Payment methods by market, and the conversion they unlock

Shopify's documentation on local payment methods contains a single sentence that explains most of the confusion teams have on this subject: "Each method is available only when a customer is in a supported country and selects an eligible currency."

Two conditions, both of which you control through market configuration rather than through the payments settings people go looking in. The first is geography and is usually correct by accident. The second is currency, and it is the one that quietly breaks.

Consider a UK brand that has started selling into the Netherlands. The market exists, the shipping works, the traffic arrives — and the store presents prices in GBP because nobody made a decision to do otherwise. iDEAL will not appear, because the currency is not eligible. The buyer reaches checkout, finds a card form where they expected their bank, and a proportion of them leave. Nothing in the payments configuration is wrong. The pricing configuration is.

This is why we treat payment methods as a [Shopify Markets](/services/markets) question rather than a checkout question. Market, catalogue, currency and payment method are one decision made in four places, and the failure is almost always that they were made by four different people at four different times.

The obvious thing to put here is a table of market share — what percentage of Dutch ecommerce runs through iDEAL, how much of Polish checkout is BLIK. Those figures circulate widely and most of them trace back to a payment provider's own annual report, restated enough times that the original scope and method have fallen off.

We are not reproducing them, because a number you cannot source is a number you cannot defend in a board meeting, and the decision does not need one. The mechanism is sufficient: in these markets the local method is what a consumer's bank app is built around, and a checkout that does not offer it is asking them to do something unfamiliar with their money.

If you want a defensible figure, take your own. Your analytics already know how many sessions from each country reach the checkout and how many complete, and that comparison — Netherlands against your home market, before and after adding iDEAL — is both sourced and about you. It is a better input than any published average.

Shopify Payments is available in 49 countries and regions, and the eligibility rule is about you, not your buyers: "You can use Shopify Payments to accept payments at checkout if your business is located in one of the supported countries listed on this page." Selling into a country does not require Shopify Payments to operate there; having a business entity in an unsupported country does prevent you from using it at all.

When you do need a third-party gateway, know the cost structure before you scope it. Shopify documents that "third-party transaction fees apply on all third-party and alternate payment gateways even when Shopify Payments is activated", with the exception that "if you have Shopify Payments activated, then PayPal and manual payments are excluded from third-party transaction fees." Plus merchants should check their own terms, since fee treatment varies by location.

The strategic point: a third-party gateway added to reach one local method carries a fee on every order it touches, plus a second reconciliation stream, plus a second refund and chargeback process for your finance team. That can be entirely worth it in a market you are serious about. It is rarely worth it in a market producing a handful of orders a month, and "we should support their local method" is not by itself a business case.

Two categories sit outside the country-by-country list and deserve separate treatment.

Express checkouts and wallets. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal are not market-specific in the way iDEAL is, and they do a different job: they remove the form rather than the payment barrier. Their value is highest where your traffic is mobile and your address form is long, which is most international traffic, because the buyer is entering an address format your form was probably not designed for.

Buy now, pay later. Klarna is available through Shopify Payments across multiple European countries, and Meses sin intereses is Mexico's instalment norm rather than an add-on. BNPL is genuinely conversion-moving in some categories and irrelevant in others, and it comes with a regulatory surface that is moving in several markets. Add it because your basket sizes and category justify it, not because a competitor has the badge.

The honest caution on both: an express button is a conversion feature that also shortens the path past your own upsells, your delivery promise and your account creation. That is usually a good trade. It is worth knowing you made it.

Two requests come up often enough to answer here.

"Turn on everything available." No. Each method is a settlement stream, a refund path, a chargeback process and a line in your reconciliation. Some, like Multibanco and OXXO, place the order before the money arrives, which changes how your fulfilment rules have to behave. Three well-chosen methods in a market beat nine, and the nine cost your finance team every month forever.

"Launch a separate store in that country so we can use a local gateway." Almost never. A store per country multiplies your theme, your apps, your catalogue maintenance and your reporting for the lifetime of the business. If the only driver is a payment method, price the third-party gateway on the existing store first — it will be cheaper by a wide margin, and it is reversible.

The version of this work we like is unglamorous: get currency right per market, turn on the two or three methods those buyers expect, watch the completion rate, and leave the rest alone until the order volume argues otherwise.

• International commerce and Shopify Markets
• Shopify Markets or a store per country?
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