Multi-Currency and International Selling on PrestaShop: A Practical Setup Guide

Expanding your PrestaShop store to international markets can double or triple your customer base — but only if the technical setup is solid. Incorrect currency conversions, missing tax rules, or confusing checkout flows will drive international customers away faster than any language barrier.

Currency Configuration

PrestaShop supports multiple currencies out of the box. Here is how to set them up correctly:

Adding Currencies

Navigate to International → Localization → Currencies and add each currency you want to accept. For each currency, configure:

• Exchange rate — set manually or enable automatic updates via the ECB module
• Conversion direction — rates are always relative to your default currency
• Rounding mode — choose between mathematical rounding and rounding up (important for pricing psychology)

Exchange Rate Updates

Manual exchange rates become stale quickly. Enable automatic updates via International → Localization and configure a cron job to run daily:

0 6 * * * curl -s https://yourstore.com/cron_currency_rates.php?secure_key=YOUR_KEY

Always review rates after automatic updates — API outages can sometimes return zero or wildly incorrect values.

Tax Rules for International Sales

Taxes are the most complex part of international selling. Key principles:

• EU VAT — if you sell to EU consumers, you need to charge VAT at the customer's country rate (One Stop Shop / OSS simplifies reporting)
• Tax-inclusive vs. exclusive pricing — EU customers expect prices including VAT; US customers expect prices excluding sales tax
• VAT exemption for B2B — validate VAT numbers via the VIES API and apply zero-rate VAT for valid intra-EU B2B sales
• Digital products — different VAT rules apply to digital goods and services

Setting Up Tax Rules

1. Create tax rules groups for each product type (standard rate, reduced rate, zero rate)
2. Add country-specific rates within each group
3. Assign the correct tax rules group to each product
4. Enable geolocation to auto-detect customer location

Geolocation and Customer Experience

Use PrestaShop's geolocation feature to automatically:

• Display prices in the customer's local currency
• Pre-select the correct country in shipping and billing forms
• Show relevant shipping options for the detected region
• Apply country-specific promotions or restrictions

Download the MaxMind GeoLite2 database and upload it via International → Localization → Geolocation.

Shipping Zones

Organize your shipping configuration by zones:

• Domestic — your home country, lowest rates
• EU / EEA — no customs, moderate shipping costs
• Rest of World — highest rates, potential customs declarations

For each zone, configure carrier-specific rates. Consider offering free shipping thresholds per zone — they increase average order value significantly.

Multi-Language Product Content

Do not rely on automatic translation for product descriptions. Machine-translated product pages have measurably lower conversion rates. Invest in professional translation for:

• Product names and descriptions
• Category names and meta data
• CMS pages (terms, returns, about us)
• Email templates

At minimum, professionally translate your top 20% of products — they likely account for 80% of revenue.

Payment Methods by Region

Payment preferences vary dramatically by country:

• Germany — bank transfer (Sofort), PayPal, invoice payment
• Netherlands — iDEAL dominates with 60%+ market share
• Poland — BLIK, Przelewy24
• France — Carte Bancaire, PayPal
• Italy — PostePay, PayPal, credit cards

Use a payment provider like Mollie or Stripe that supports multiple local payment methods through a single integration.

International selling is complex, but each market you open correctly represents a new revenue stream. Start with one or two additional countries, get the configuration right, then expand systematically.