iDEAL Restrictions on Shopify: What It Means for Merchants Targeting Netherlands and How Checkify May Help

Shopify began enforcing new requirements for merchants who want to accept iDEAL payments:

• The store must be active for more than 90 days
• The store must have fulfilled at least 100 orders
• The merchant must be on a paid plan (not free trials or development plan)
• The chargeback rate must be kept below 1%

These conditions were introduced due to iDEAL’s lack of built-in buyer dispute protection. Unlike credit cards, iDEAL does not allow chargebacks. If something goes wrong, the buyer must resolve the issue directly with the merchant. Shopify stated that the restrictions are designed to reduce fraud risk, particularly from new or unproven merchants.

But for small businesses, especially those just starting out, the impact has been immediate and painful.

Merchants selling in the Netherlands were quick to share their frustration across forums, social media, and community groups.

They reported receiving sudden emails that their shops were no longer eligible for iDEAL. Some of them shared stories where they tried appealing the decision but were unsuccessful if they had fewer than 100 sales. Many expressed frustration at the lack of warning and stressed that, since most Dutch customers rely exclusively on iDEAL, losing access to it makes running a newly-created online store in the Netherlands nearly impossible. The timing is especially difficult, as the peak e-commerce season is approaching and many new stores typically launch ahead of the big sales season in Q4.

Even Shopify partners and advocates expressed concern. One consultant observed that requiring new merchants targeting the Netherlands to reach 100 orders or wait 90 days before enabling iDEAL would be a dealbreaker for the majority. As a result, many businesses may be forced to seek alternatives. It was also noted that none of Shopify’s competitors impose such a restriction.

For merchants relying on Dutch traffic, the lack of iDEAL as the payment method is not a minor inconvenience. It can mean losing a significant share of potential sales and drastic drop in checkout completion.

According to iDEAL’s official statistics, in 2023 Dutch consumers made over 1.2 billion transactions through the system, worth more than €100 billion in total volume. It is deeply ingrained in Dutch online shopping habits, and alternatives like credit cards, Klarna or PayPal cannot fill the gap entirely.

If shoppers don’t see iDEAL at checkout, they often abandon their cart immediately. For new stores, being unable to offer iDEAL is a direct barrier to entry into this promising market.

This sudden policy shift highlights the risks of relying on a single e-commerce platform for both storefront and checkout. When platform rules change, sometimes without notice, merchants are left scrambling.

This is where a platform-agnostic checkout provider like Checkify Plus can help.

Unlike platform-native systems, Checkify+ allows merchants to design and host a custom checkout page that works independently of their main storefront provider. That means if a big online platform like Shopify restricts or removes a payment option, the merchant can still enable it and keep selling effectively through Checkify’s checkout.

However, this weakened ties with the established platform and ecosystem may not be suitable for all. That’s why iDeal also remains on Checkify Pro, a more integrated solution for Shopify merchants.

With both Checkify Pro and Checkify Plus, iDEAL is available to all eligible merchants using Stripe, PayPal, or Adyen as payment processors. That means:

• No 100-order requirement
• No 90-day waiting period
• Chargeback history will not be taken into account immediately.

Merchants can continue to offer Dutch buyers their most trusted payment option, without being forced to wait until they “qualify” under changed rules.

And because Checkify works across multiple processors, its customers can also leave their requests for adding future payment methods. For example, while Mollie (a popular European PSP) is not yet integrated, it could be supported in future updates of the Checkify Plus custom checkout solution to further expand flexibility.

In a fragmented global payments landscape, customer trust and convenience are critical. A study by Baymard Institute found that 10% of US shoppers abandoned their checkouts due the lack of preferred payment methods. For Dutch merchants and their buyers, this percentage could get several times higher, if measured, in case iDEAL will continue to be missing.

By decoupling checkout from the storefront, merchants gain:

• Resilience against sudden policy changes from platforms
• Control over which payment options are offered
• Customization of the checkout flow to match brand and customer expectations
• Global readiness for multi-market expansion with localized payment options

Shopify’s iDEAL restrictions may have been implemented with fraud prevention in mind, but the practical impact on small merchants in the Netherlands could be severe. For many, it feels like the rug has been pulled from under their feet.

Solutions like Checkify Pro and Checkify Plus offer some help, granting merchants control over their checkout experience and enabling the payment methods their customers actually use.

Because at the end of the day, in Dutch e-commerce, no iDEAL often means no sales.