In a Business Bloomer Club Slack thread—wait, this time it was X/Twitter—I asked whether offering multiple payment gateways in WooCommerce is a smart move, especially for international stores.
The discussion quickly turned into a masterclass on conversion optimization, localization, and fallback strategies. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to payment gateways, especially when you’re targeting multiple countries with different payment preferences.
This post dives into the pros and cons of offering a variety of WooCommerce payment methods and how you can optimize your checkout process to cater to different markets.
Local Payment Gateways Based on Billing Country
One of the most important takeaways came from Dutch developer Mark, who reminded me of iDeal, a must-have payment method in the Netherlands. His point? If you’re selling in Europe or internationally, offering local gateways based on the billing country is essential.
Imagine an Amsterdam customer checking out and not seeing iDeal—odds are they’ll bounce. On the other hand, show them iDeal alongside CC and PayPal, and conversion rates may soar.
Less Is More: Only Show Relevant Gateways
Another developer, Nadir, pointed out a practical concern: don’t overwhelm the customer with a dozen payment options. Instead, show only 3–4 methods at a time. For example:
- One credit card processor (e.g. Stripe)
- One redirect-based option (e.g. PayPal or a local bank)
- One express method (e.g. Apple Pay or Google Pay, conditionally)
Even Stripe has limitations based on billing country—so there’s no need to show a method that won’t work for a particular shopper.
To implement this in WooCommerce, you can read my tutorial WooCommerce: Disable Payment Gateway by Country. This makes for a cleaner checkout page.
Fallback Gateways: Redundancy Is Smart
Dave raised another interesting point: redundancy. What if your only payment provider goes down? With two or more providers (say, Stripe and PayPal), you have an instant failover.
Plus, pricing and risk differ between gateways. One may charge lower fees for domestic cards, another may have better fraud protection. It’s worth comparing them based on your customer base.
Hidden Until Needed
Massimo brought up the UX side: keep payment methods hidden until the customer selects their billing country. This keeps the checkout simple but still relevant. And once country data is available, dynamically reveal the applicable gateways.
Wild Ideas: Split Payments & Priority Gateways
One final comment suggested a multi-gateway system that lets you split payments across multiple cards or providers, or reserve a “last resort” method like financing. While this goes beyond standard WooCommerce functionality, it’s an interesting idea for custom projects or larger stores.
Conclusion
So—should you enable multiple payment gateways in WooCommerce? Yes, but strategically.
Tailor them by location, simplify the checkout, and keep a backup in case of outages. With the right setup, you’re not just adding payment options—you’re increasing trust, improving conversions, and future-proofing your business.
