Stitch Express Adds In-Person Payments and Shopify POS

In Short

Stitch Express has launched in-person payments for South African merchants. It also added a Shopify POS integration, which Stitch says is the first fully integrated Shopify POS offering in the country.

What Happened

Stitch rolled out Express In-person payments on August 12, 2026. The update lets retailers accept card payments at physical points of sale, plus Apple Pay, Google Pay and Pay Later.

Stitch Express is also adding a Shopify POS integration. A POS, or point of sale, is the checkout system a store uses to take payments and record orders. With this integration, Shopify merchants can run online and in-store payments through one setup, and sync in-store purchases back to their online store automatically.

The company says merchants can choose between three setups. The first is a standalone card terminal that works by itself. The second is a payment terminal connected to Shopify POS, so orders, payment confirmation and fulfilment updates flow into Shopify without manual reconciliation, which is the step where staff match terminal receipts to order records.

The third option is for custom POS systems. Stitch says its API, which is a software connector that lets systems talk to each other, can be used to start and control payment sessions on supported terminals.

Stitch also says refunds can be automated back to the original payment method. This includes refunds triggered from Shopify POS, cardless refunds, and refunds to Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Why It Matters

Many South African retailers still manage online payments and in-store card machines separately. That can lead to missing inventory updates, slower refunds, and extra admin time.

For Shopify merchants, a fully integrated Shopify POS payment flow can reduce errors at the till and speed up end-of-day reporting. For merchants outside Shopify, the standalone terminal and API route give a simpler path to add in-person card acceptance while keeping a single view of transactions.

The push to offer Pay Later at the counter also signals a broader shift. Buy now pay later, or BNPL, is a way for customers to split a purchase into instalments. Bringing it to physical retail could increase conversion for higher-value items, but it also adds new risk and fee considerations for merchants.