How to overcome payment challenges in global expansion

Expanding into new markets is an exciting opportunity for merchants, but it comes with many challenges. While consumer preferences, cultural nuances, local supply chain, and regulatory and tax considerations are top priorities, having the right payment strategy is just as critical. A smooth, localized payment experience can drive conversions, build trust, and ultimately determine success in a new market. 

At Checkout.com's Thrive conference in Barcelona, we brought together experts and industry leaders to discuss the latest trends shaping global commerce. Across three days of insights and discussions, the event provided a platform to tackle industry challenges and explore strategies for improving payment performance on a global scale.

A key takeaway? Payment performance (specifically conversion and acceptance rates) stood out as the top challenge for merchants expanding into new markets. However, it wasn’t the only one. A live poll at Thrive revealed other hurdles, including supporting local payment methods, navigating compliance, and integrating localized yet high-performing payment experiences.

This article draws insights from a panel discussion I co-led with Emily Renny, Senior Director of Product Management at Checkout.com, where we explored the challenges merchants face and how Checkout.com can help overcome them.

Why simplifying payments is crucial for global expansion 

Payments are more than just a back-end function—they directly impact conversion rates and customer experience. A poor payment experience can be costly, with 35% of consumers abandoning their carts when their preferred payment method isn’t available. But other friction points also hurt conversions, including tedious checkout processes, unclear error messaging, false declines, and unexpected currency conversions. These issues don’t just create frustration—they lead to real revenue loss.

A live poll at Thrive asked global merchants about their biggest challenge in international expansion.

The majority of respondents selected performance, highlighting that merchants don’t just struggle with localization and compliance, but with refining the entire payment experience to drive revenue. 

Breaking down the challenges of global expansion 

Localizing payment methods 

Each market has its own preferred payment methods, and what works in one region may be ineffective elsewhere. Younger consumers increasingly favor digital wallets or Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options, while some countries require specific local payment methods to complete transactions successfully—iDEAL in the Netherlands, Tamara in the UAE, and many more. Additionally, some payment methods come with unique validation requirements, and failing to accommodate these can result in failed transactions.

For merchants expanding globally, supporting 20 to 40+ payment methods is now the norm. Without this level of adaptability, businesses risk losing potential customers at the final stage of checkout. Checkout.com simplifies this challenge with Flow, enabling merchants to effortlessly add new payment methods through configuration—not code. This eliminates the need for constant updates and complex integrations when entering new markets. Powered by real-time data and network insights, Flow dynamically surfaces the most relevant payment options for each market, ensuring a smooth and high-performing payment experience.

Ensuring compliance

Regulations such as GDPR, PCI DSS compliance, and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) are just one piece of the compliance puzzle. Expanding into new markets also means navigating region-specific regulations, including Middle Eastern scheme updates, Visa and Mastercard mandates, and country-specific authentication policies.

These regulatory changes occur frequently and can disrupt merchant roadmaps, requiring constant updates to stay compliant. With Flow, Checkout.com takes on the heavy lifting—continuously monitoring and adapting to the latest compliance and regulatory requirements related to payments. This not only reduces the compliance burden on merchants but also frees up valuable development resources, allowing businesses to focus on growth rather than compliance complexities.

Overcoming performance barriers

After investing significant effort into curating great products, competitive pricing, and localizing payment methods, merchants ultimately want one thing: for customers to complete their purchase successfully.

High payment performance hinges on two critical factors:

1. Conversion Rate – turning browsers into buyers
2. Acceptance Rate – ensuring payments are successfully processed once a customer clicks "Pay” 

However, expanding into new markets introduces unique challenges that can impact both conversion and acceptance rates. From unfamiliar fraud patterns to local banking infrastructure limitations, each new country presents its own obstacles. Overcoming these barriers is essential for driving smooth, high-performing payment experiences that maximize revenue and customer satisfaction.

Building a payment experience that drives conversion

To maximize conversions, every step of the payment journey—from checkout design to authentication flows—must be refined. Common pitfalls that lead to lost sales include:

• Clunky checkout experiences that frustrate users and drive abandonment
• Unclear error messaging, leaving customers uncertain about why their payment failed
• Lack of local currency and payment options, creating friction and deterring buyers

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A best-in-class payment experience eliminates these barriers through a combination of thoughtful UX design and technology-driven enhancements. By surfacing the right local payment methods and currencies for each market, validating payment data in real-time to reduce errors, and enhancing authentication flows to minimize unnecessary friction, merchants can significantly improve approval rates. Clear and actionable error messaging further enhances the experience, helping customers resolve issues rather than abandoning their purchase.

Maximizing acceptance rates for global success

Successful global expansion requires more than just an adaptable user experience—it demands deep integration with the local payment ecosystem. Checkout.com collaborates closely with issuers to increase approval rates and minimize unnecessary declines, ensuring that legitimate transactions go through smoothly.

Beyond issuer partnerships, advanced technologies like device fingerprinting and automated data collection play a crucial role in reducing fraud while improving acceptance rates. By leveraging real-time insights and continuously refining payment flows with the latest technological advancements, Checkout.com helps merchants stay ahead of evolving consumer behavior and payment risks. This proactive approach ensures that businesses can maximize approvals, enhance security, and drive revenue growth in every market they enter.

How Checkout.com simplifies global expansion 

Expanding your business shouldn’t come at the cost of payment performance. Flow is designed to eliminate common barriers to global expansion, offering a simple integration that gets merchants live in just a week. With support for 20+ payment methods today and plans to exceed 40 in 2025, Flow ensures businesses can quickly adapt to new markets. Additionally, automated compliance management simplifies regulatory complexities, reducing the operational burden on merchants.

Beyond easy integration, Flow enables merchants to test, refine, and scale their payment strategy efficiently. Advanced analytics and reconciliation tools provide a consolidated view of payment performance, helping businesses refine their strategy for better results.

Early adopters of Flow have already experienced a 5% increase in acceptance rates, with continuous enhancements ensuring that payments perform at the highest level.

We’ve also recently launched Remember Me, a new service within Flow that allows shoppers to securely store payment details for a faster, smoother checkout experience. With one-click login and secure authentication, Remember Me improves both conversion and approval rates while maintaining the highest security standards.

Global expansion is complex, but payments shouldn’t be a bottleneck. By prioritizing localization, compliance, and performance, merchants can unlock new revenue opportunities while delivering a frictionless, reliable payment experience for their customers.

Talk to our sales team today to discover how Checkout.com’s payment solutions can power your global growth.