Dutch webshops selling across Europe: payment methods by country and what settlement costs

A Utrecht webshop selling cycling gear does 80 percent of its orders through iDEAL. It opens to Belgium and Germany with the same checkout. Belgian orders trickle in. German carts are abandoned at the payment step. The products and prices are fine. The checkout is Dutch.

Checkout is local

What shoppers expect at checkout differs more across Europe than almost anything else in e-commerce:

• Netherlands: iDEAL, now being brought together with Wero, the European Payments Initiative's wallet.
• Belgium: Bancontact, the domestic scheme. Cards and Wero as well.
• Germany: PayPal, invoice payment (Kauf auf Rechnung), direct debit, cards, and Wero.
• France: cartes bancaires, the national card network, plus PayPal.
• United Kingdom: debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, PayPal.
• Poland: BLIK, the mobile code system, and fast bank transfers.

A payment service provider can switch most of these on. The decision is which to switch on in which country, and the answer comes from local shoppers, not from what worked at home.

Currency at the till

Euro countries are simple. The UK and Poland are where costs hide. If you show prices in pounds or zloty, the provider settles to you in that currency or converts to euros first. Conversion at settlement usually carries a margin, and it happens on every payout, at whatever the rate is that day.

A pound or zloty balance lets settlements land as they are. You convert when you choose, or use the balance to pay local costs such as UK fulfilment, Polish warehouse staff or marketing.

VAT when you sell abroad

Once EU consumer sales to other member states pass €10,000 a year in total, VAT is due in each customer's country. The One Stop Shop (OSS) lets you declare all of them in one quarterly return through the Belastingdienst. The UK is outside the EU: UK consumer sales of goods have their own VAT rules, and orders of £135 or less mean UK VAT is charged at the point of sale.

A practical rollout order

1. Pick one new market and add its top two payment methods.
2. Price in the local currency where it is not the euro.
3. Settle that currency to a matching balance.
4. Register for OSS before you pass the threshold, not after.
5. Measure checkout abandonment per country and adjust.

Paying into the Netherlands: the local rail

Source: European Payments Council: SEPA Instant Credit Transfer. Checked when this guide was last updated; the scheme's own page has the current figures.

Where Rivet fits

Rivet is not a checkout or payment service provider. It is where settlements land: a Rivet business account gives a Dutch BV euro details with an IBAN and sterling details from the Growth plan, US dollar details on every plan, and on the Scale plan balances in 30 currencies. Balances can be held, converted at a rate shown before you confirm, or used to pay suppliers in 120+ countries. Rivet is not a bank; regulated partner institutions hold the funds.

See also Amazon seller payouts to a company account.