Shopify makes its buy button available to all Facebook and Google merchants

Shop Pay, which enables a speedy checkout experience by saving consumers’ payment and shipping details, will be the first Shopify product available to non-Shopify merchants. Shopify merchants have been able to use the buy button through Facebook and Google since February and May, respectively. Shop Pay will roll out to Facebook and Instagram merchants later this summer before Google sellers get access in late 2021, reaching 1 million merchants between the platforms.

Shopify is expanding Shop Pay’s reach in an effort to take on PayPal, Apple Pay, and other top buy buttons.

• The company called the move a “critical step in becoming the preferred checkout for all merchants.” That wasn’t possible when Shop Pay was only available to its roughly 1.7 million merchants. By working with Facebook and Google, it can quickly add more merchants and build its presence in channels beyond merchants’ websites—though it is still well behind the likes of PayPal, which boasts 31 million active merchant accounts.
• Expanding Shop Pay could also make Shopify a more formidable buy now, pay later (BNPL) player by making its solution more widely accepted. The ecommerce platform provider and Affirm recently made Shop Pay Installments available to eligible US Shopify merchants, and it could someday bring the BNPL solution to all merchants that use Shop Pay. This would help it compete in the BNPL space beyond the Shopify ecosystem, which could prove lucrative as the payment method takes off. Bringing Shop Pay Installments to all Facebook and Google merchants—and any other sellers—would also help Shop Pay match PayPal’s value; it already lets merchants that offer PayPal at checkout use its own BNPL solution.

Meanwhile, adding Shop Pay should help Facebook and Google become bigger ecommerce players. Both firms have added new commerce capabilities in recent years to rack up sales—via social commerce in Facebook’s case and overall ecommerce for Google. Enabling Shop Pay’s speedy checkout option for all of their merchants can create a better shopping experience, potentially convincing more shoppers to make purchases on their platforms.