Payment Gateway options in South Africa

[AM13]

Hello,

I am just starting my business and my website. I’m based in South Africa, but much of my client base is located in the US and Europe. I’ve almost finish building my website on Shopify only to discover how limited my payment gateway options are. Payfast and Paypal are available to me but Paypal only works with USD, not allowing checkout in ZAR, and Payfast has a very low maximum payment limit. If I change my store currency to USD then, from what I’ve read, I must then open a bank account in the US. I do have a bank account in the US already, but then taxes, accounting and actually getting my money would be more of a nightmare than they already are.

All the apps able to solve my problem only work fully with Shopify Payments, which is not yet available in South Africa

Can someone please clarify for me if there is a straightforward solution to this problem? I've read through related topics on the forum and not found any answers. Maybe there is some updated information on it that I haven’t run across?

Thanks!!

[Nick]

Hi @Eucliff,

Good question! 

People from any country should be able to check out from your store if you have your currency set to South African Rand. While it will show that as the checkout currency to the customer, their bank will show what the exchange rate is the country/currency they are based in. They wouldn't need to open a bank in South Africa or anything, so you don't have anything to worry about there. 

[FITFLUFFPET]

I now wish I opened my Shopify store while I had my two month vacation in the USA January last year before I got stuck here in SA.  LOL. If only we knew.....

[FITFLUFFPET]

HI there, I have all the same questions and just setting up my store now. Just to verify:

So, I can set up my store in USD and get paid to my SA bank account without any problems? Im with Capitec. Is that what you have been doing?

[FITFLUFFPET]

Hi there, yes same thing happened to me cos my currency was set in ZAR, but when i changed it to USD it worked fine. My question is if I can set my store currency in USD (same situation as you) and still get paid to my SA Bank account?

Have you been able to solve the issue? Im just setting up my store now..

[AM13]

As far as I've discovered, the easiest way to have international payments
made into your SA account is to set your currency to USD and use PayPal as
your payment gateway. You'll need to have a certain type of account (sorry
I can't remember the name) with FNB for PayPal to work. I think the money
will still go to your own bank account, but the link is with FNB.

Hope this helps

[Nick]

Hi @FITFLUFFPET,

This would depend on the gateway you are using. The bank account you have connected to the gateway would more than likely be the one where your payouts would go to regardless of what currency your store is set to. You would also be paid in the currency your account is in, so if your store is set to USD you would still be paid out in SA Rand. This is something you should confirm with the gateway Capitec though as they would be the ones who control these things, Shopify wouldn't have any visibility or control over these settings in any way. 

[FITFLUFFPET]

Yes I finally successfully linked my Paypal with FNB after a bit of frustration on the navigation tabs on FNB site, however its now solved. I actually opened an account with FNB just to be sure, however its not really needed to open an actual account with them as on the website you can use other SA bank accounts and still link your Paypal to FNB to receive payouts. Thanks for then input ! 

[Tom115]

Hi Shopify,

I really think you need to look at adding Yoco as an accredited online payment gateway in South Africa. Yoco are SME focused and have better rates than your current listed gateways and their up time and support is great from my understanding from wordpress, Wix, shopstar and woocommerce clients who  currently use Yoco. Somehow Yoco can offer their gateway on these other platforms but not shopify - which is disappointing for me as a mostly satisfied shopify customer. 

[FITFLUFFPET]

Hi there, have you solved your issue, are you using 2CHECKOUT and is it working ok???? I am checking it out now to try and install in my shop, cos I find that I am loosing sales because I only have PAYPAL as the only way of making payment. I also have my store in USD and my PayPal linked to my FNB account. Our options using third party payment providers are so limited!!! Please let me know how 2 CHECKOUT is working for you, I would really appreciate it, thanks a lot!

[Ally09]

Hey everyone.. So it looks like we are all having the same issue... Like everything in South Africa our payment gate options are as useless as our government...  Anyway.  I hope the following info helps..

PayFast, PayGate, PeachPayments all do NOT support backend default currency in USD... If you are selling only to South Africa then rather have your store currency in ZAR, this just means you cannot intergrade PayPal.. which is fine seeing as thou SA is so backwards that most people don't even know what PayPal is.  BUT if you're target market is outside of Africa then you NEED PayPal and therefore you're default backend currency must be in USD.

Your funds get linked to your SA bank account from PayPal 

2Checkout asks for all your business reg docs and tax reg docs and their fees are high but it can work if you feel you need another payment option.

SHOPIFY need to integrate other payment portals for those of us stuck in a 3rd world country..  We are losing sales because we don't have enough payment gateways available to customers..

Self driving cars can be made but here we are with one payment gate option, come on guys

[Nick]

Hi @Ally09,

Thank you for sharing this information about the gateways Shopify is partnered with in South Africa, I have no doubt it will help some other users in the community. 

---

SHOPIFY need to integrate other payment portals for those of us stuck in a 3rd world country.

I have also taken note of your feature request for more payment gateways in South Africa and will let the team know about it for future reference. 

[FrancoiseV]

Hello I'm really struggling here and could seriously use some help. 

I set up my online shop with shopify, selling my artwork prints. However in the two years I have had my shop with shopify I have struggled with receiving payments.

My business is based in South Africa and the currency is in ZAR, however my customers are from South Africa as well as Internationally. My orders come from all over the world. I have payfast as my payment gateway on my store as this is what was recommended. However, every single customer not from south africa is unable to process the payment through the website. I'm trying to run a business here, and honestly there is no point to have an online shop with shopify if I cannot receive international payments. 

Please can someone urgently help, as this has been an ongoing issue for 2 years - with no one able to solve or help. 

What do I need to do- to receive international payments???

[Nick]

Hi @FrancoiseV,

Sorry to hear about you struggling with payments on your store. Something great is that you are getting orders from all around the world but lets look into seeing if we can help you receive your payments better. 

Can I ask where PayFast was recommended to you? It is in the list of gateways Shopify is partenered with in South Africa, but Shopify wouldn' thave any control or say on how a third party payment gateway would work. Have you reached out to PayFast about this at all? PayFast is a South African gateway and maybe that's why there have been issues with international payments. You can reach out to PayFast directly from their support here to discuss with them directly. 

Alternativley if PayFast isn't enabling you to recieve payments for your international orders, it could be worth your while to investigate using another payment gateway in the list. I know 2Checkout definitley do international payments. Would you be open to possibly changing payment gateway to get this working better? 

[collarkay]

Using Paypal is good but my concern is that it doesn't accommodate customers with no Paypal account. I wish there is a Paypal option that allows customers to also pay with their credit/debit cards.