Managing Currencies and Exchange Rates for Your Markets

SHOPLINE supports multiple currencies to help you sell globally and settle payments across various markets. This guide explains how currency conversion works, how exchange rates are applied, and what to consider when setting up your store to sell and settle in different currencies.

How SHOPLINE Uses and Manages Currencies Across Markets

SHOPLINE supports multiple currency types to help you localize pricing, manage cross-border transactions, and handle payouts efficiently. Understanding how these currencies interact is essential when setting up markets and expanding internationally.

Types of Currencies in SHOPLINE

• Store currency: The primary currency of your store, used to set product prices and generate reports in the SHOPLINE admin panel. It serves as the default currency unless overridden by a market-specific setting.

• Market base currency: The currency assigned to a specific market. It serves as the base currency, and both the market price and fixed price of products are converted based on it. Typically, this currency is set to either the store’s default currency or the currency of the target country.

• Local currency (customer-facing): The currency customers see for product prices on your storefront and at checkout. Usually, it is converted from the store currency using real-time exchange rates. If a product has a fixed price set, it will be converted based on the market base currency. This provides customers with a seamless and localized shopping experience.

• Payment currency: The currency customers actually use to pay for their orders. It is determined by the payment settings configured for the market’s country and typically defaults to the local currency unless the payment provider does not support that currency.

Currency Settings for Single-Country/Region Markets

When creating a market targeting only one country or region, currency settings are relatively straightforward:

• Store currency: Your store’s primary currency. Example: Your store is based in the United States and uses USD as the store currency.

• Market base currency: Defaults to the target country’s currency. Example: You create a market for Japan; the market base currency will default to JPY.

• Local currency (customer-facing): The currency customers see at checkout. Example: Customers in the Japanese market see prices in JPY unless you manually change the market base currency.

• Payment currency: The currency in which the customer makes the final payment at checkout. For example, if a Japanese payment provider is used, the payment currency would be JPY.

Currency Settings for Multi-Country/Region Markets

When you create a market that includes multiple countries or regions, currency settings are more complex due to differences in local currencies:

• Store currency: Your store’s primary currency. Example: Your store is based in the United States and uses USD as the store currency.

• Market base currency: Defaults to the store currency. Example: A "North America" market for Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica will use USD by default.

• Local currency (customer-facing):

  • When local currency display is disabled, all customers within the market will see prices in the market base currency.
  • When local currency display is enabled, customers in different countries will see product prices shown in their own local currencies. Enabling this feature is recommended.

Example: In the "North America" market (Canada, Mexico, Jamaica), if local currency display is disabled, all customers will see prices in USD. If it’s enabled, customers will see CAD, MXN, and JMD, respectively.

• Payment currency: When local currency display is enabled, customers will pay in their local currency by default. If it is disabled, the default payment currency will be the market base currency. If neither the local currency nor the market base currency is supported by the payment provider, the payment currency will default to the store currency.

Automatic vs. Manual Exchange Rates 

SHOPLINE supports both automatic and manual exchange rate conversions, allowing you to choose the method that best suits your business needs.

Automatic Exchange Rate Conversion

By default, automatic exchange rates are applied when:

• You create a single-country/region market. The exchange rate is applied between your store currency and the market’s base currency (typically the local currency of that country or region).

• You enable local currencies for a multi-country/region market. The exchange rate is applied between your market’s base currency (usually your store currency) and the local currencies of each country or region within the market.

Price conversion formula: Store price × Exchange rate + Conversion fee → Rounded (if rounding rules apply)

Example: A product priced at USD 10 is converted to EUR 8.90. If rounding is enabled, the price may appear as EUR 8.95.

Manual Exchange Rate Conversion

If you want more control over how prices are calculated, you can manually set exchange rates for individual markets. This is especially useful if you aim to stabilize pricing, offset operational costs, or account for projected currency changes.

Key Points to Know

• Profit or loss risk: You may gain or lose money due to differences between your manually set rate and the current market rate.

• Conversion fees still apply: If you'd like to factor in conversion fees when setting manual rates, multiply your rate by the conversion fee percentage.

Example: If the USD to EUR conversion fee is 1.5% and you set a manual rate of 0.90867, calculate the adjusted rate as: 0.90867 × 1.015 = 0.9223

• Manual rates only apply when the store currency differs from the market base currency, and there is a direct one-to-one exchange relationship between the two. Refer to the table below for when you can use manual exchange rates:

  Market Type	Base Currency	Local Currency Display	Manual Rate Option
  Single-country market	Local currency	N/A	Available
  Multi-country market	Store currency	Enabled or Disabled	Not available
  	Non-store currency	Enabled	Not available
  	Non-store currency	Disabled	Available

  Note: Manual exchange rates are not available for the primary market.

1. Go to Settings > Markets in your admin panel and select the market where you want to apply manual exchange rates.

   

2. In the Products and pricing section, click Manage.

   

3. Click Edit exchange rates.

   

4. In the pop-up window, select Use manual exchange rates, enter your desired rate, and click Complete.

   

   
   To revert to automatic rates, select Use automatic exchange rates to allow prices to adjust based on real-time market rates and click Complete.