Challenge

Traditionally, auto shop owners relied on paper or outdated software to run their businesses. In 2016, software-industry veteran Ashot Iskandarian founded Shopmonkey to bring a modern, SaaS-based approach to auto shop management. The company partnered with Stripe early on to help shops offer digital payment experiences to customers and manage finances from one platform.

Shopmonkey built its platform on Stripe Connect, which is integrated with Stripe Payments, making it easy for auto repair shops to submit Know Your Customer (KYC) data and start accepting digital payments. The company also adopted Stripe Billing for subscription management. “Throughout our decade-long partnership, Stripe’s innovation and developer-friendly solutions have made it easier to expand our platform and address auto shops’ most pressing challenges,” said Ishai Crane, senior product marketing manager at Shopmonkey.

As Shopmonkey expanded into more financial workflows, it wanted to provide faster access to funds and higher profits for auto shops, which typically operate on razor-thin margins. “A typical auto shop payment schedule is one to three days, and a lot of business happens on the weekends. Shops won’t have access to those funds for several days, making it very challenging to run their daily operations,” said Brandon Stokes, senior product manager of fintech at Shopmonkey.

Auto shop owners also struggle to secure financing through traditional banks. “A lot of bank underwriting models aren’t super friendly for automotive shops,” said Stokes. “Many of these shop owners are incredible mechanics, but they lack a business background, so the entire loan request process is overwhelming. They’ll skip it altogether, limiting their ability to grow.”

Shopmonkey aimed to solve this challenge by providing solutions that would allow auto shops to more easily invest in their businesses.

Shopmonkey wanted to offer a variety of payment methods, as well as one-click checkout; buy now, pay later (BNPL) options; and in-person payment acceptance to help auto shops capture more sales. The company also wanted to simplify operational tasks like fraud protection and tax reporting, giving auto shop owners more time to focus on customers.

Solution

In 2025, Shopmonkey added Instant Payouts to give auto shops access to funds in as little as 30 minutes, even on weekends and over holidays.

At the same time, Shopmonkey enhanced its checkout flow by implementing Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite, which includes a set of embeddable UI components, powerful AI models, and access to more than 100 payment methods. Shopmonkey used the Payment Element to enable cards, Apple Pay, BNPL options (including Sunbit and Affirm), and Link—a wallet built by Stripe that autofills payment data for faster checkout.

Auto shops can also accept in-person payments right at the vehicle using BBPOS WisePOS E readers powered by Stripe Terminal. This unified view of transactions makes it easier to track revenue and complete bookkeeping without manually comparing data from multiple systems.

Shopmonkey integrated Stripe Capital into its platform to offer auto shops working capital loans for expansion, new service bays, or equipment upgrades. Shop owners can apply using an embedded component within their Shopmonkey dashboard. Loan eligibility is based on factors like payment volume and history on Stripe, increasing approval rates versus traditional bank underwriting. Funds typically arrive the next business day, and repayment happens automatically through a percentage of each Stripe transaction.

To combat fraud, Shopmonkey adopted Stripe Radar, which uses AI trained on data across millions of global companies to identify and mitigate fraudulent activity across every transaction.

Shopmonkey also uses Stripe Sigma to proactively mitigate fraud and manage their platform’s credit exposure. For Crystal Anderson, Shopmonkey’s head of risk, Stripe Sigma’s AI-powered assistant enables her team to build custom reports to monitor payment activity across thousands of merchants and spot suspicious patterns fast—all without burdening their engineering team.

One of the business’s most important reports includes a daily decline report, which summarizes all transaction activity from the previous day. By using this report to identify card-testing patterns—such as frequent payment attempts against a single invoice—Shopmonkey can proactively alert merchants of suspicious activity before fraudulent charges occur.

Shopmonkey also uses Stripe Sigma to manage credit risk by monitoring merchant refunds and accounts with negative balances. Because Shopmonkey is ultimately liable for merchant debts, these reports help them identify accounts that might pose a financial risk, such as merchants that are unable to fund their own disputes or refunds.

By monitoring these activities daily, the risk team can intervene before an account causes permanent financial loss for the platform. This oversight ensures Shopmonkey can scale its merchant base while protecting its bottom line.

Looking ahead, Shopmonkey plans to offer interchange-plus pricing to enterprise and high-volume customers using network cost passthrough for platforms, giving shops greater visibility into network costs to improve their margins on credit card and debit payments.

Results

Instant Payouts speeds up revenue access from 3 days to less than 30 minutes

With Instant Payouts, auto shops now receive funds between 30 seconds and 30 minutes, instead of waiting 2 or more days. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting Shopmonkey to consider expanding eligibility.

“Our customers operate under very thin margins, so we always want to help them get access to funds faster,” said Stokes. “With Instant Payouts, they can access funds in just 30 minutes, which just gives them huge flexibility to support their biggest costs.”

Shopmonkey sees 2.5x average order value with BNPL options

The Optimized Checkout Suite lets Shopmonkey add popular payment methods without a heavy lift from its development team. “With Stripe, we really have a one-stop place for payment methods. It makes it so much easier for our developers to turn on new features and payment methods, and our shops can offer their customers the payment methods they prefer,” said Stokes.

BNPL options have proven to be especially effective. Customers who pay with Sunbit and Affirm spend more than double the average order value compared to other payment methods, increasing sales by 20%. “Bills in the auto repair space can be thousands of dollars, and consumers can’t always pay instantaneously in an emergency. Buy now, pay later lets our shops give their customers payment flexibility, so they can say yes to the service, and the shops capture that business,” said Crane.

More than 45% of payment volume comes from vehicle-side transactions

Nearly half of Shopmonkey’s payment volume flows through Terminal, as technicians meet customers right at their vehicles to complete payment rather than requiring a trip to the reception desk.

“We really love the flexibility to meet customers out in the parking lot, complete the purchase, and have all the transactions feed directly into one interface on Shopmonkey,” said Crane.

Shopmonkey grows payment volume 30% from accounts using Stripe Capital

By offering auto shops access to capital to expand their businesses, Shopmonkey created an additional revenue stream. Capital is a revenue multiplier for payments—many auto shops take out multiple loans over time through the Shopmonkey platform. The company has seen payment volume grow 30% for accounts that take out a loan. To date, Shopmonkey has facilitated more than 1,400 loans totaling nearly $54 million.

“The true value is just the simplicity and ease—it’s a lifesaver,” said Crane. “It can be difficult for a service technician without business experience or extra capital to get a loan. Having Stripe Capital to expand their businesses has been invaluable to propel business growth.”

Mitigating $125,000 in monthly dispute costs

As a result of the daily decline report it built using Stripe Sigma, Shopmonkey has enabled its merchants to mitigate approximately $125,000 in monthly dispute costs, while strengthening their trust and confidence in the platform.

Stripe Capital offers financing types that include loans and merchant cash advances. All financing requests are subject to a final review prior to approval. Stripe Capital loans are issued by Celtic Bank, powered by Stripe. YouLend provides Stripe Capital merchant cash advances.