Challenge

In the past few years, consumer habits have changed and businesses of all sizes have had to double down on their e-commerce operations. Woo wanted to help its merchants adapt quickly through its own integrated payments solutions. Woo already had a longtime partnership with Stripe for core payment processing capabilities, but realised it could further leverage Stripe to empower WooCommerce merchants to accept in-person payments, offer local payment methods, create recurring payments, facilitate subscriptions, deposit settled funds quickly, and access business financing.

"The e-commerce boom meant businesses needed more than just payments, and they needed that help fast," said Britni McCotter, VP of Payment Business Operations at Woo. "We saw this as an opportunity to deliver an amazing experience so that merchants could build their businesses the way they wanted to."

Solution

The company set out to expand its platform offering to match the rapidly evolving needs of WooCommerce merchants. To do this, it decided to launch a brand new platform, WooPayments, by integrating several different Stripe products – including Connect, Global Payouts, Terminal and Billing. WooPayments allows merchants to do everything from taking contactless payments and accessing funds in real time to tapping into business funding to keep operations afloat.

Woo worked with Stripe to communicate these new capabilities to its customers and prospects, leveraging Stripe's co-marketing resources to deliver messaging quickly and clearly.

"Having worked with Stripe for years, we knew the platform provided a simple way for us to build a world-class experience and would help us develop a stronger relationship with our merchants," said McCotter. "WooPayments is our holistic solution that uses Stripe infrastructure to give businesses everything from payments to dispute resolution in one place."

Results

In just three months and with a team of fewer than 20 people, the company partnered with Stripe to launch WooPayments in 17 countries – from Canada to New Zealand and across Europe.

Rapid time-to-market for a new payments solution

Using a wide range of Stripe products, Woo was able to quickly build and launch an integrated payments solution that provided businesses with the tools they needed to thrive during a global pandemic, and for future success. This expanded financial platform helps Woo capture a greater share of wallet for increased customer retention and allows WooCommerce merchants to adapt to evolving customer expectations and habits.

"Stripe enabled us to get WooPayments to market fast. In three months, we were live in 17 additional countries. The fact that we were able to support merchants in so many markets that quickly is huge. As an open-source platform, it's often difficult to build a direct connection with our merchants, but WooPayments gives us a way to develop those relationships." said McCotter.

Bundling Stripe products to create a platform for continued growth

Woo looked to Stripe for more than just payments. It wanted to build a financial platform to serve businesses, no matter what the future holds. The options available from Stripe's broad and complementary product suite have enabled the company to add more value and bundle capabilities together to give WooCommerce merchants access to new e-commerce opportunities.

As Brent Shepherd, Woo Payments Lead, explains, "Building on Stripe, we started with payments, billing and subscriptions. But we're quickly adding Stripe Terminal for in-person payments, and planning to offer a full suite of fintech services to help our merchants grow their business, including access to capital, and more – not only in the US, but also Europe and other regions where WooCommerce thrives. We chose Stripe as its extensive options across payments and financial services are what enable us to do this, and do it rapidly without compromise."

Partnering with Stripe for fast, effective marketing

Using the assets in Stripe's marketing toolkits, Woo executed announcement campaigns across its owned, earned and paid channels, highlighting the ability for merchants to collect payments, manage recurring revenue, and track cash flow directly from their WooCommerce dashboard.

"With anything related to Woo and Stripe, our approach to marketing is 'all channels go,'" said Clara Lee, VP, Product and Operations at Woo. "Stripe helps us position the different features and understand which channels are more advantageous, and it's been inspiring to see the response from the market."

Today, WooPayments serves merchants in nearly 40 countries across North America, Asia Pacific, and EMEA. Merchants can use WooPayments to manage transactions, payouts, refunds, disputes, and reporting from within the Woo dashboard. By bringing these capabilities into a single, comprehensive dashboard, WooPayments helps merchants spend less time bouncing between multiple tools and more time focused on their customers, products, and growth.

Stripe technology enables every aspect of WooPayments. Woo uses Stripe Connect to quickly onboard merchants, manage compliance and identity verification, and support payouts. With Instant Payouts, merchants can receive their funds in minutes instead of days to improve their cash flow. Woo also used Stripe Billing to support merchants with recurring revenue models, such as subscriptions, memberships, and installment-based services, while using Stripe Capital for platforms to give eligible merchants access to financing offers directly through WooPayments.

Through Stripe Payments, Woo gives merchants access to Stripe’s Payments Intelligence Suite, an AI-powered set of tools for payment optimization, fraud prevention, and business intelligence. WooPayments also includes Stripe Radar, which helps detect and block fraud in real time, while built-in Adaptive 3D Secure supports regulatory compliance and minimizes unnecessary friction.

More ways to pay

WooCommerce’s open-source model resonates particularly strongly outside North America, where merchants value data ownership and platform flexibility. Today, roughly 60% of WooPayments volume comes from EMEA.

In addition to accepting credit cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, merchants can use WooPayments to accept local payment methods across key markets worldwide, including iDEAL, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Bancontact, EPS, GrabPay, Multibanco, and Przelewy24. Merchants can also enable buy now, pay later options, such as Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay/Clearpay, allowing them to get paid up front while giving customers more flexibility at checkout.

To reduce payment costs, Woo rolled out Instant Bank Payments, Stripe’s next-gen ACH solution available exclusively through Link. Less expensive than card payments, US customers can pay directly from their bank accounts in just a few clicks. Payments are confirmed instantly and funds settle in two business days, just like card payments, while Stripe guarantees the risk of bank-initiated returns.

WooPayments also includes WooPay, an express checkout experience built on Link by Stripe. Returning customers can skip re-entering their details and complete purchases in just a few taps—across any WooPayments-enabled store. For merchants, WooPay reduces checkout friction without requiring any additional setup.

From online stores to in-person commerce

Whether selling at a market stall, checkout counter, salon chair, or customer job site, merchants can use the same Woo ecosystem to accept payments wherever business happens. Woo made it possible for customers to manage online and offline sales in the same place by integrating Stripe Terminal, a set of tools for accepting in-person payments, into WooPayments.

In addition to providing access to precertified card readers, Woo enabled Tap to Pay via the Stripe Terminal SDK so merchants can accept in-person payments with only a compatible iPhone or Android device—no card reader required. With Tap to Pay built directly into the Woo app, merchants can download the app, launch a store, and start accepting in-person payments in as little as two minutes.

“For these new users, it’s all about accessibility,” said Doug Aitken, lead of payment operations at Automattic, the company behind WordPress and Woo. “Starting a business can feel daunting, but Woo—together with Tap to Pay and the Stripe Terminal SDK—makes it easy to start up and sell stuff. Do you have an iPhone? Great. Download the Woo app, make an account, and now you’re a merchant.”

Preparing for agentic commerce

Agents are already searching for products, comparing options, and completing purchases on behalf of customers. As AI tools begin to reshape how people discover and buy products, Woo and Stripe are collaborating on the infrastructure that will enable Woo merchants to sell via agents.

“For us as a platform, we see it as our responsibility to enable our merchants to be where their customers are. They’re looking to us to provide solutions so they can get access to this new distribution and sales channel,” said Beau Lebens, CEO and artistic director at WooCommerce. “As their platform provider, we’re in the position to say, ‘Here are all of the emerging protocols, here are the systems that you need to be a part of.’ And we can set that up in a way that they can just hit a button and turn it on.”
<br>As a launch partner for the Agentic Commerce Suite, WooCommerce is helping merchants make their products discoverable to agents through a single integration. Businesses can connect their product catalogs to Stripe once, and then sell across multiple agents. Stripe handles discovery, checkout, payments, and fraud protection.

With a uniquely broad merchant ecosystem that ranges from independent makers and specialty retailers to global brands, Woo is especially well positioned for this next wave of commerce. Agentic commerce creates the potential to reach the right customer faster and more efficiently.

“The great thing about Woo is we’re not just for big-box merchants that sell all the same things as everyone else. We have a depth of unique merchants that sell interesting items who are especially well-positioned for more personalized AI-powered discovery. Instead of relying only on traditional search engines or paid advertising, agentic commerce will help merchants get matched directly to customers based on intent, preferences, and context,” said Modi.

As Woo helps merchants prepare for the next generation of commerce, Stripe will remain a key partner in bringing new opportunities to the Woo ecosystem.