Selling Internationally
- If you're already on Stripe, Shopify Payments, or PayPal, you can accept international cards immediately with no additional setup - you'll pay slightly higher fees on cross-border transactions
- Cross-border fees add 1.5-2.5% to each international transaction; local acquiring eliminates most of this cost but requires a local entity and bank account
- Currency conversion: display prices in local currency for 5-10% higher conversion, but set your processor to settle in USD to avoid FX exposure
- Expand to local payment methods (iDEAL, Pix, Alipay) only when a country exceeds 10% of your revenue; below that threshold, card acceptance handles most international transactions
On this page
If you use Stripe, Shopify Payments, or PayPal, you can already accept international cards. You don't need to do anything special for your first few international orders. You'll pay slightly higher fees. That's it.
What Happens When a Foreign Card Pays You
When a customer in another country enters their card on your site, your payment processor handles the entire transaction. The customer pays in their currency (or yours), the processor converts it, and you receive your home currency (usually USD). No new account, no international bank setup, no paperwork.
This is called cross-border processing. Your US-based processor talks to the card network, which talks to the customer's foreign bank. The transaction works exactly like a domestic one, just with a currency conversion step in the middle and slightly higher fees.
The customer's bank may charge them a foreign transaction fee on their end (usually 1-3%). That's their bank's fee, not yours. You don't control it and you don't see it. Some premium cards waive this fee, which is why international customers with travel cards tend to buy more freely from US merchants.
What It Costs
International transactions cost more than domestic ones. Here's a typical breakdown using Stripe-like pricing:
| Fee Component | Domestic | Cross-Border | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processing fee | ~2.9% + $0.30 | ~3.9% + $0.30 | +1.0% |
| Currency conversion | None | ~1% | +1.0% |
| Total per $100 sale | ~$3.20 | ~$5.20 | +$2.00 |
The extra 1-2% per transaction is the total cost of cross-border processing on aggregator pricing (Stripe, Square, PayPal). On interchange-plus pricing, the cross-border interchange premium alone is 1.5-2.5% - see Going Global for the interchange-level breakdown. On a $100 order with aggregator pricing, you're paying roughly $2 more. On $5,000/month in international sales, that's about $100/month in extra fees.
For most small businesses, this is worth it. You're making sales you wouldn't otherwise have. Don't let the extra fees stop you from accepting international orders.
Exact fees vary by processor. Check your processor's international or cross-border pricing page for your specific rates. Some processors bundle the FX markup into one rate; others break it out separately.
Do I Need to Show Local Prices?
It depends on your international volume:
Under $10K/month international: No. USD pricing is fine. International customers are used to seeing USD and their bank handles the conversion. Don't add complexity you don't need yet.
$10K-$50K/month from one country: Consider it. Customers convert better when they see prices in their own currency. Studies show 10-30% improvement in conversion rates. Your processor can usually do this automatically (Shopify Markets, Stripe multi-currency).
Over $50K/month from one country: You should be showing local prices. The conversion lift pays for the setup time many times over.
DCC is when your terminal or checkout offers to charge the customer in their home currency at the point of sale, with a markup you control. This sounds helpful but frustrates customers. The exchange rate is typically 3-8% worse than their bank's rate. Customers who notice feel ripped off. Don't enable it.
What About Taxes and Duties?
Tax compliance for international sales is outside the scope of this guide, but here's what you need to know at a high level:
- VAT (Value Added Tax) applies in the EU and UK. If you sell digital goods to EU consumers, you likely owe VAT regardless of your revenue level.
- GST (Goods and Services Tax) applies in Canada, Australia, and several other countries. Thresholds exist (for example, Canada's threshold is $30,000 CAD).
- Customs duties apply to physical goods crossing borders. Your customer usually pays these on delivery, but surprise duties cause complaints and chargebacks.
For small volumes: Your platform may handle this for you. Shopify collects and remits taxes in many jurisdictions automatically. Check your platform's international tax settings before doing anything manual.
For real volumes: Talk to an accountant who specializes in international e-commerce, or use a tax automation service like Avalara or TaxJar. Getting this wrong creates liability; getting it right is a solved problem.
Country-Specific Gotchas
Here are the top 5 countries US small businesses sell to and what to watch for:
| Country | Cards work? | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Yes, standard cards work fine | CAD pricing preferred for repeat customers; PAD rules apply if you do recurring billing |
| UK | Yes, standard cards work fine | SCA/3DS authentication may trigger on checkout; GBP pricing helps conversion |
| EU (Germany, France, etc.) | Cards work, but... | SCA/3DS is required by regulation; local methods like iDEAL (Netherlands) and Bancontact (Belgium) are preferred in some countries |
| Australia | Yes, standard cards work fine | GST considerations if you exceed the threshold; AUD pricing helps for repeat buyers |
| Mexico | Cards work, but... | Lower card penetration overall; OXXO (cash voucher) and SPEI (bank transfer) preferred for many local buyers |
For most US merchants selling to Canada, UK, and Australia, you won't notice much difference from domestic transactions. EU countries may show slightly lower authorization rates due to 3DS requirements, and you may see more "soft declines" that retry successfully.
When to Scale Your Approach
Under $10K/month international: Your processor handles everything. Accept the slightly higher fees. Don't optimize yet.
$10K-$50K/month international: Show local currency pricing if most orders come from 1-2 countries. Check if you owe VAT/GST.
$50K-$200K/month international: Consider adding local payment methods for your biggest market (iDEAL for Netherlands, etc.). Read Going Global for the full strategy.
Over $200K/month international: Time to evaluate local acquiring (processing through a local entity to reduce fees and improve auth rates). See the Launch New Country playbook.
When Your Processor Isn't Enough
At some point, cross-border processing stops being "good enough." Here are the signs you've outgrown it:
- Auth rates below 80% in a specific country. Domestic transactions typically approve at 90%+. If a country is consistently below 80%, the issuing banks there may be declining your cross-border transactions at higher rates.
- Customers asking for payment methods you don't offer. If you're getting emails asking "Do you accept iDEAL?" or "Can I pay with Boleto?", there's demand you're not capturing.
- FX costs eating your margin on a specific corridor. If you're doing $100K/month to the UK and paying 1-2% in FX fees, that's $1,000-$2,000/month. At that volume, local acquiring could cut costs significantly.
- High chargeback rates from specific countries. Cross-border fraud rates are higher than domestic. If one country is generating disproportionate chargebacks, you may need country-specific fraud rules.
When you hit these signals, read Going Global for the practitioner-level guide on local acquiring, multi-processor strategy, and regional payment method integration.
If you have international orders, pull your last 30 days of transactions and segment by country. Calculate your auth rate for each country versus your domestic auth rate. If any country is more than 10 percentage points below domestic, that country is worth investigating further. You may need 3DS optimization or local currency pricing for that market.