International payments for South African merchants and changing the default store currency

[Matt75]

I have a client who is based in South Africa with their default store currency in ZAR (South African Rand). Most of their customers are from Europe, USA and generally anywhere outside South Africa. We know that offering payments in a customer's native currency converts higher, so from what I understand currently, there are a few options.

1. Clone the store to create another currency, the downside being managing multiple stores and the cost of maintaining them or constantly making the same updates across multiple stores
2. Wait until Shopify releases multi-currency checkout for non-Plus users. The downside here is we don't yet have a firm timeline and they are currently losing customers by not offering customers native currency checkout
3. Change the default store currency to USD or GBP, open a bank account in the respective country, then use Bold Cashier (through Stripe) to offer ZAR and USD/GBP/EUR in the checkout. The downside here is that you now have an accounting nightmare and are doing business in multiple currencies etc. etc.

My question is: what is the solution with the least amount of pain involved? Are there any other potential solutions out there that I have missed? Are there any unforeseen issues with my proposed solutions?

Matt

[Nick]

Hi Matt, 

Nick here from Shopify. 

Great question and thank you for being so detailed with it. From my experience and what I have seen work successfully for other stores is the first method you suggested. I completely understand it is not always ideal and could be costly, but it really is the most straightforward way of going about the situation. It is completely up to you in the end, but the idea of changing the default store currency is one I would personally avoid if possible, you mentioned the accounting aspect, but also the hassle of having to set up bank accounts in other countries can be a nuisance. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the second option. 

Something else which you could look into to help you make your decision on which direction you go is some GeoLocation apps. Let's look at the most popular ones below:

• GeoLizr
• GeoLocation Redirect
• GeoIP Country Redirect 

Many of the Geo Location apps have currency conversion built into them (I know GeoLizr does for sure), but it could be worth having a peek at separate currency conversion apps also. 

I hope this information helps you make a decision on the best way forward for you. Don't hesitate to ask, should you have any other questions about anything. 

All the best, Nick

[Henry_Brown1]

Hey Matt,

This is sounds like a really common use case for our app Replay

You'd setup a continuous replay and de-select pricing, so it will copy over your entire store and keep it updated. Then in the new store you'd just set new pricing in the currency you want it in. We'd be covering the first example you gave, but we make it much easier to keep everything updated.

Let me know if you have any questions or would like someone on our end to take a deeper look to make sure it'd be a fit.

Good luck!

Henry

[MichaelGeo]

Hi there!

I would suggest you having multiple shops serving different domains, which allows check out currency to be local one. In this way, it provides the best flexibility regarding currencies, prices, stock, shipping costs, etc... Customers could also have the best experience checking out.

If you run multiple shops at the same time, you could also auto direct your customers based on their locations using GeoIP solutions, like Geo Targetly.

Its Geo Redirect tool can detect your visitors' locations by IP and auto direct them. For example, if you have a customer in Europe, and he goes to exampleshop.com, it could auto direct him to exampleshop.eu.com. 

It's easy to set and integrate the tool. No code is necessary by yourself, Shopify platform is well supported. If interested, you could look at the post: https://geotargetly.com/guides/geo-redirect-quick-start-guide for detailed instructions.

Hope it helps!

[pratiko]

hi

i have multiple store. usa and tr .    Visitors from USA are directed to .com. but it doesnt work sub page and product links. when click redirect to home page of .com ..do you have suggest or advice for solutions

thank you

[Saphira]

Hi Henry_Brown1,

A couple of questions on replay:

1. Does it work if you’ve imported products through oberlo?

2.I’ve considered this with a long term plan to close my initial store, will this effect the new store?

Thanks

Saphira