Selling in more than one currency: what WooCommerce can and cannot do

WooCommerce works in one currency at a time: the one you chose in the shop settings. Showing prices in another currency, or charging in it, takes an add-on, and brings questions that configuration does not answer alone: what exchange rate, who rounds, and which currencies your payment method accepts. First, the ways to do it; then, what to decide.

The ways to do it

Way How it works The price you pay
One currency Prices and payment are in one currency. The customer's browser or bank converts. The simplest and most predictable. The customer sees the amount in their currency or whatever their bank charges.
Show another, charge in yours A plugin shows converted prices but payment is in the shop currency. The customer sees one amount and pays another, sometimes with their bank's conversion.
Charge in several currencies A plugin stores prices and charges in each currency, if the payment method allows it. More set-up, exchange rates and rounding on you, reports in mixed currencies.
One shop per country or currency Each shop has its own currency, prices, shipping and taxes. More maintenance, but each shop is clean.

What to decide before touching anything

1 Check what the payment method accepts. If the operator only charges in one currency, the rest is pointless. It is in the documentation of its plugin (connecting a payment method).
2 Decide how to get the rate. A fixed one that you set, or an automatic one from a source. A fixed rate protects you from jumps but needs review; an automatic one can change the price in front of the customer.
3 Decide the rounding. A converted 19.99 gives ugly numbers. Many shops round to a “round” price in each currency.
4 Write what the customer sees. “Prices in USD, charged in USD” or “converted by your bank”. Without it, the customer charged too much will write to you.
5 Review shipping and taxes per currency. Each currency may have different shipping: see shipping and taxes.
6 Review the reports. Orders in different currencies add up badly: where to see your sales.
Do not change the base currency of a shop that already has orders. Old orders stay in the old currency and the totals stop making sense. If you really must, do it in a new shop and keep the old one as an archive.
Ask whether you really need it. If the great majority of your sales are in one currency, one currency and a line saying “other currencies, write to us” is enough. More currencies means more upkeep every month. This is not financial advice: for exchange rates and tax duties, talk to your accountant.

Want to know whether a currency plugin is weighing on the shop, or whether payment fails in one currency? Tell us the address and the test currency.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Setting up your WooCommerce shop

Connecting a payment method to WooCommerce

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