Payment Method Mix

Payment Method Mix shows how your customers pay, period by period: the orders, sales, refunds and declines for each payment gateway.

How It’s Calculated

The cards at the top show Total Orders, Net Revenue, Decline Rate, Split Payment Rate and Gift Card Redemption for the date range. With a comparison on, each card also shows the change from the comparison period. The chart stacks the number of orders for each gateway in each period.

The table has one row for each period and gateway. Every gateway that any order in the date range used has a row in every period, with 0 where it had no orders. The length of the date range sets how long a period is:

• 3 days or less: one row per hour
• Up to 93 days: one row per day
• Longer: one row per month

The columns are:

• Hour, Day or Month, and Primary Gateway: the first column is the period, named for its length. The gateway is the first one Shopify lists for the order, such as shopify_payments. Orders with none, such as free orders, are in No Payment Method.
• Orders: the number of orders with that primary gateway.
• Share of Orders: the gateway’s share of that period’s orders.
• Net Revenue: Gross Sales minus Discounts, plus Shipping and Tax. It’s before refunds. If your prices include tax, it’s already in Gross Sales and isn’t added again.
• AOV: Net Revenue divided by Orders.
• Refund Rate: the share of the gateway’s orders that have any refund.
• Refunded Amount: the money refunded on those orders.
• Split Payments: orders paid with more than one gateway.
• Decline Rate: the share of the gateway’s orders, whatever their status, that Shopify recorded as declined.

With Show totals row on in Report settings, the table ends with a row that adds up Orders, Net Revenue, Refunded Amount and Split Payments.

The Cards

• Total Orders and Net Revenue add up every row.
• Decline Rate is declined payments divided by every order placed, whatever its status.
• Split Payment Rate is orders paid with more than one gateway, divided by orders.
• Gift Card Redemption is orders where a gift card paid for some or all of the order, divided by orders.

What Counts

• Orders that were canceled, or whose payment was voided or expired, don’t count anywhere except in Decline Rate.
• Decline Rate counts every order, voided and expired ones included, because with many gateways a declined payment leaves the order voided or expired. An order is declined when Shopify records its cancel reason as declined.
• A refund belongs to the period of the order, not to the day it was made. Refunded Amount adds up every refund on the order, whenever it happened.
• Gateway names come from your own checkout setup, so they’re specific to your store.
• Days follow your store’s time zone, and every amount is in your store’s currency.
• Sales Channel, Segment and Filters narrow the report down.

What Good Looks Like

There’s no right mix. It depends on your customers and your markets. Watch whether one gateway carries most of your orders, and how its Decline Rate and Refund Rate compare with the others.

A low Decline Rate is better, because each decline can be a lost sale. A rate that rises over time is worth a look.

What to Do About It

• A gateway with a high decline rate: check its settings and fraud rules in Shopify, and whether customers have another way to pay.
• A gateway with a high refund rate: compare it with the others. If orders from one gateway are refunded more often, check which products those orders hold in Product Return & Kept Rate.
• Many split payments or gift cards: check that your gift card and store credit flow works at checkout.
• A new gateway taking orders: compare its AOV with the others, to see whether customers spend differently when they use it.

Get AI Insight at the top of the report asks Copilot for a short read of it, with recommendations, for the date range and filters you chose.

Where to Find It

• Payment Method Mix: open Reports and look under Sales.
• Cancellation Reasons: why orders get canceled, including declined payments.
• Total Sales: all sales, broken into gross sales, discounts, shipping, tax and returns.