A good number of brands that have established strong markets in their domestic country intend to cross over and penetrate the foreign countries. Also, to make the purchase appealing to their customers, many organizations prefer to allow their customers to pay in the currency of that geographic area. Below, we will explain to you how to allow multiple currency in Shopify.
Single Shopify store, primarily have US English language, and currency also is US dollars
Among the solutions which in their implementation can be considered as less difficult, the first one can be referred to currency conversion within a single store. In practice, this is done using applications such as Best Currency Converter or MLV Auto Currency Switcher. The applications deploy on the site installs this currency converter. In the application settings we determine the currencies to be shown and the exchange rate (automatic, according to the data given by the application or specified individually).
One of the significant issues of this solution is that the converted currencies are presented in the store at every point starting from the awareness level of the consumers but not at the checkout level. For instance, if I choose PLN as the primary currency for the store while creating a Shopify account and if a user based in Germany decides to translate the currency to EUR, then all the rates will change to the selected translations, but while shifting from the cart option to the checkout option, they will be reverted to PLN. The above-mentioned plugins let the user know of this; however, as our practice has shown, quite frequently this is considered as a ‘surprise’ making the visitors abandon the cart with a consequent decrease in conversion rates.
The combination of Shopify markets and Shopify payments
As for the traders willing to accept payments within Shopify, the situation here is much easier.
There is also Shopify Payments that is integrated to Shopify as a payment provider – up until now, it is available only in certain countries. Another advantage that comes with the use of Shopify Payments is in providing full optimization with the new Shopify Markets function.
Shopify Markets is an in-house feature of Shopify that impacted everyone in late 2021. It enables you to have an easy time running sales for a number of currencies in one store. In the event a user switches on his preferred currency we can easily relocate from one domain, subdomain or subdirectory. Also, in the given market, options such as different prices, different taxes, or payment methods can be provided.
The future would also see the possibility of the Shopify Markets to show a different content related to the geographic location of the customer, different catalogue of products and preferred shipping warehouses.
The clear disadvantage of the Shopify Payments solution is the rather high transaction fee that starts at 2. 4% + 0. 3 USD and reaches 2. 9% + 0. 3 USD. To some of our customers, such a commission would be rather higher than at the current rate (Shopify commission + payment gateway provider commission). Some companies when they intend to enter a new market operate a company in that country and thus one can open a Shopify store on the newly established firm. Too many firms, however, such a move is not feasible at the stage of identifying the opportunities for internationalization. Nonetheless, what do we do if Shopify Payments does not seem logical for us at this time?
It should be noted that when targeting global markets with different currencies, each currency should be in a separate Shopify store
The advice that we give to the clients is to begin to sell in a new marketplace from a new instance of the Shopify store. The advantages of this solution are many while the effects of this plan are far inferior to the advantages. I will begin with the latter.
If you manage a separate store, you are going to pay double: Shopify plan, commissions, and apps. If merchants want to sell in several markets, some of the costs may be solved by using the known Shopify Plus plan.
One issue that arises in this setting is the issue of coordinates in terms of stock – especially handy are the applications that will help to keep relevant data up to date in all the stores. It can also mean such aspects as images and descriptions of the specific products or the entire collections. More stores can use a product information management (PIM) or an ERP system which will, of course, be more appropriate.
I think that it is necessary to review some benefits of given solution. The largest advantage is individuals’ preferred delivery and payment options are available to our customers. The other thing is organizing individual promotions in each market, including the promotion, or even sale, of distinct products, a specialized support section, and so on.
Another factor of significance specifically for large enterprises that compete across national borders is that the minimization of controls in the operation of individual markets is desirable to achieve improved flexibility. The business-critical clients that Inspler targets have large contents, marketing or e-commerce divisions in each market. They could not practically control the total environment from a central office because this would be very challenging.
Our recommendation
Were it possible to suggest one of the options above as the most appropriate for the given list, then the one being currently implemented is undoubtedly the best (as for the conversion rate, convenience for users and their experience, and the management intensity of the process) for the creation of a dedicated store for a particular currency. The critical thing to bear in mind here is that this is the store for the currency not the market. On the store for the EUR currency, extra language versions can be easily created for, for example, Germany, Spain, France, and others.
Of course, dreaming of increasing the sales of your company’s products in the global market legislatures?
Due to the payment solutions that are offered within the Shopify app, by operating in different markets, you will be able to expand your business. If you are here for deciding as to which option is good for your store or how to implement the selected functionality – please use the form below or write to us in Facebook or Instagram.
