat the payments screen with the same seriousness as your product pages and ad spend, because it's the last and least forgiving step in the funnel; a customer lost here was a customer you had already won everywhere else.
Revisit Your Payment Mix Periodically
Payments aren't set-and-forget. Customer expectations and the provider landscape shift — new wallets gain adoption, BNPL providers change terms, gateway fees and payout timing change, and fraud patterns evolve. Put a light recurring review on the calendar: confirm every enabled method still completes a test transaction, check whether a payment option your competitors offer is now expected in your category, and review gateway fees against current volume. A payment mix that was optimal at launch can quietly become a conversion drag a year later simply because the market moved; periodic review keeps the most revenue-critical step current.
Broad payment support plus robust security is a big part of why we frequently recommend BigCommerce for eCommerce builds. For help configuring gateways, optimizing checkout, or building on BigCommerce, see our BigCommerce experts and conversion optimization services. If you've configured payment gateways on BigCommerce or another platform, we'd value hearing your experience.