Card readers for international trade shows

Retail & Point of Sale

Topic summary

Australian Shopify merchant seeks a way to accept card payments at US trade shows for a store registered and banked in Australia. Current Australian solutions (EFTPOS and Square reader) won’t work overseas, and Shopify’s Australian card readers aren’t compatible in the USA. Using US Shopify hardware is believed to require a US bank account, which they do not have.

Key context:

  • Two Shopify stores: one for AUS/NZ, one for other markets, both tied to Australian banking.
  • EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) and Square are their domestic card payment tools.
  • Shopify POS app is used to scan/process items, then payment is finalized via an external POS method (e.g., Square) in Australia.

Recent updates:

  • No solution identified yet for taking card payments in the USA with an Australia-registered Shopify store.
  • Another participant asked why Square was chosen over Shopify’s reader; the answer: an immediate need due to insufficient EFTPOS machines.

Status:

  • Unresolved. The primary unanswered question is how to process US card payments on-site without a US bank account or region-specific hardware.
Summarized with AI on February 12. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi there,

I am hoping someone has been in a similar scenario and can offer some advice.

We are an Australian business running two shopify stores - the 1st to service our AUS and NZ customers and the 2nd to service everywhere else. Both stores are linked to our Australian business, banking etc.

We are heading to some international tradeshows towards the end of the year and will need to be able to take card payments from our international (USA) store.

We currently have eftpos and a square reader for Australia, these won’t work overseas.

The Shopify hardware offered in Australia won’t work in the USA and I don’t think we can’t use the USA hardware because we would need a USA bank account.

To clarify, I am looking for a method to take card payments in USA for a Shopify store registered in Australia.

Kind regards,

Allison

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2

Allison,

Could you let me know why you went with a Square reader rather than a Shopify card reader for Australia? I need to buy a card reader and thought the Shopify one would be the obvious choice but I cannot find much feedback about it.

Sorry I cannot help with your problem.

Sonya

3

Hi Sonya,

We went with a square because we needed an immediate solution to not having enough Eftpos machines.

We just use the shopify POS app to process/scan and then finale the payment through external POS method

1 Like