Is it fine to accept payments in local currency for your micro SaaS?
Hi Everyone,
I'm from India and launching a micro SaaS for which I'm using Stripe as a payment gateway. The company has been incorporated in India. The product is not going to be solely focused on the Indian audience. It is aimed at a global audience just like any other SaaS startup. There are many regulations around how payment can be accepted in the form of foreign currency if you are based out of India and I'm unable to circumvent that. This is causing a delay in launching the product.
So I have decided to integrate payment links on my website which accept payments in INR (India Rupees. 1 USD ~ 80 INR).
Do people who pay for services/products detract from having to pay in some different currencies? Would this cause a drop-off at the checkouts? Please let me know if you have faced this problem and have any insights about this.
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@PiyushDinde I am also running a SaaS service from India and accepting payments globally via Stripe. I did not find any problems with that. All our pricing plans are listed in USD.
If you put your pricing in INR, you will lose out on all other potential customers.
And one more thing Stripe payments fail many times for cards issues in India, because of new RBI regulations from last year. So for Indian customers, you may want to consider razorpay as an alternative.
Yeah the regulation around this is broken. Sorted this issue with stripe. Finally charging $. Thanks @TooMuchGrey
Different market, different habits.
From my experience German people tend to pay using only payment methods in which they have complete trust. So, you may have a legit business doing great all over the Globe, but if you are not serving preferred payment option (PayPal, GPay, ApplePay, Klarna...) forget about entering the market.
They are just really careful to whom they give credit card details.
On the other hand US, Aus, GB people.... they don't care about it.
Insightful. Thanks @denrac
I finally sorted the issue with stripe and now gonna charge $ instead of INR. Your post made me realise that checkout experience while it is contextual, it helps in having a standard currency that people are already familiar with. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Appreciate your help. Thanks again!
I agree with this stereotype.
And I will say that when I moved from place close to Germany to England, I immediately started putting my CC everywhere on the internet.
I know it sounds like I am making fun here, but this is what really happened to me.
Thanks @AwesomeGoat
Sorted this out finally!
If I really want the product and then I see Rupees at checkout, it would make me pause and Google the conversion rate, but I think I'd still go forward with the purchase. Is there any way you can display what the conversion rate looks like to users without actually accepting USD?
This is also a typical kind of startup challenge in my opinion. It's not ideal, but you launch the product, and later you accept other currencies and see a lift in your conversion rates.
I was finally able to sort out the issue with Stripe. One insight that I got is showing my local currency wouldn’t have helped in any way even with the conversion. People trust and don’t think twice when they see $ at the checkout. Gonna optimise for the right practices. Thanks for you input. Appreciate it @bensibley
Use PayPal. It will show amount in customer currency and convert it while sending it to you.
Paypal UX is quite broken. I tried it and the way they make user make an account first is a terrible UX imo. I have figured out a fix with Stripe. finally charging dollars. Thanks @uptimetracker
What exact fix you got with Stripe? It can help for my local currency implementation too.
This will have a bad effect. I was in a similar situation. After I was able to accept in US dollars and several other popular currencies and payment systems, I began to earn 30% more.
<a href="https://www.checkoutfirst.com">thermal socks!</a>
Will check this out! 30% bump in revenue seems like a norm! Thanks @checkoutfirst
Hi, I am using Stripe for https://getLaunchList.com from India. You only need an IEC code to accept international payments. You can get it from LegalWiz online.
https://stripe.com/docs/india-accept-international-payments
https://www.legalwiz.in/import-export-code-iec-registration
And how to do charge Indian users? Because as far as I know you can't charge Indian users in USD using Stripe. Does stripe automatically convert to INR while displaying pricing to Indian users in Stripe business account?
You're right, Stripe doesn't allow Indian accounts to charge local issued cards in USD.
I detect user location by IP address and show price in INR for indian users.
Thanks this was helpful. Appreciate your help Navneet!
This will have a bad effect. I was in a similar situation. After I was able to accept in US dollars and several other popular currencies and payment systems, I began to earn 30% more.
Wow. Exactly why I didn’t want to take payments in my local currency! Helpful insight. Thanks @MikFoxi
From what I know is that you cannot accept payment in foreign currency if you are registered as an individual with stripe. To accept foreign currency you need to be a business.
I think the best way forward would be to get yourself registered as a sole proprietor. This greatly reduces the road blocks. Later you can register as a limited company or something else as per your requirement.
Yes I finally figured this out! @ardzehn
Great! Best wishes for you journey.
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I would not buy anything or signup for a service if prices are in Indian Rupees only.
I am from Europe and buying in USD, EUR, GBP are no problem.
Any other curreny and I would have to think about how stable the currency is as in "Will this cost me 20% more in a few months because of exchange rate fluctuations?".
I wouldn't even be sure if this product is even available for me if prices are in Rupees only.
If you can at least offer USD, then I think it would make a big difference in your conversions.
I thought so too. Charging folks in my local currency will be a major bummer. Like you said, I suspect this will affect my conversation rate as users will be confused/reluctant to pay in INR. I'll figure out a way to charge customers in USD as that is a norm everywhere in the world. Thanks Joe.