US Shopify account, selling in USD but want funds to come to Australia

[Raquel3]

I live in Austraia and want to create a USD Shopify account that is targeted to US. It will be POD produced and shipped in the US. I live in Australia and want the funds sent back to Australia. Can someone tell me how this work and if there will be lots of bank fees back and forward receiving money in AUD and then paying for product in USD.

I do have a US bank account but I am not sure if this will suddenly change where I have to pay tax for earning the money.

Thanks

[Julie]

Hi, @Raquel3!

Julie here from Shopify Support.

While you can choose to sell in whichever currency you like, it's important to make sure that your payment gateway is capable of accepting and converting foreign currencies. Have you already selected a payment gateway? If so, are you using Shopify Payments?

Shopify Payments actually has a feature that allows merchants to sell and get paid in different currencies. However, your payout bank account needs to be located in the same country as your store; in this case, you'll just need to use your Australian bank account, as your US bank account will not be compatible. When a customer purchases a product in USD, Shopify will then convert your payout to AUD. Just keep in mind that standard currency conversion rates will apply. 

There are many other great advantages to using Shopify Payments. For example, using Shopify Payments means that you also won't be responsible for any transaction fees, even if your customer uses an alternative payment gateway (such as PayPal Express) to make their purchase. You'll also be able to track and manage your payouts directly within your Shopify admin, making payment tracking simple. 

If you aren't using Shopify Payments, then I recommend reaching out to your payment gateway directly for advice. They will be able to let you know which currencies you can accept payments in and whether you are able to use a US bank account. 

Finally, is your store already setup to sell in USD? You can view and change your store's currency if you haven't already made your first sale in Settings > General. If you have already made your first sale, then you'll just need to contact our Support team to change your store's currency. 

I hope this helps guide you in the right direction! Feel free to respond here if you require any clarification or have any further questions.  

[Nicola123]

Hello, I am also located in Australia, but instead of using our current Australian Shopify site, we have a different Shopify site for the US. Can you please tell me if it is possible for the US site to pay USD into an Australian foreign currency account (an account held in Australian that is set up to accept USD)? Because we pay our suppliers in USD we want to avoid converting the funds to AUD. But we do not have a bank account or address in the US so we cannot open an account in the US. Instead we are hoping a foreign currency account in Australia will be ok?  

[Julie]

Hey, @Nicola123!

Thanks for joining in on the conversation.

Currently, Australian merchants using Shopify Payments can only accept payouts in AUD. Although your bank account is capable of accepting funds in USD, I'm afraid that this is not a supported payout currency through Shopify Payments. 

That being said, we do have an internal system in place for feature requests and I'd like to raise your suggestion with our developers. In situations like your own, I can definitely see how it would be beneficial to receive your payout in the same currency you are selling in.

We regularly announce new platform features in our Changelog, so feel free to keep an eye out there for updates!

[Nicola123]

But if the Shop if a US shop then can we accept USD payouts in an
Australian foreign currency account? We have opened a second Shopify site
that is American

[Julie]

Thanks for following up, @Nicola123!

Is your the address associated with your US store an American address? This would be the address that you have entered in Settings > General. If so, we do require that you have a US bank account (rather than an Australian foreign currency account) and an SSN for your Shopify Payments account, as it would be registered in the US. If your store address is based in Australia, then you'll need to use Shopify Payments Australia and would only be able to receive payouts in AUD. 

I understand that this isn't ideal and as previously mentioned, I have gone ahead and sent this feedback up to our developers. It would be great for merchants to receive payouts in the currency of their choice if their bank account supports it. Hopefully this is something that can be implemented in the near future! 

[corecoachonline]

I'll second the need for funds from US sales to be allowed to go to a USD account. I've also had to jump through all the hoops and found I'm forced to convert funds (in my case to NZD), and am amazed this isn't logged as a change request already.

Thanks for following this up for us all - I know I'm not the only other one either.

[Julie]

Hi, @corecoachonline. 

Thank you so much for your feedback. I completely understand how useful it would be to receive payouts in the same currency in which you pay your suppliers and I think it would result in a more simple and streamlined workflow.

This is definitely a feature request we've received before and the more feedback we get, the better, so I've just added your name to the ballot. Hopefully this is something that our developers can look towards implementing sometime in the near future. 

Thanks again for your feedback! 

[WhatGamersWant]

Hi @Julie ,

Has this been implemented yet by any chance?
Very keen to receive payments in USD, like others in this thread I'm based in Aus but will be selling to the US and receiving payments in USD, then making payments in USD after this.

If not please add me onto the petition list! 😛

Regards,
Nate @ WhatGamersWant

[Julie]

Hi, @WhatGamersWant!

Thanks for joining in on the conversation.

At the moment, Australian merchants are still only able to receive their payouts in AUD. I do understand how it would be valuable to receive payouts in other currencies, so I'll be adding your name to the feature request list.

While I don't have any answers as to if and/or when this will be implemented, I strongly suggest keeping an eye out on our Changelog, where we frequently announce platform updates. 

Thanks again for chiming in! I appreciate your feedback. 

[Willa]

Hi Julie,

It would be great if this feature is available as we pay our suppliers in the USD.

Please also add my name for the request.

Many thanks,

Willa

[Julie]

Thanks for chiming in, @Willa. 

I've just gone ahead and added your name to the feature request submission. As mentioned above, feel free keep an eye on our Changelog for future updates.

Thanks again!

[jimidix76]

Yeah, this is annoying, and we would love to be able to accept USD payments into our USD (Australian) Bank account…or even our USD US Bank Account (despite our Australian location).

We’re in Australia, with the primary market in the US. 

In a recent example, a US customer placed an order for $2,134 USD.

This converted to $3,190 AUD (E/R $1.49) when Shopify paid into our AUD Comm. Bank acc.

Our US-based POD Costs were $1,573.62 USD.

This converted to $2,424.68 AUD (E/R 1.54) on my AUD Credit Card.

Gross profit in USD was $560.38. However, the actual GP in AUD was $765.32, which is an extraordinarily poor (effective) E/R of $1.36.

Is there a reluctance to change anything here because significant revenue is generated from any associated currency conversion fees (or the f/x spreads)?

Has there been any update on the changelog? I searched and could not find anything.

[AshleyBar]

Can shopify please consider allowing Australia to accept multiple currencies? If not, I would really appreciate a good explanation. Thanks in advance.

[Julie]

Hey, @AshleyBar!

Thanks for joining the conversation.

As mentioned above, we do have an internal system in place for submitting feature requests, so I'll make sure yours is added to the list; I completely understand that being able to receive payouts in different currencies would be a great feature to have.

I've checked in with our Shopify Payments team and the reason why this currently not possible in Australia is due to a limitation with our banking partners. I'm hoping that this is something they can implement in the near future, however. 

In the meantime, please keep an eye on our Changelog for updates! 

[Boey]

Please add my name to the ballot as well. This is very essential for selling in the US!

[pamela_m]

Hi @Julie - please also include my name in the change request. We would like to be able to deposit into a USD account so we can pay USD vendors.

[kgprice]

This will never become a feature as Shopify would be loosing the 2% currency conversion fee. If they did make it a feature, they'd probably charge a lot for it.

[tparts]

Hi was anyone able to solve this as I am in the same boat? 

[bw123]

I have found that the easiest solution is to register an LLC in Delaware with an office address in the US. Part of the registration process is opening a US bank account, I believe you have to be in the US physically to finalise that bank account opening. Not sure how it works with foreign tax though - you'd need to consult a lawyer/accountant in Australia for that to make sure you are not avoiding tax responsibilities here.. but you would definitely be able to receive USD payments without any currency conversion. 

[Darren20]

Hi

i am also based in Australia but Australia is a tiny market for my niche, so I expect most of my sales will be in the USA, Europe, India and possibly other parts of the world.

I therefore thought it would be best to set the store currency to USD as most countries are familiar with USD. I did this by going into settings/ general and setting the store currency to USD

Whats confusing me is the Shopify Payments. I went into that in settings and one of the options is to manage countries. The default is set to Australia. I assume this means when I receive payment it will come into my account in Australia dollars (please confirm)? However it then gives the option to manage other country currency’s. I selected all countries in Europe, the USA, India etc. Can you please confirm what this does?

Does it mean that if someone from India goes into my store they will see the pricing of the products in Indian Rupees, even though the store default currency is USD?

Or, will they see the products priced in USD, but when they go to check out, it will show the amount they are paying in Indian Rupees, and then I will receive payment into my account in Australian dollars?

Very confused on this and would appreciate some guidance.