How can I set up USD payouts from a Netherlands location?

[JJSB93]

Hello,

We are located in The Netherlands and selling in the United States.

Since we sell in USD, we would also like to be paid in USD.
I know you can set up a USD bank account through Wise (formerly TransferWise), however, I can't get it to set the account to USD payout in Shopify.

Shopify Payments asks for SSN and EIN, so through Shopify Payments / Stripe it doesn't seem to be possible these days.

Does anyone know how to do this, or if there is another way to get this done?

Thanks for the help!

[Andrew]

Hi @JJSB93,

Hyde here from Shopify!

When using Shopify Payments it is totally possible to sell in a different currency. However, whether or not you can receive a payout in anything other than your local currency depends on where you're located.

As you can see in our help guide Selling and Getting Paid in Different Currencies it is only possible to receive payouts in Euros in the Netherlands. You could opt to use a bank account that is based in the US in order to receive payouts in USD, however, you would need to submit an SSN and an EIN to use Shopify Payments.

I know this may be frustrating for you to hear, so I'd like to help you with potential workarounds. Just a few questions I'd like to ask you:

Are you selling exclusively to the United States, or do you also ship to other countries?
If you do also ship to other countries, are you simply marking your products in USD to target the US market more? 

The reason I'm asking you these questions is that I want to determine what's more important to your business: store currency or payout currency. It is common for store owners to want their store currency to match their target audience's local currency, but you're already selling in USD so that's not a big issue for you. 

The problem obviously arises for payouts, for which at the moment there is no real workaround: in the Netherlands if you're using Shopify Payments you can only receive your payouts in euros. 

So there are three ways of approaching this:

1) Include the cost of currency conversion in your product prices. 

While the cost of converting from USD - Euro will fluctuate, and while it incurs a conversion fee, you could try to include a buffer in your product prices by rounding up your product prices. 

2) Use a currency converter app on your store so that your customers can browse your products in USD, but would have to pay in euros at check out. 

It's totally understandable if you're concerned that the change in currency at the end might result in abandoned carts, but a good way to help that is transparency: letting your customers know that they will be charged in euros when they checkout. 

It will help too to focus on establishing solid buyer trust throughout your content funnel (learn more about creating a great content funnel here). You do that by convincing your target audience that you are a trustworthy, reliable, authority in your field. Here is a great blog post about how to really establish trust with your customers. 

3) Switch to a different,  third-party payment gateway instead.

Of course, if payout currency is especially important to you then you might want to choose a different payment gateway altogether. Just be aware that using a third-party gateway will mean you incur transaction fees. 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!

All the best, Hyde.

[JJSB93]

Hello @Andrew,

Thanks for your detailed response!

Right now, we are only focused to sell in the US. In a couple of weeks we will extend to other countries like UK, but we think it's the best to keep it in USD at checkout. 
I think that if we change the website currency to EUR, it will have an impact on shopping cart abandonment. 

We do have a USD Bank account, but don't have a SSN and EIN.
Are both of them required? Because we may want to register our company in US one day, but a SSN is impossible for us. 

I'll take a look at third-party payment gateways.

[Andrew]

Thanks for that context! If you're sure you want to stick to USD, then a third-party gateway is your best option. The SSN (Social Security Number) and the EIN (Employer Identification Number) are mandatory when using Shopify Payments US. I hope that helps narrow does your options and gives you a clearer picture of the next steps! -Hyde