How to activate Bancontact on your Shopify store

You activate Bancontact on Shopify through Shopify Payments: open the Shopify Payments settings and switch on Bancontact under your payment methods. It works for customers in Belgium who pay in euros, and only online, not in Shopify POS. You pay EUR 0.39 per transaction, or EUR 0.29 on Shopify Plus.

This article is part of our complete guide to Shopify payments for Belgium and the Netherlands. You'll read how to switch on Bancontact in Shopify Payments step by step, what it costs, why it sometimes doesn't show and how Bancontact, Bancontact Pay, Payconiq and Wero relate to each other.

Why a Belgian store can't do without Bancontact

Bancontact is the Belgian payment system that almost every Belgian has on their bank card and in their banking app. According to Bancontact, there were more than 2.5 billion payments with Bancontact and Payconiq in 2024, of which 382 million online. Nine out of ten online Bancontact payments happen on a smartphone, with a QR code or in the app.

In our clients' Belgian stores, more than 60% of payments by Belgian buyers go through Bancontact. A customer who doesn't see their familiar method has to fall back on a card or PayPal, and some drop off. For a store selling in Belgium, Bancontact is not an extra.

How to activate Bancontact in Shopify Payments, step by step

If Shopify Payments isn't active yet, do that first. How it works for a Belgian business is explained in how to set up Shopify Payments in Belgium. Then follow these steps. With Shopify Payments already on, you're done in under an hour.

Set euro and Belgium. Your store must accept euros and Belgium must be an active market.

Switch off conflicting providers. Shopify asks you to deactivate an extra gateway that offers Bancontact itself, such as a Mollie app, first.

Switch on Bancontact. Go to Settings > Payments > Shopify Payments > Manage, choose Bancontact under payment methods and save.

Test with a real order. Bancontact doesn't work in test mode. Place a small order with a Belgian address and refund it afterwards.

Check your fulfilment. A Bancontact order can start as Payment pending. Make sure your team, your ERP integration and your shipping tool only ship once the order is Paid.

If you use managed payment methods, the option where Shopify switches on local methods automatically based on where you sell, Bancontact may already be active. If you ever switched Bancontact off yourself, that feature won't switch it back on. You then do it manually.

Conditions and limits of Bancontact on Shopify

Only with Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments must be active and not in test mode.

Only customers in Belgium. Shopify shows Bancontact based on the customer's location. A Dutch Shopify store can therefore offer Bancontact to Belgian customers too.

Only in euros. The customer pays in EUR and your store accepts EUR.

Only online. In the Shopify POS app you can't use Bancontact as a local payment method. Test in advance how Bancontact cards behave on your in-store card reader. What in-store payments cost is in Shopify POS costs in Belgium.

Redirect. The customer goes to the Bancontact environment and then returns to the checkout. If the payment isn't complete yet, Shopify creates the order with the status Payment pending.

No cancellation by the customer. The amount is debited immediately. The money arrives in your next Shopify Payments payout.

What does Bancontact cost on Shopify?

Through Shopify Payments, Bancontact has a fixed price per payment, with no percentage. At higher order values that makes it much cheaper than a card payment. What you pay per payment is what we call transaction fees.

Rates checked in October 2026 on the Shopify (Belgium) and Mollie pricing pages. A worked example for an order of EUR 80 on the Basic plan:

Bancontact through Shopify Payments: EUR 0.39.

The same customer with a European card through Shopify Payments: 2% of EUR 80 plus EUR 0.25, EUR 1.85 in total.

Bancontact through Mollie with a Belgian account: EUR 0.39 plus the 2% Shopify fee (EUR 1.60), EUR 1.99 in total. With a Dutch Mollie account you reach EUR 2.97.

Bancontact is the cheapest way for a Belgian customer to pay, as long as it runs through Shopify Payments. All rates per plan are in Shopify Payments fees and rates. For the full picture with subscription, apps and development, see what a Shopify store costs in total.

Bancontact, Bancontact Pay, Payconiq and Wero: what is what?

The names around Bancontact were shuffled quite a bit in 2026. This is the state of play in October 2026:

Bancontact is the Belgian payment system. Online, the customer pays with their Bancontact card or by scanning a QR code with an app.

Bancontact Pay is the new name of the Payconiq by Bancontact app. The Payconiq brand no longer exists since March 2026; the company is now called Bancontact Company.

Wero is the European wallet of a group of European banks. Since 3 March 2026 you can pay online with Wero in Belgium, first through ING, KBC and BNP Paribas Fortis.

If you offer Bancontact through Shopify Payments, you don't need to do anything for the name change. In October 2026, Wero isn't yet a separate method for Belgian customers in Shopify Payments. It is in the Netherlands, where iDEAL is gradually becoming Wero.

Pending, refunds and disputes

Payment pending. If the customer returns to the checkout before their bank has confirmed the payment, the order gets the status Payment pending. Only ship once the order is Paid, and have your ERP or shipping integration check that status.

Refunds. You refund a Bancontact payment from the order, just like a card payment. You don't get the Shopify Payments transaction fee back.

Disputes. Because the amount is debited directly, the customer can't reverse a Bancontact payment themselves. A customer with a complaint comes to you. Good customer service and a clear returns policy matter even more.

Bancontact through Mollie or another payment provider

There are good reasons to run Bancontact through another payment provider: you sell products Shopify Payments doesn't allow, you have an existing contract, or you want all payments across several channels with one provider. In Belgium, Mollie is then the logical choice.

Do the maths honestly, though. Without Shopify Payments you pay the provider cost on every Bancontact payment plus a Shopify fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced or 0.2% on Plus. If you combine Shopify Payments with one other direct provider, the local methods through Shopify Payments also cost 1.25% extra. The full trade-off is in Shopify Payments vs Mollie.

Bancontact doesn't show in your checkout: checklist

Is the customer's country set to Belgium? Bancontact only shows for customers in Belgium. Test with a Belgian address.

Does the customer pay in euros? Check that the Belgium market is set to EUR.

Is Shopify Payments in test mode? Then Bancontact doesn't show. Switch test mode off.

Is a conflicting gateway active? Deactivate any other app that also offers Bancontact.

Did you ever switch Bancontact off? Managed payment methods won't switch it back on automatically. Activate it manually.

Does your admin say local payments are disabled? Then only Shopify Support can fix it.

Is it in-store pickup or POS? In POS, Bancontact doesn't work as a local method, and merchants report that Bancontact is sometimes missing for pickup orders. Test that flow separately.

What we learned in the Shopify Community

Local methods suddenly disappeared from the checkout. The customer's country was no longer preselected, so Shopify didn't show the local method. According to Shopify Support, an update caused it and was fixed later. The lesson: local methods depend on the country in the checkout. Source: Shopify Community, March 2026.

Bancontact was suddenly deactivated. A Belgian store got a message to contact Support; only Support could reactivate the method. Our take: we don't set up a standard backup provider. We do always make sure there is more than one payment method. Source: Shopify Community, June 2024.

No Bancontact for in-store pickup. Bancontact worked for delivery but didn't show for pickup. The thread is unsolved, so test that flow separately before launch. Source: Shopify Community, August 2024.

How 6th Man helps

For every Belgian Shopify store we build or migrate, Bancontact is live from day one. We set up Shopify Payments, check markets and currencies, test Bancontact with a real order and make sure your ERP or shipping tool doesn't ship orders marked Payment pending. See how we build a custom Shopify store.