The undeniable success of streaming media, direct-to-consumer goods, and other subscription businesses is far from just an American phenomenon. Today, consumers all around the world enjoy the benefits of subscription services, such as convenience, consistent billing, and low upfront costs.

While the benefits of subscriptions are largely similar no matter where consumers live, subscription payment practices vary based on location. Across the globe, people prefer different payment methods (e.g. direct debit over credit cards), businesses partner with various gateways, and regions impose different sets of taxes. 

Above all, subscribers need to be able to pay in their own local currency.

That’s why, as part of our continued efforts to support merchants’ needs towards global expansion, Recurly is thrilled to announce the addition of 100+ new currencies across our supported gateways. In total, we now support over 140 currencies and 18 different languages.

Our rationale is simple: if a gateway supports a currency, then Recurly should support it as well. Merchants can serve their subscribers’ needs regardless of geographic location — a win-win for everyone involved.

Merchant Benefits

Thanks to multi-currency support, merchants can now offer more localized solutions to their subscribers across the globe. Some of the main benefits of this include ensuring (1) a more personalized checkout process for consumers and (2) decreased cart abandonment for ecommerce merchants. 

Subscribers able to pay in their own local currency enjoy reduced foreign transaction fees and protection from exchange rate fluctuations, which means a more consistent payment experience. Merchants enjoy significantly higher sales numbers: thanks to local currency support, merchants could see ecommerce cart abandonment rates decrease significantly.

How to Enable Multi-Currency Support

Enabling additional currencies in Recurly is a simple three-step process:

  1. Subscribe to a plan that supports multi-currency. Currently, Recurly’s plans support multi-currency. Once subscribed, Recurly’s support team can help you enable the multi-currency feature.

  2. Enable the at the gateway level. This involves confirming that a gateway supports the necessary currencies and enabling the desired currencies.

  3. Configure the gateway appropriately in Recurly. If this is an existing gateway, visit the gateway’s configuration settings in Recurly and enable additional currencies as needed. Zero Dollar Authorization (ZDA) support must also be enabled at this time, as certain currencies will not work correctly with $1.00 authorizations (it is best practice to do ZDAs whenever possible, as certain card brands may charge a fee to process a $1 authorization).

Here's what Maayan Kotler, VP of Marketing at Tailor Brands, has to say:

We know that potential customers want to pay in their local currency, and we appreciate that Recurly supports so many global currencies and payment methods.

For a complete list of the currencies Recurly supports, head over to our docs for a closer look or contact our support team for more information. And check out our guide to why subscription businesses need more than one payment gateway: