Connecting Airwallex to Shopify isn't as simple as installing a plugin and filling in an API key. There are two review stages — identity verification and payment method approval — before any technical integration happens. The full process runs seven steps, in sequence.
Step One: Confirm You Have an Active Airwallex Business Account
If you're already an Airwallex customer, log into the web dashboard and start from there. If not, registration comes first. There's no shortcut here — the account must be valid and activated. Personal accounts don't qualify. Airwallex's Shopify payment solution is designed for business entities.
Step Two: Submit KYB (Know Your Business) Documentation
Log into the Airwallex web dashboard, navigate to the Payments section, and submit your KYB materials. KYB is the standard financial institution process for verifying business customer identity — company registration information, business details, and related documentation. Completing this is the prerequisite for applying for specific payment methods. Review time isn't fixed. Having complete, accurate materials ready upfront is faster than going back and forth on supplementary requests — treat this as a step to get right the first time, not to rush through.
Step Three: Apply for the Payment Methods You Need
Once KYB is approved, apply for specific payment methods within the same Payments section — credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and other card networks), Apple Pay, Google Pay, and installment options like Klarna can each be applied for individually.
One detail that matters significantly here: the card networks you have actually enabled and activated in your Airwallex account must correspond exactly to the payment icons you configure on Shopify's checkout page later. For example, if Mastercard is enabled in Airwallex, both Mastercard and Maestro icons need to be selected in Shopify. If AMEX is not enabled in Airwallex, AMEX should not be selected in Shopify either. Mismatches between these two configurations cause checkout experience problems.
Step Four: Install the Right Airwallex Shopify App for Your Checkout Experience
This is where the original documentation tends to mislead people — there isn't one generic "Airwallex App." Multiple apps exist for different use cases, and which one to install depends on the checkout experience you want to offer. The core app handles card payments and also supports Apple Pay and Google Pay express checkout. Before installing it, confirm that at least one card network has been enabled and activated in your Airwallex account.
To install, go to the Shopify App Store from within your Shopify admin, find the relevant Airwallex app, and click install. After installation, the system redirects back to Shopify, where you connect the app to your Airwallex account by selecting the account and clicking Connect. The process then returns you to Shopify's payment settings.
Step Five: Configure Which Payment Methods Display
After the app is installed and the account is connected, activation isn't immediate — first configure which card network icons to display at checkout, applying the matching logic from Step Three. Once the configuration is confirmed, click Activate. At that point, the payment options provided by Airwallex should appear on the store's checkout page.
If fraud protection is relevant to your business, Airwallex also offers a separate Fraud Protection App designed to improve transaction approval rates and reduce fraud risk. This is optional — evaluate based on your operation's needs.
Step Six: Set Your Settlement Currency
This step determines what currency your received funds settle into and which account they land in. The configuration is in the account and settlement settings within the Airwallex dashboard. The right choice depends on where your orders come from and what you plan to do with the money — if most orders are from US customers, settling in USD is usually practical; if you'll use the funds to pay overseas suppliers or run advertising directly, keeping the currency rather than converting immediately gives more flexibility. Since the interface gets updated periodically, consult Airwallex support or follow the latest official documentation when configuring this rather than replicating screenshots from any tutorial.
Step Seven: Test Orders — Don't Skip This
Before going live with real customer payments, run a complete test of the full flow — use a test card number or a small real order to walk through placing an order, completing payment, confirming the order status update, and processing a refund. This takes little time and catches configuration problems before they cause actual customers to hit payment failures at checkout.
One Cost That Can't Be Ignored: Shopify's Third-Party Transaction Fee
Most tutorials omit this entirely, but it directly affects what you actually receive. Shopify's default collection method is its own Shopify Payments product. When you use a third-party payment gateway like Airwallex instead, Shopify charges an additional "third-party transaction fee" on top of Airwallex's own processing fee. The rate depends on your Shopify plan tier — higher plans have lower rates, entry-level plans have higher rates. The specific percentages have been adjusted over time, so verify current rates on Shopify's official pricing page rather than relying on any article's stated figures.
For most Chinese sellers using Airwallex, this fee is effectively unavoidable — Shopify Payments isn't available to mainland China entities, which is the reason for turning to a third-party gateway in the first place. When calculating total costs, add Shopify's transaction fee to Airwallex's processing fee and evaluate both together. Looking only at Airwallex's published rate significantly understates the actual cost of processing a transaction through this configuration.