Payment gateways for cross border transactions will help you expand an e-commerce store easily, and affordably.

Settlement periods, refund costs, and card fees can still be very low for international payments.

Most importantly, using a specialist cross-border payment gateway will reduce currency conversion costs. Not handled correctly, these costs can quickly start to eat into profits.

The main features of payment gateway transfers

Payment gateways offer a number of features that can aid in helping an e-commerce business.

Multiple payment methods
Multiple payment methods

Companies offer a range of payment methods. The most commonly supported are Visa, Mastercard and PayPal.

There’s also regular support for things like Paysafecard, Skrill, iDEAL and others.

Depending on the market you plan to operate, be clear on what you can and cannot accept.

Multi-currency support
Multi-currency support

Payment gateways will take the hard work out of multi-currency support and reduce overall cost.

Usually, a set fee is charged as a percent on a transaction and the rest is converted at the agreed exchange rate.

Sometimes, this rate is agreed as standard, for bigger companies, it may be possible to negotiate a better exchange rate.

Additional marketplace support
Additional marketplace support

Marketplace support and different CMS are available.

WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and Amazon marketplace are the most common.

Beyond this, many payment gateway providers will also offer APIs.

Take regular subscription payments
Take regular subscription payments

If you have an e-commerce site with a subscription model, an international payment gateway can allow for taking regular payments as well.

For cross-border subscriptions, having these enter a local account vs having each individual transaction being subject to a fee and exchange rate, makes for a lot of potential savings.

Physical POS support
Physical POS support

Some providers will also offer physical POS support for domestic payments.

Again, this just makes everything a little more convenient.

Take physical orders in one currency, and online in another.

Full service offering
Full service offering

Using a payment gateway provider offers further support for other aspects of an e-commerce business.

It is possible to raise invoices, pay international staff, and action virtual cards (for things like ad campaigns) all within the same solution.

Why opt for cross border payment gateways

Faster and easier to scale
Lower overall cost of transactions
Use multiple balances to reduce cost

Be clear on

Before choosing a payment gateway provider, there are a few things to be aware of.

The biggest impact on the bottom line for receiving cross-border payments is the fees and exchange rates.

Sending into banks often means a fee is paid on top, PayPal can charge up to $3.99 for US sales for example.

Payment fees also often differ by type.

For example, Visa and Mastercard will be cheaper, but local payment methods in some other countries could cost more.

If you know you need to support a specific payment method, in a specific country, it is worth shopping around to ensure both local accounts and the method itself are supported.

Specialist multi-currency providers are generally going to be cheaper than both banks and PayPal.

Each of these will have their own limits, exchange rates and fees. Be sure to compare providers and work with those who offer options that suit your business.

Some providers will need up to 48 hours to clear payments, others are instant.

Settlement timeframes will determine how quickly the transaction is processed, and ultimately how soon you will be paid.

Depending on your business, this can make a huge difference - particularly if you need to arrange for international shipping of the products.

Ideally, you want no failure rate, realistically you will get a small failure rate.

Payment gateways will give an estimated failure rate on transactions.

This is usually quite low, but should always be tracked independently of what a provider is telling you.

You may be due to pay tax in both countries involved in the transaction

Tax liabilities per country should be noted, as well as where tax treaties are in place.

Outside of this, it is possible you will need to pay tax in the country you operate AND the country you sell in.

Be clear on how this impacts the overall cost of what is offered, and how currency risk is managed.

Fulfilling orders

This may seem obvious, but is worth noting. A multi-currency payment gateway shouldn’t be a ticket to publishing and promoting products in every currency.

Once payments are made, if you need to refund you will lose the payment fees and exchange rate paid.

Outside of this, it is not great for branding!

The providers

Compare payment gateway providers

The right payment gateway is different for every business. We always recommend comparing to get a clear picture of what is on offer, vs what it is your business needs.

Use cases

Payment gateways are used by many different company types across the world. Here are some examples of where they have been used.

Recapping payment gateways

  • Using a payment gateway helps increase the global coverage of a store quickly

  • Many payment gateways allow you to work with marketplaces as well

  • Payment gateways will charge on a per transaction or set fee basis - sometimes both

  • Payment gateways can sometimes offer multi-currency account support as well