JTMi Edge – 1 July 2025
Breaking: Simplify eCommerce closing in weeks
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has announced that its Simplify eCommerce product will be permanently closed at 11:59pm AEST on 31 July 2025.
The notification, emailed to merchants on 17 June 2025, gave just six weeks’ warning. That’s barely enough time for many small businesses, not-for-profits, and community groups to find, test, and implement an alternative payments solution.
In the email, CBA wrote:
“We will be closing our Simplify eCommerce product, effective 31 July 2025… After this time, access to the facility and all related features will be deactivated. We recommend you begin planning your transition to an alternative payment solution.”
No official replacement pathway was provided.
The short notice problem
The lack of consultation and the brevity of the notice period is a serious issue:
- Only six weeks to act: For organisations relying on WooCommerce and WordPress, this is not enough time to build, test, and cut over to a new gateway without risk of disruption.
- No suggested migration path: CBA failed to recommend alternatives such as PowerBoard, CommWeb, or BPOINT, leaving merchants confused about what comes next.
- Disruption during peak activity: For many not-for-profits and SMEs, July marks financial year-end reporting, fundraising pushes, and seasonal campaigns.
The decision effectively strands customers who had invested in Simplify plugins and integrations, forcing them into emergency migrations.
What about BPOINT, CommWeb, and PowerBoard?
- BPOINT: Still active, but CBA has flagged that BPOINT is “changing soon,” with a new back office on the horizon. Long-term certainty is lacking.
- CommWeb: Continues to be advertised on commbank.com.au as the bank’s payment gateway, but merchants often depend on third-party or community-built WooCommerce plugins.
- PowerBoard: The bank’s next-generation orchestration platform, offered in partnership with Paydock. A WooCommerce plugin exists, but it is distributed via GitHub and the developer portal, not the WordPress plugin repository. Importantly, PowerBoard is not automatically available — only “eligible business customers” can apply, and live production access requires CBA approval.
The roadmap CBA should have supplied
Instead of leaving merchants scrambling, CBA could have issued a clear roadmap:
- June 2025
- Notify merchants that Simplify will close on 31 July.
- Provide comparison of Simplify vs PowerBoard, BPOINT, and CommWeb.
- July 2025
- Offer guided transition options:
- Short-term continuity: switch to BPOINT or CommWeb.
- Future-proofing: begin eligibility application for PowerBoard.
- Provide migration toolkits and WooCommerce installation guides.
- Offer guided transition options:
- August 2025 onwards
- Support PowerBoard activation for eligible merchants.
- Phase BPOINT into its new back office.
- Communicate the long-term plan for CommWeb.
JTMi’s view
The closure of Simplify highlights a serious gap in CBA’s customer engagement. Cutting off a payments product with less than two months’ notice, and without an endorsed migration path, exposes SMEs and community organisations to financial and operational risk.
While PowerBoard looks like the bank’s strategic future, it is gated behind eligibility reviews and is far from plug-and-play for WooCommerce merchants. BPOINT and CommWeb are technically still live, but their long-term future is uncertain.
Merchants should treat 31 July 2025 as a hard stop and take immediate action.
Recommended next steps for merchants
- Confirm Simplify end date: Plan for transactions to cease at midnight, 31 July 2025.
- Contact CBA: Ask whether you are eligible for PowerBoard and request timelines in writing.
- Test integrations now: Whether PowerBoard (sandbox first), BPOINT, or a third-party gateway, test end-to-end before go-live.
- Consider alternatives: Stripe, Square, PayPal, eWAY, and Windcave all offer WooCommerce plugins with clearer onboarding.
- Document costs and disruptions: This may support compensation claims or negotiations with CBA.
📅 With only four weeks to go until closure, Simplify customers cannot afford to wait. If you are still on Simplify today, treat migration as urgent — your payments will stop on 31 July 2025.