How to integrate AUD payment gateways in a South African Shopify store?

[AndrewEvans97]

Hello everybody, my business partner and I have set up a Shopify store located in South Africa but selling to the Australian market. 

we are very limited to which pay gates we can integrate to receive funds. All the SA based integrations such as Payfast, Payflex, peach payments etc all change the currency to ZAR at the final step of checkout. Our store presents products in AUD until it’s time to pay. 

This unfortunately will deter Australian buyers and we are looking for a pay gate that can present the final checkout step in AUD. Any suggestions? 

[Shay]

Hi @AndrewEvans97 I'd be happy to help you with this!

The currency at the final stage of checkout is set by the store and can be changed in your admin under Settings > Store Details. If your customer market is based in Australia, then I recommend setting the store currency to AUD as well. You may need to create a new bank account for your deposits that supports transactions in AUD for this to work. Please note that any instances of ZAR on your store will change to AUD without any conversions. You will need to convert your product prices, shipping rates, etc, yourself if you make this change.

To have the checkout maintain AUD and not switch to ZAR, while maintaining the default store currency as ZAR, can only be done if you are using Shopify Payments. You can learn more about this in our Help Center: Local Currencies.

[Crystalleeann]

Hello, if you want your based currency in AUD I would recommend forming a company in the UK so that you are able to use shopify gateway or stipe. This is what I did, and I am now able to accept payments in any currency. Forming a company in the UK does not necessarily mean you have to accept payments in GBP or Euros it's just so that you are able to use the shopify or stripe gateway which will provide you flexibility in your store currency and allow you to accept payments in a variety of currencies. I hope this explanation makes sense. 

To form the company as a South African I used a company called Companies Made Simple, there are other companies that provide this service as well, but a lot do not provide to South Africans since we are a high-risk country due to fraud. I will advise you to pick the privacy package and not the international package. The international package is overpriced, the privacy package is cheaper and gets the job done which is to get a UK address and have your company registered in the UK. During your application you will apply for a wise bank account which is how you are going to accept your payments from either Shopify or Stripe. Your Wise account will be linked to whatever local bank account you use (FNB, Capitec etc) 

This way I am able to use shopify payment gateway or stripe and can create a store and accept in whatever currency I choose. 

I hope everything I have said makes sense. If you have any other questions do not hesitate to ask.