Multi-currency and payouts to multiple accounts?

[MackJon]

Hi,

Is it possible to get Shopify Payments to pay into separate accounts, or add more payment providers for individual countries?

With all the promotion of Shopify multi-currency, we opted to combine our sites earlier this year. It's now much easier to operate, but it's a nightmare for book-keeping. Is there a way to have multiple shopify payments on the system, so (for example) that the EU transactions payout to the EU side of the business and the UK transactions go to a UK account?

Or is there an alternative provider who can do this for us?

Or, should I just give up and go with running multiple stores again?

Cheers

Jon

[Maz · Accepted solution]

Hey @MackJon,

Your question is a great one! I can appreciate how this would be beneficial for you and your business. 

With Shopify Payments, currently this is not possible as there is only room for one bank account on file. All funds would be sent to the bank account on file, unless you opt to change your bank account details. If you would like EU transactions to go to an EU bank account and UK transactions to go to a UK account, then you would require multiple stores.

I am currently unaware of a provider that has this option, however I have noted this feedback with our developers to review. While it's not possible right now, it may be something that could be considered in the future.

Let me know if you need anything else!

[MackJon]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. Yeah, it does seem a shame, as it looks like that's the only option available to me. 

We'd be happy to sign-up for Shopify payments in the other countries we operate. Overall we've got most of the single site operating using features like multi-currency, local pricing, translation for each region - so it's behaving as it should. However, we're probably now going to have to create and sync multiple sites again - which is what the single site has removed.

To confirm, there is no roadmap or plan for this? It seems this is the way Shopify is heading (single store, multiple markets), especially with the 'Shopify Markets' coming, that this would be a logical step. I need to make the decision in the new year about how we progress and I'd hate to find out that this would come in at some point.

Jon

[Maz]

Hi Jon,

I really appreciate your feedback on this and wanted to thank you for that. We definitely understand that being able to separate sales for each location, and add different bank accounts for payouts means a lot to you as part of your business workflow.

For the moment, while we have had a lot of feedback surrounding this, we currently do not have a timeline of if and when this feature would be rolled out to our merchants. Although there's no guarantee of an approval and when it will be rolled out in future updates, I have high hopes for this. Additionally, you can keep an eye on our Shopify Changelog page, to keep updated on the latest news about our platform.

Have a great day!

[chegar]

Stripe, the platform in which Shopify Payments uses, does offer multi currency payout to multiple bank accounts. Will Shopify Payments offer this? It is certainly available for them to do so through Stripe's API (I've confirmed with Stripe). Or will Shopify choose to force FX conversions on it's merchants to squeeze a little more out of each transaction? It's a shame we can't connect directly to Stripe as a payment provider like the old days and gain all of Stripe's functionality.

[Maz]

Hi @chegar!

Thanks for jumping on this thread.

As mentioned already above, we currently do not have a timeline of if and when this feature would be rolled out to our merchants. That being said, there has been a lot of feedback surrounding this, and it might be possible in the near future.

I will submit this to the current existing feedback as every upvote counts! As our platform is constantly growing and improving, our team love to get feedback from our merchants on what features/edits they need to improve their workflow. So once I submit this as a feature request on your behalf, our team can review the request. So hopefully, this can be something that is available in the future. I hope this helps!

[rivalhockey]

@maza is there still no movement on this from the Shopify team? I'm surprised that Shopify haven't recognised this as a real issue for sellers that operate in multiple countries. Right now I am in the same boat as everyone else here, operating multiple stores across multiple countries. This creates huge headaches and duplicates a lot of work. 

Shopify markets seems to be heading in the right direction, but to not allow multiple bank payouts for the different markets seems like a very strange choice. If a business is registered in multiple different countries, it makes sense that orders from those countries should be able to be paid out separately. 

Please can we get a timeline update?

[yarakamal]

Hi Maz, I have been waiting and subscribed to this thread so we can have this feature! Can you please check with the team and really put in a request for this. It seems to be very highly needed by so many people. We could also make a lot more sales and sell more with this feature which will in return increase shopify's revenue as well from all of us merchants. This is a feature that is highly needed. So please please do try your best to help bring this to Shopify.

[Maz]

Hi, @yarakamal!

Thank you for your input on this thread.

I have also entered your feedback to the existing request for the option of payouts to multiple accounts! Though it would be difficult to provide any concrete timeline to you regarding the changes, I can assure you that your request will not go unheard, so many thanks for this!

Aside from the above, how is everything else going on in your store?

[techron]

Hi Maz,

Just dropping in here to also subscribe to this thread.

Multiple payout accounts are something incredibly essential for businesses that sell for example across all of Europe. We plan on migrating 5 stores from Woocommerce to Shopify and only being able to receive payments in one currency account is a huge drawback (that typically means the store is more expensive to run or prices need to increase to balance currency conversions). 

Shopify Plus is not an option for us, so if the feature only gets launched there it is not useful to your main (and biggest) audience of normal Shopify users.

I hope Shopify will recognize the increased revenue it will get by implementing this feature as a standard and helping users actually sell more and cheaper!

[Maz]

Hello @techron!

Thank you for subscribing to this thread and sharing your thoughts on the need for multiple payout accounts on Shopify.

You're correct that having multiple currency and payout accounts is crucial for business owners who sell across different regions and currencies. Shopify is continually developing its platform to address the needs of its users, and there is a possibility that multiple currency and payout accounts might become available for Shopify merchants in the future. Shopify's primary goal is to help merchants succeed and grow their businesses, and we often implement features based on merchant feedback and demand, so I am going to also add your feedback for our developers to review.

Let me know if there is anything else you need!

[NorthAmerican7]

Hello Maz,

I am looking at moving from osCommerce to Shopify, but this lack of feature is holding me back from moving forward. We currently sell to all of North America and accept both USD and CAD. If we are forced to use your conversion rates we could stand to lose thousands per month which is just not acceptable with our limited profit margin and business model.

Is there another way around this - ie. Using PayPal or maybe a combination of Shopify Payments for one currency and PayPal for another? We buy in both USD and CAD from vendors so accepting both and not losing $ on the FX is hugely important to us.

Any advice would be essential to us moving forward with Shopify or an alternate platform.

Thanks in advance.

[TheZOOMGuy]

From what I understand, you can only use either Shopify pymnts, or a 3rd party payment handler. However, Shopify still charges a 2% sales fee, even if you use a 3rd party(which also charges their own processing fees). This practice is actually illegal in both Canada and the US.

[Maz]

Hello @NorthAmerican7!

Thanks for subscribing to this thread!

I can understand that it's important to carefully evaluate your options and choose the solution that makes the most sense for your business needs. 

Merchants selling in multiple currencies using Shopify Payments are also able to accept multi currency payments from customers using PayPal. PayPal requires merchants to manually approve multi currency payments. This is the default behavior, but it can be changed in PayPal's settings. For more information on how to change this in PayPal, refer to How to accept foreign payments with your PayPal Business account at this link.

You have the option to hold the multi currency payments in that foreign currency and convert them elsewhere. This allows you to receive your PayPal payouts in the foreign currency or your own currency if you wish, see my screenshot below.

By following these steps, you can accept multi-currency payments on Shopify via PayPal and receive payouts in the same currency using PayPal's multi-currency payout feature. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

[TheZOOMGuy]

In real life, it doesn't work that way with PP. They (supposedly) have their system setup to do that, then immediately refuse to do it as soon as you try to receive payouts in other currencies. There was a workaround that did work for a bit, then they went and stopped the workaround. It's beyond frustrating dealing with PP.

[NorthAmerican7]

Thanks Maz, can you please confirm what TheZoomGuy posted: "Shopify still charges a 2% sales fee, even if you use a 3rd party(which also charges their own processing fees). This practice is actually illegal in both Canada and the US."

Is it really illegal? 

[TheZOOMGuy]

NorthAmerican - If Shopify still charges a 2% sales processing fee even if you use another payments provider, it is illegal. In Canada it falls under this part of the competition act:

Exclusive dealing, tied selling, and market restriction occur when one person doing business with another imposes restrictions on how the other can conduct their business. For example:

• Exclusive dealing is when a supplier requires or induces a customer to deal mainly or only with them, or with someone they choose.
• Tied selling is when a vendor requires or induces a customer to buy a second product. For example, they may refuse to sell a certain product unless the customer also buys something else. Tied selling may also prevent a customer from using or distributing another product with a product supplied by a vendor.
• Market restriction is when a supplier requires a customer to sell certain products in a defined market OR penalizes a customer for selling outside a specified market.

In the US it falls under Antitrust rules, which prevent a dominant player from using anti-competitive behavior when they hold a dominant market position, which Shopify does in the US.

Maz won't be able to give you a good answer on this, as he has to tell you what Shopify tells him to tell you, which will likely be; "It's standard industry practice", which isn't true, as neither Wix or Woocommerce do this. Probably others avoid it as well.

[Maz]

Hello, @NorthAmerican7!

Thanks for your response here.

While there may be laws in Canada or the US that regulate transaction fees or payment processing, I recommend consulting with a legal professional to determine the legality of specific practices in your area as we are not legal experts and I wouldn't be able to advise further.

Each plan has its own transaction fee rate for using a third-party payment provider - but when using Shopify Payments there are no transaction fees on orders placed through Shopify Payments, PayPal or manual payments. Merchants who have Shopify Payments enabled only pay the credit card processing rates advertised on our pricing pages here, and not the transaction fees.

[NorthAmerican7]

Thank you for the reply Maz, not sure if you saw my second question or just haven't had a chance to get to it yet, but here it is again just in case:

I have setup my account and enabled PayPal, but cannot get multiple currencies to show (all countries show USD even though I have specified CAD. I see the note that "Shopify Payments is required to manage base currency and enable local currencies." So how do I get my site to accept payments just via PayPal so that I can get payouts in both currencies? Do I have to enable the Shopify Payments?

In other words, I just want to accept payments that will payout in the same currency as accepted. (Only USD and CAD)

Also, is there any other way to get help from Shopify to help me get my site setup properly?

Thanks in advance.

[TheZOOMGuy]

"In other words, I just want to accept payments that will payout in the same currency as accepted. (Only USD and CAD)"

Hi NA- I've been trying to do the exact same thing myself & haven't got a satisfactory solution from Shopify. I have to either; accept payments in multiple currencies and only receive payouts in one currency, thus paying un-necessary exchange costs, OR, use a 3rd party processor such as Stripe, but still pay shopify an additional 2% over and above what Stripe charges. It's a catch22  either way & it forces me to pay costs that I shouldn't have to, but that are also unearned by Shopify.

[NorthAmerican7]

Thanks @TheZOOMGuy - I have chosen the advanced plan so the 3rd party option is only 0.5% per transaction (which is still a major cost to us). I have tried to make it work with PayPal, but I got an error message stating that multi-currency would ONLY work if I had Shopify Payments enabled. Any chance you know how to get multi-currency working for ONLY the 3rd party payment (for us it would be PayPal)?

[TheZOOMGuy]

Even Paypal have been absolute bastards about multi-currency. They have not only made it difficult, but their phone support has totally gone in the toilet. Plus, they keep mumbling nonsense about anti-money laundering, which is patently ridiculous.  I now refuse to use PP unless absolutely necessary.
The best hope is to use Stripe, or similar......
I wish I had a better answer for you. 

[NorthAmerican7]

I currently have PayPal working properly to accept and payout both in USD and CAD. The problem is that when I change the settings in Shopify to only use PayPal (deactivate Shopify Payments), it changes my currencies to USD only:

And when I try to change the currency for the Canadian market, it gives me this error:

[Maz]

Hey @NorthAmerican7!

I did not forget about you at all, and I hope your day is going well!

To answer your question, yes you need to have Shopify Payments multi currency enabled for this to work on your store. Merchants selling in multiple currencies using Shopify Payments can accept multi currency payments from customers using PayPal. Here are the requirements below;

Prerequisites/Requirements

1.  Must be using Shopify Payments Multi Currency

2.  If you are not using Shopify Payments multiple currencies, and instead relying on a third party app, the currencies will not be converted in PayPal.

3.  You must have a currency/country switcher on your shop. You can use the Geolocation app   to allow customers to switch between countries/currencies.

The merchant has the option to hold the multi currency payments in that foreign currency and convert them elsewhere. By default, PayPal asks you to manually approve foreign currency payments, however you can change that in the settings. You can choose to add that currency to your PayPal account, so you don’t have to approve transactions in that currency again, and in doing so, it allows you to hold balances in multiple currencies in PayPal without being charged conversion fees. If you want to convert the funds to your currency you can either do it through PayPal (and pay their fees) or withdraw the money in that currency and convert it elsewhere. You can see more information about this here at the link.

That being said, if you have any questions in relation to Payouts with PayPal it would be best to reach out to them for assistance as we don't control PayPal payouts. You can find their contact info here.

[NorthAmerican7]

Thanks @Maz  - that seems to have worked. I just didn't know that I had to have Shopify Payments enabled to get it working.

[NorthAmerican7]

I have setup my account and enabled PayPal, but cannot get multiple currencies to show (all countries show USD even though I have specified CAD. I see the note that "Shopify Payments is required to manage base currency and enable local currencies." So how do I get my site to accept payments just via PayPal so that I can get payouts in both currencies? Do I have to enable the Shopify Payments?

[Bpaldus]

Hello Maz

We just started on Shopify Marketplace after being on Shopify Plus in the hope of having the multi-bank feature.  We were given a description of this feature by our Shopify rep but then told that we don’t qualify because we are a US company and it is only for Canadian companies.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/selling-and-getting-paid-in-different-c...

We are an US headquartered multinational and we need to have multiple bank accounts.  Why is this feature only available in Canada?

When can non-Canadian companies qualify for this new program?

Thank you for your help,

Barb

[Maz]

Hello, @Bpaldus!

Thanks for joining this thread!

I understand your frustration with the multi-bank feature only being available for Canadian companies on Shopify Payments. While I don't have specific information on if and when this feature will be available for non-Canadian merchants as it is still in early access mode, I can provide some context on why this may be the case.

The availability of certain features, such as the multi-bank feature, may depend on the capabilities and regulations of these payment providers in different countries.

In the case of the multi-bank feature, it's possible that the payment provider(s) that we work with in the US do not currently support this feature or that there are regulatory barriers that prevent its implementation. However, I cannot confirm if this is the exact reason why, there maybe other barriers that are preventing this for now.

With that being said, I have added this feedback for our developers for you. The more up votes we get for this feature in this region, then it might help this get added to the US also in the future.

Aside from the above, what are your plans for future growth of your store?

[Bpaldus]

Hi Maz
We are seeing 300% growth month in month in Europe but if we can’t get multibanking to work by the end of the year we will likely change to a website that is custom made by NetSuite.
Cheers
Barb

[Maz]

Thanks for your reply @Bpaldus!

I wish I could give you the answer you're looking for, but I simply do not have any updates of if and when this will be added. In any case, I appreciate your feedback on this and understand the urgency on this for you. We would hate to see you go, however can completely understand your situation.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with in the meantime!

[jes01]

Hi Maz,

Is there any news since 2021? I can see the latest "I don't know" was in May of this year. Maybe something has happened since?

Is this an actual case within Shopify? I personally know several merchants who have requested this, and it's crucial for larger corporations to support payouts to multiple accounts, especially when selling in both Europe and the US.

Is the only solution to this really not to use Shopify Markets, and have individual shops for each market?

[merlic]

I started the thread but it's been a year since all these wonderful
comments have poured in. Thanks for all your input! I would just like to
write an update. Since then my business has grown 70% and we're now
seriously looking to expand into multiple new markets.

I'd like to run these subsidiaries with their own bank accounts since (I'm
distributing physical goods and each country has their own import
requirements) each subsidiary will need its own bank account.

Duplicating the website for each new market makes no sense at all, given
the sheer amount of content. The best I can come up with is redirecting to
a unique landing page for each country and using headless Shopify and
Stripe transactions to process the transactions to each of the different
bank accounts. Seems like a tall order and one probably solved by simply
switching to Magento or an entirely custom Javascript solution.

[rye_boy]

@MackJon I am in the same boat as you were. I have 2 stores and I am planning on combining them because of operational issues and inventory management.

What did you end up doing? Did you go back to separate your stores again to keep the currency separate?

I am not sure if I should just keep 1 store, from the 2 stores.

Any insight or help would be appreciated.

[MackJon]

Hi,

Didn't get any further with this unfortunately and it is just causing a lot of pain.

My advice would be not to create a single store at the moment, there's so many issues, limitations and workarounds to consider. For example, this one has been going unfixed since last June 

Basically it's a bug where all the warehouses are considered as one, so even if the warehouse cannot ship to the customer location, but is the only one with stock, Shopify allows the customer to purchase anyway. I've got a workaround, but using multiple paid apps to fix it. 

There's also the issue that % discounts work on the native currency, not the currency the customer i... This one took ages to figure out what was happening as we have 3 currencies on the store. 

My advice - test everything and be prepared for brand new issues you never considered before!

Jon

[rye_boy]

Jon!
Thank you so much for the advice!!

One of the main reason we want to switch to a single store from multiple store is the inventory management because Syncio doesn't sync the bundles well.

Anything else I should be aware of that you could possibly warn me of?