Millions of Shopify Merchants Can Accept Hundreds of Cryptos as Helio Upgrades Solana Pay Plugin
Crypto payments platform Helio has launched a major update to its Solana Pay plugin for Shopify.
Solana Pay enables merchants to accept low-fee crypto payments in their Shopify stores.
According to the press release shared with Cryptonews, the upgraded plugin allows “millions of Shopify merchants worldwide to accept payments in hundreds of cryptocurrencies.”
They benefit from real-time conversions settling payments in stablecoins, including USDC, EURC, PYUSD, and USDY. The latter is a tokenized note secured by short-term US Treasuries and bank demand deposits.
The team remarked that the aim of this new release is to onboard millions of merchants to crypto commerce.
It will also “set a new standard for e-commerce payments by improving the payment experience, enhancing customer loyalty programs, and integrating Web3 features.”
Helio CEO and co-founder Stijn Paumen commented that merchants can easily reach customers by installing Solana Pay in “a few simple clicks.”
“Enabling the largest e-commerce platform to accept faster-than-card crypto payments is a significant step towards the mass adoption of crypto payments.”
Solana Mobile Chapter 2 Comes With the Plugin
Solana Mobile will leverage the updated plugin to sell its Chapter 2.
The product is available for preorder and will ship next year.
Steven Laver, Mobile Engineering Lead at Solana Labs, remarked that “it makes perfect sense to allow users to pay for a blockchain product on-chain.”
More than half of the checkout sessions for Chapter 2 came from mobile devices, he said.
“With Helio’s Solana Pay plugin for Shopify, we’re taking product preorders denominated in USDC and have saved more than $1 million in card processing fees so far – savings that can be reinvested back into the product development process.”
You asked, we listened!
The non-transferrable #Chapter2 Preorder Token NFT will now be sent out typically within 24 hours of preordering #Chapter2.
Preorder now 👇https://t.co/LMnynuZBhW
— Solana Mobile 2️⃣ (@solanamobile) May 7, 2024
Introducing Transaction Fee and New Benefits
The upgraded Solana Pay plugin has brought several notable features and benefits.
First, it has introduced a transaction fee of 0.75%. The “competitive” fee is necessary to “support ongoing innovation and operational costs,” the team said.
Next, the plugin includes an on-ramp feature via the Helio dashboard. This allows customers to fund their wallets with crypto using their preferred currency.
“The plugin is also ideal for merchants who prefer to convert their crypto earnings instantly to their bank account via an auto-off ramp feature,” the announcement said.
Moreover, there is a new checkout experience that includes deep links into major wallets, such as Phantom, Solflare, OKX, and Coinbase.
This, combined with Solana’s “sub-1-second confirmation time,” enables more efficient transactions and a faster checkout experience.
Additionally, merchants can enable advanced Web3 features. These include NFT airdrops upon purchase, Discord memberships with sales, and discounts for NFT holders.
This helps enhance customer loyalty and can serve as receipts or event tickets, the company said.
Lastly, the upgrade has introduced gated store access exclusive to NFT holders and wallet allowlists for an exclusive shopping experience.
First Plugin Version Saw $50 Million in Transactions
Helio’s Paumen added that “crypto holders represent a rapidly growing global consumer segment, with over 100M active wallets.”
This latest plugin enables merchants to capitalize on this market growth. It also empowers token holders to make purchases, said the press release.
Meanwhile, Helio has more than 350,000 unique active wallets and 5,000 merchants, the press release said.
In the first six months, the initial version of the plugin processed approximately $50 million in transactions for over 200 stores.
These include Solana Mobile, Hivemapper, and Bryan Johnston.
It's official! Helio is now running the @Solana Pay plugin on @Shopify! 🤝
Shoutout to the projects already winning on Shopify with the help of Solana Pay:
👻@solBOOGLE leads in total Solana Pay sales volume on Shopify
🦖@Claynosaurz generated 25% of their total plushie sales… pic.twitter.com/nQeV6kg5kc— Helio | Sell more with crypto ⚡️ (@helio_pay) December 20, 2023
Now, Helium Mobile and FSL (STEPN GO, MOOAR) are among the first brands to use the upgraded plugin version to enable their tokens MOBILE and GMT, respectively.
Frank Mong, COO at Helium Mobile, commented that “this enables anyone to use the MOBILE tokens they’ve earned, opening up avenues to purchase Hotspots and other items seamlessly through Shopify.”
Additionally, the updated plugin helps the industry become more accessible to everyday users, making it easier for people to use crypto in their daily lives.
