According to recent research, 7 in 10 online shoppers now buy from retailers outside of their home country, with almost half buying across borders more than once a month. Yet while this strong demand represents a compelling opportunity for e-commerce vendors, a fragmented international payment infrastructure is fundamentally undermining both customer experience and retailer margins.
Given the high cost of customer acquisition, e-commerce vendors continually optimise every aspect of the experience. Even when sales are successfully transacted, the process is problematic and margin-eroding. Multiple intermediaries, currency conversions and settlement processes are expensive, complex and can delay access to funds.
When international users don’t see their preferred payment method, such as local digital wallets or cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, or the expected price jumps up due to foreign exchange fees, they bounce. Consumers are increasingly wanting to pay in crypto or stablecoins, and businesses are rapidly playing catch-up. A 2026 PayPal and National Cryptocurrency Association study revealed that 88% of U.S. merchants receive regular inquiries from customers wanting to pay in crypto, leading to nearly 40% of mid-to-large-scale U.S. merchants setting up crypto checkout acceptance.
E-commerce vendors are expanding globally. They have invested in multi-lingual websites and optimised international fulfilment models. But without an effective global payment infrastructure, they cannot maximise potential or profit. Can Taner, Chief Product Officer, Bitpace, explains why digital asset payments are now set to revolutionise international e-commerce transactions…
Global Retail Prospects
The growth of e-commerce is one of retail’s great transformation stories. A model once met with huge trepidation now accounts for up to a quarter of retail sales globally and has allowed businesses to open their doors to customers around the world. And yet, as consumer behaviour begins to shift radically, embracing both cross-border transactions and cryptocurrencies, many retailers are failing to maximise the opportunity.
E-commerce retailers invest heavily in optimising every aspect of the customer journey. They offer diverse delivery options to reflect customer demands. Yet the legacy payment process simply doesn’t support smooth or profitable international e-commerce. The retailer risks either losing money or customers, or both, at three distinct stages: price presentation, payment authorisation and settlement.
The cross-border transaction model begins to unravel as soon as an international customer reaches the checkout. Foreign exchange (FX) markups, including dynamic currency conversion, change the price the shopper expected at the final step, leading to a spike in cart abandonment. International card payments are declined far more often than domestic ones, with authorisation rates 5 to 15 percentage points lower.
Fees Destroying Profit
Lost customers are both frustrating and expensive for any e-commerce business, given the rising costs of acquisition, but the eroding margin on successful cross-border sales should also be a growing concern. Treasury and post-purchase settlement is complex, time consuming and costly. International card revenue is paid out on acquirer settlement cycles and partly held back in reserves, so funds can take several days to reach the retailer.
Furthermore, many retailers are unaware of the additional costs being incurred as a result of both delay in receiving funds and provider fees. Card payments carry a chargeback window of typically 120 days, extending to 540 days for some disputes, and rolling reserves, where acquirers hold a percentage of merchant revenue for months. Add cross-border interchange, scheme assessment and wire fees, and the profit margins are being wiped out.
Card networks are also cutting their risk: on 1 April 2026, Visa lowered its Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) “Excessive Merchant” threshold from 2.2% to 1.5% in the US, Canada, EU and Asia Pacific, and acquirers’ internal limits may be stricter still.
Dispute rates that were once considered safe now breach compliance limits, subjecting unsuspecting merchants to heavy enforcement fees and risk penalties. A payment problem occurring in a new territory can swiftly escalate to affect a long-standing global relationship. Legacy card processing is fast becoming not only a problem for smooth customer transactions but a direct threat to working capital and cross-border expansion.
Crypto Payment Imperative
Maximising the global e-commerce opportunity requires a payment model that both supports customer demand while reducing the cost and complexity of getting paid internationally. With over 700 million people using crypto globally, there is growing recognition of the value of a crypto payment gateway that enables borderless transactions as seamlessly as local payments.
The combination of minimal fees (network fees can vary by blockchain), no chargebacks (transactions are final and refunds are managed by the merchant) or rolling reserves, plus near-immediate access to funds makes digital asset payments a compelling operating model for any global e-commerce company. The ability to accept crypto payments, with transactions confirmed within minutes and price locked in for a set window (set by the merchant), supports flexibility for the merchant and a seamless customer experience and removes the risk of cart abandonment caused by FX surprises. For the e-commerce vendor, the ability to support leading cryptocurrencies and facilitate fast cross-border transactions quickly extends market reach. Most importantly, retailers do not need to be crypto experts to explore this option.
Adding a digital asset payment gateway should be a smooth process, integrating into the existing e-commerce infrastructure with minimal internal development. It should handle liquidity aggregation and rate locking to ensure the e-commerce vendor receives payment in their preferred local fiat (EUR, USD or GBP) or stablecoin (such as USDC) with minimal exposure to volatility. It is also vital that a payment platform supports essential Know Your Business (KYB) checks at onboarding, Know Your Transaction (KYT) and AML screening of incoming funds for sanctions, illicit history or mixer activity, and Travel Rule compliance on transfers. And the benefits are tangible, from increasing conversion rates to reducing disputes and providing fast access to usable funds.
Conclusion
To maximise market exposure and profitable business, international expansion is key but, as retailers are quickly discovering, traditional payment mechanisms alone will not support the next iteration of e-commerce, especially as they expand into new markets. The opportunity is to connect established payment methods with digital-asset infrastructure, giving retailers greater flexibility in how they accept payments and access funds.
From customer choice to payment reliability, digital payment gateways are becoming an essential component of international trade. Embracing a platform that securely supports cryptocurrencies for cross-border transactions not only radically expands customer reach but also addresses the significant cost and pain points associated with legacy international payments.
