Solved

Payment Gateway options in South Africa

AM13
Excursionist
11 0 6

Hello,

I am just starting my business and my website. I’m based in South Africa, but much of my client base is located in the US and Europe. I’ve almost finish building my website on Shopify only to discover how limited my payment gateway options are. Payfast and Paypal are available to me but Paypal only works with USD, not allowing checkout in ZAR, and Payfast has a very low maximum payment limit. If I change my store currency to USD then, from what I’ve read, I must then open a bank account in the US. I do have a bank account in the US already, but then taxes, accounting and actually getting my money would be more of a nightmare than they already are.

All the apps able to solve my problem only work fully with Shopify Payments, which is not yet available in South Africa

Can someone please clarify for me if there is a straightforward solution to this problem? I've read through related topics on the forum and not found any answers. Maybe there is some updated information on it that I haven’t run across?

Thanks!!

Accepted Solution (1)

Nick
Shopify Staff (Retired)
4531 434 1024

This is an accepted solution.

Hi @AM13,

 

Nick here from Shopify. 

 

Really good questions! I completely see where you are coming from if your client base is mainly in the US and Europe. If it was me I would stick to keeping things with your native currency as that is where your business is set up and registered. I would recommend using one of the gateways Shopify is partnered with, in South Africa which you can see here

 

You can change your currency if you like, but what you get paid out and what kind of bank account you need to accept it depends on the payment method you are using to collect the money. You can set your store so your customers see their native currency with a currency converter app from the Shopify App Store. The checkout would display in ZAR though. 

 

Hopefully, this helps answer your question and gives you an idea of the next steps to take. 

 

All the best, Nick

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

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