Can I sell in the USA from the Republic of Moldova?

[LidiaU]

We are a company based in the Republic of Moldova. We have carefully explored options for expanding our business and have identified significant opportunities in the United States of America.

We intend to explore the possibility of selling our products in the United States of America market through an online store built on the Shopify platform. We envision managing sales through a dropshipping and print on demand system.

We would like to inform you about our current credentials:

1. We are a legally registered company in the Republic of Moldova.
2. We hold a PayPal account opened under the Moldovan company to facilitate international financial transactions.
3. We have a Payoneer account based on the company to manage payments and facilitate financial operations.
4. Our Stripe account is opened based on the Payoneer account.

Our main question revolves around the possibility and legality of selling our products in the United States of America through our Shopify store, given our current structure. We want to ensure that all legal and procedural aspects are covered, and our activities are in compliance with relevant regulations and requirements.

Please provide us with any additional information or guidance related to our proposed sales in the United States of America. If there are specific requirements or procedures we need to follow, we are prepared to fulfill them.

[StephensWorld · Accepted solution]

Hey Lidia,

If you go to this page (https://www.shopify.com/ca/payment-gateways) > scroll down to the "Payment information by country or region" section > enter in "Moldova".

You'll get a list of all of the payment gateways supported for Moldova merchants. 

"PayPal Express Checkout" is one of the payment gateways listed, so you'd be able to use your existing PayPal account to accept sales on Shopify. "Payoneer" and "Stripe" aren't listed there, so you wouldn't be able to use those 2 payment gateways. 

As far as selling to the United States goes, this is definitely possible. You would just need to setup "markets" (https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets) for each country/region that you want to sell to, when you're setting up your Shopify store. 

The only other thing you should look into would be taxes when selling in the United States. I cannot give tax advice, so I would recommend reaching out to a local tax professional in your area, to find out if you have any tax responsibilities when selling to the United States. 

Hope the above helps point you in the right direction! 🙂

Cheers,

Stephen

[StephensWorld · Accepted solution]

Hey Lidia,

If you go to this page (https://www.shopify.com/ca/payment-gateways) > scroll down to the "Payment information by country or region" section > enter in "Moldova".

You'll get a list of all of the payment gateways supported for Moldova merchants. 

"PayPal Express Checkout" is one of the payment gateways listed, so you'd be able to use your existing PayPal account to accept sales on Shopify. "Payoneer" and "Stripe" aren't listed there, so you wouldn't be able to use those 2 payment gateways. 

As far as selling to the United States goes, this is definitely possible. You would just need to setup "markets" (https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets) for each country/region that you want to sell to, when you're setting up your Shopify store. 

The only other thing you should look into would be taxes when selling in the United States. I cannot give tax advice, so I would recommend reaching out to a local tax professional in your area, to find out if you have any tax responsibilities when selling to the United States. 

Hope the above helps point you in the right direction! 🙂

Cheers,

Stephen

[LidiaU]

Thank you sincerely. I have an additional inquiry, if you may. Following the receipt of payment for a product in the store from the purchaser, how much time elapses before I can gain access to the funds from PayPal? Is there a specific duration for which PayPal retains the funds within the system?

[StephensWorld · Accepted solution]

Generally speaking, you'll receive the funds immediately. Once the order has been placed on the Shopify store, you'll see the balance in your PayPal account within a few seconds. 

However, PayPal can put a limit on your "instantly available funds" (ie. prevent you from spending the money - or transferring the money - in your account right-away). 

I use PayPal for my Shopify Expert business, and they currently have my limit at around $20k per month. This doesn't mean that I can't make more than $20k in sales -- it just means that I can't withdraw more than $20k, without waiting for a cool-down period. 

This amount changes every few months. It's been as low as $6k and as high as $36k, for me personally. It's based on how many sales you're doing, and how fast you're fulfilling orders. If it notices you've had a HUGE influx of orders, or that you're taking a longer-than-average time to fulfill your orders, then it will change accordingly. 

It's to prevent fraud (and can actually help you, as the seller, so that you don't end up on the hook for money you've already spent, if someone does a dispute/chargeback). 

You can also reach out to their team to request an increase if needed, and they're usually pretty flexible and willing to help. 

I've personally never had a problem with it. The few times I've hit my limit, I end up just waiting a week or so (for the next month to start) and then I take the rest then. 

Hope the above helps! 🙂

[Kristina1907]

I had a similar question about selling in the USA. LOVAT helped me with this https://vatcompliance.co/ein-number-for-non-us-businesses/

Great customer support, quite easy integration with my Shopify store, very friendly software to submit my Sales tax return.

[alxdrs]

Hi, @LidiaU ! Could you tell me please which payment method you decided to use? Is it Payoneer and PayPal or is it something else?