Understanding Multi-Currency Transactions in SHOPLINE Payments

If you sell globally with SHOPLINE Markets and accept payments through SHOPLINE Payments, it’s essential to allow customers to pay in their preferred currency. SHOPLINE Payments supports multiple currencies across different regions and countries, enabling you to display prices and process payments in your customers’ local currencies. This helps you reach more international buyers and boost sales.

This guide outlines the currencies supported by SHOPLINE Payments and explains how the system handles multiple currencies throughout the payment process—from price display to settlement and refunds—helping you better understand and manage international transactions.

Supported Currencies by Country and Region

SHOPLINE Payments supports a wide range of currencies, with up to approximately 165 available in total. The specific currencies you can use depend on your region, payment method, and card brand. 

For the complete list of supported currencies, please refer to this sheet.

How Currencies Work in SHOPLINE Payments

Before using SHOPLINE Payments to collect payments, it is recommended that you understand the currency types involved in a transaction, including their definitions, interactions, and how they affect your payment collection and settlement process.

• Store Payment Currency: The default currency used for sales, payments, and order reports in your SHOPLINE store. You can set it in your SHOPLINE admin panel under Settings > Basic settings > Payment currency. Typically, the store currency is set to match your primary market.

  Important: You can change your store currency only before any orders have been placed. Once orders exist, the store currency can no longer be modified.

  

• Local Payment Currency: If you sell to multiple countries or regions using SHOPLINE Markets, you can enable local currency display for each market and configure the corresponding payment methods separately under Markets > Payments. Once set up, customers will be able to view and pay in their local currency based on their location.

  

• Deposit Currency: The currency in which your SHOPLINE payouts are deposited into your bank account. It is determined by the country or region where your SHOPLINE Payments application entity is registered.

Currency Conversion Scenarios and Examples

This section explains how SHOPLINE Payments handles currency conversion under different setup scenarios (whether your store has enabled Multi-market or not) and provides examples to help you understand how payment and deposit currencies interact in each case.

When Multi-market Is Not Enabled

If your store has not enabled Multi-market, and its sales region differs from the region where your SHOPLINE Payments application entity is registered, the currency conversion follows this flow: Store payment currency → Deposit currency.

Example: A UK merchant primarily selling to US customers sets the store currency to USD and registers SHOPLINE Payments with UK business information.

• Store payment currency: USD
• Deposit currency: GBP

In this case, funds collected in USD are converted to GBP during settlement.

When Multi-market Is Enabled

If your store has enabled multi-market, the currency conversion follows this flow: Local payment currency (enabled by Multi-market) → Deposit currency.

Example: A UK merchant selling to both UK and US customers sets the store currency to GBP, registers SHOPLINE Payments with UK business information, and creates a US market with USD as the local payment currency.

• Store currency: GBP
• UK customers’ payment currency: GBP
• US customers’ payment currency: USD
• Deposit currency: GBP

Payments collected in local currencies (GBP or USD) are converted to the deposit currency (GBP) during settlement.

Converting Currencies for Payment Collection

If a customer's payment currency differs from your deposit currency, we convert the funds using exchange rates provided by third-party sources.

• Time of conversion: Conversion occurs based on the settlement schedule.

Example: if your sales on Monday are $100 and £100, the £100 will be credited to your SHOPLINE Payments account immediately after successful payment on Monday. On Thursday, we'll convert the $100 into £80 (assuming a conversion rate of 0.8 GBP per 1 USD) and add it to your account balance.

• Conversion rate and fees: The transaction exchange rate updates daily at 12 PM (UTC). You'll pay a default currency conversion fee applied to an external base exchange rate. This external base exchange rate is based on rates within the wholesale currency markets at the time of conversion.

The exchange amounts and related fees remain pending until settlement. After settlement, the final values are shown in your balance records.

Handling Conversions on Disputes and Refunds

Exchange rates fluctuate with the market, so the rate used during the payment often differs from the rate used when a dispute or refund occurs.

If a currency-converted payment is disputed or refunded, the amount is calculated using the current exchange rate—not necessarily the rate at the time of the original transaction. This means:

• You may gain or lose based on rate fluctuations.
• The customer is always refunded the exact amount they paid in their original currency.

For example, if the exchange rate is £1 = $1.224 when a payment is made, the customer pays $12.24 and you earn £10. If a refund occurs when the exchange rate becomes £1 = $1, you would need to pay £12.24 to refund the $12.24 to the buyer. The extra £2.24 is the exchange rate loss you bear.