Quick Overview: An Acquisition Channel That's Easy to Overlook
Running a shop on BASE, it's easy to focus entirely on Google search and social media for traffic — but there's another powerful acquisition channel unique to BASE that often gets overlooked. That's "PAY ID," BASE's dedicated buyer-facing app (formerly the "BASE app"). If you don't understand how your shop gets found and searched within PAY ID, you're leaving a genuinely BASE-specific acquisition opportunity on the table. This guide covers how search works inside PAY ID, the settings that make your shop easier to find in results, and how to grow followers and use push notifications to drive sales through this channel.
What Is the PAY ID App?
PAY ID is a dedicated mobile app for buyers, where they can browse and purchase from shops built on BASE. Any merchant running a BASE shop can list it in PAY ID for free, just by flipping the "List on PAY ID" switch in their admin dashboard. What makes this channel valuable is that it gives you a direct line into BASE's buyer community — separate from your own website or social media presence.
Note that it's only the listing that's free. When an order actually comes in through PAY ID, the same processing fee (3.6% + ¥40) and service usage fee (5.9%) apply as with standard BASE Easy Payment. Listing costs nothing upfront or monthly, but that doesn't mean sales fees disappear too.
Settings That Help You Show Up in Search Results
Whether your shop actually gets found inside PAY ID comes down to a handful of basic settings.
The shop description is the most important one. Writing a thorough shop description is reported to make your shop more likely to appear in search results. The key is to describe specifically what you sell and who it's for, working in relevant keywords naturally.
Setting a shop logo matters too. A logo doesn't just help you stand out in search results and product listings — it builds trust with buyers. A shop with a proper logo tends to feel more credible to first-time visitors than one relying only on product photos.
One setting that's easy to overlook is your "shop category." BASE notes that setting an accurate shop category makes your shop easier to find in PAY ID search results. Pick the category closest to what you actually sell, rather than leaving it unset.
Product display order deserves attention as well. In the PAY ID app, only up to three products show on the first page of your shop's top view. That means whether your best-sellers or flagship products are positioned in that top three makes a real difference in the impression a first-time visitor gets. Make it a habit to periodically review your product order and check that whatever you most want to highlight right now is in that top three.
Filling out product titles and descriptions thoroughly matters too. BASE's AI assistant can help write concise, clear product descriptions, so even merchants without much time to spend on copywriting can keep their listings well organized.
Growing Followers and Using Push Notifications
PAY ID lets buyers "follow" a shop. Shops with more followers tend to surface more often on the app's top page, which translates into more opportunities to reach new customers. One effective way to grow followers is listing your PAY ID shop URL in your social media bio, on Instagram and elsewhere. There's also a built-in mechanism where, if a buyer installs the PAY ID app through your shop's URL, the shop gets automatically followed the first time they open the app — which makes it worth deliberately routing traffic from your outside channels toward PAY ID.
Once you've built up a follower base, push notifications are the next thing worth using. As long as your shop has followers on PAY ID, simply registering a new product in your admin dashboard automatically triggers a push notification to those followers. Sending a manual push notification is free with no daily send limit, and when creating a new one, you can choose from purpose-built templates — promoting a product, promoting the shop, or distributing a coupon. BASE also offers an AI feature that can auto-generate the notification copy for you, but it only covers two of those three purposes — promoting a product and promoting the shop. Coupon distribution isn't supported by the AI generator, so you'll still need to write that copy yourself.
Separately, BASE also offers a free "abandoned cart reminder" email that automatically nudges shoppers who added items to their cart but didn't complete checkout. It's worth being clear that this applies to purchases made through your web shop — purchases made via the PAY ID app are excluded from this reminder email. So re-engaging a shopper who abandoned their cart inside PAY ID itself relies on follower push notifications, not this email feature.
FAQ
Q. Does it cost anything to list a shop on PAY ID?
A. The listing itself is free — just flip the "List on PAY ID" switch in your admin dashboard, with no setup fee or monthly charge. That said, if an order actually comes in through PAY ID, the standard BASE Easy Payment processing fee and service usage fee still apply.
Q. How do I grow followers?
A. Listing your PAY ID shop URL in your social media bios, like Instagram, is effective. There's also a built-in mechanism where a buyer who installs PAY ID through your shop's URL automatically follows the shop the first time they open the app — which makes it worth deliberately building that routing from your outside channels.
Q. Won't sending too many push notifications annoy people?
A. Sending is free and there's no limit on how many you send, but sending too frequently can lead to followers unfollowing. It's worth reserving notifications for moments that are genuinely valuable to the customer, like new arrivals or the start of a sale.
Summary and Key Takeaway
Acquisition inside the PAY ID app operates on entirely different territory from Google search optimization or social media management. Just tightening up the basics — your shop description, logo, and product display order — changes how easily you get found, and using followers and push notifications gives you an ongoing way to reach customers without spending extra. Whether you take advantage of this in-app acquisition channel — something you only get because you chose BASE as your platform — can be a hidden factor that shapes how well your shop actually performs.
That said, optimizing your shop description, writing push notification copy, and keeping up an ongoing connection with followers isn't easy to fit alongside day-to-day shop operations. Leap offers an AI E-Commerce Agent that supports running and growing an e-commerce shop entirely through conversation with AI. If you don't have the bandwidth for acquisition work right now, take a look at what Leap offers.
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References
- 7 Things to Check to Sell Well in the "PAY ID" App - BASE U
- I Want to Send a Push Notification to My "PAY ID App" Followers - Help | BASE
- What Is the "PAY ID App"? - Help | BASE
- BASE Adds AI-Generated Push Notification Copy for the "PAY ID App" - BASE, Inc.
- What Are the Shop Information Settings? - Help | BASE
- Notice: PAY ID Logo Refresh (Rolling Out From May 7, 2026) - BASE U
- What Is the Abandoned Cart Reminder Email? - Help | BASE
