How To Receive International Payments in India for D2C Brands

Introduction

The Indian D2C market is no longer limited to Indian customers. Fashion, health, beauty, electronics, and digital-first products are seeing demand grow rapidly from international buyers. This is driven by social media discovery, global marketplaces, and increasingly accessible online storefronts. For D2C founders, that international demand is an opportunity. But collecting on it is rarely as simple as adding a "ship internationally" toggle to your store.

Currency conversion rules, RBI compliance requirements, settlement timelines, and a mismatch between what platforms support and what international customers expect can turn what should be a clean sale into an operational headache.

This guide walks through exactly how to build a payment setup that handles all of this, covering background and how Pay10 makes this work in practice.

The Shopify Problem Every Indian D2C Brand Runs Into

If your storefront is on Shopify, the first thing to know is that Shopify Payments, Shopify's own native payment processor, is not available to Indian-incorporated merchants. This is one of the most commonly reported surprises among Indian D2C founders, since Shopify's onboarding flow does not always surface this limitation clearly. The practical consequence is unavoidable: every Indian Shopify store needs a third-party payment gateway for both domestic and international orders.

For domestic Indian orders, customers paying in INR via UPI, RuPay, domestic cards, or net banking, Pay10's payment gateway integrates directly into Shopify checkout, covering all major Indian payment methods. For international orders, overseas customers paying in USD, EUR, GBP, AED, or other currencies, Pay10's PA-CB-authorized cross-border infrastructure handles collection, FX conversion, and INR settlement through the same integration.

One platform covers both payment flows, one dashboard shows all transactions, and one FIRA trail covers every inward remittance, domestic and international, without needing separate gateways.

PayPal offers native Shopify integration and is familiar to international customers, but its 4.4% transaction fee plus a fixed per-currency fee plus a currency conversion markup makes it one of the more expensive options per order at volume. For D2C brands serious about international expansion, a PA-CB-authorized gateway with transparent FX pricing is a meaningfully better long-term setup.

Step 1: Understand the Compliance Basics

International transactions for Indian merchants are governed by RBI's PA-CB (Payment Aggregator – Cross Border) framework, introduced in October 2023. Every non-bank entity aggregating cross-border payments for Indian merchants must hold a valid PA-CB authorization. For D2C brands, this has a direct practical consequence: the payment provider handling your international orders must itself be RBI PA-CB licensed, not just a domestic gateway that also accepts foreign cards.

Using a non-PA-CB-licensed provider for international collections creates a compliance gap in the settlement trail. That gap surfaces at GST filing time, during a FEMA audit, or when a DGFT export incentive claim is rejected because FIRA or eBRC documentation is missing. It is an avoidable problem, but only if the right payment infrastructure is in place from the start.

Pay10 holds RBI authorization as a PA-CB (Export & Import) and as an Online Payment Aggregator, one of the few platforms in India with both licenses simultaneously. Every international payment processed through Pay10 flows through FEMA-compliant AD bank routing, with correct RBI purpose code tagging, automatic FIRA generation, and merchant onboarding aligned to CKYCR-based KYC requirements.

D2C brands do not need to build an in-house compliance function or manage purpose codes and documentation manually; the platform handles it as part of the standard settlement flow.

Step 2: Offer Familiar Payment Options to Global Customers

International customers pay with the currencies and methods they already trust. When checkout feels unfamiliar- a currency they do not recognize, a payment method they do not use, or an unexpected redirect mid-transaction- conversion rates drop. The requirement is a payment setup that meets international customers where they are, rather than asking them to adapt to a domestically built checkout.

Pay10's international payment gateway supports collections in 100+ currencies, covering USD for US customers, EUR for European buyers, GBP for UK orders, AED for Gulf customers, SGD for Southeast Asia, and more. Real-time currency conversion happens through AD bank partnerships at transparent rates with no hidden FX markup. International customers can pay using global Visa and Mastercard, with 3DS authentication built in to maximize approval rates on cross-border card transactions.

For Indian customers on the same storefront, Pay10 covers UPI, RuPay, domestic debit and credit cards, net banking, and digital wallets, all within the same integration. D2C brands selling to both domestic and international customers do not need separate payment setups per audience.

Step 3: Choose Flexible Payment Acceptance Methods

Indian D2C brands do not all sell the same way. Some depend entirely on a Shopify or WooCommerce storefront. Others drive significant revenue through Instagram, WhatsApp, influencer referral links, or custom orders taken over DM. A payment infrastructure that only works in a standard e-commerce checkout misses a meaningful share of how D2C brands actually generate international revenue in 2026.

Pay10 supports three payment acceptance methods that cover every D2C sales channel without requiring a separate integration for each.

• Hosted payment pages give brands a ready-made, Pay10-hosted checkout without any engineering effort. International customers are directed to a secure payment page, pay in their preferred currency, and return to the storefront. FIRA is generated automatically for every eligible inward remittance. Suited to brands wanting to go live fast without building a custom integration.
• Shareable payment links are the right tool for social commerce, WhatsApp ordering, Instagram DM sales, and custom orders. The merchant generates a payment link from the Pay10 dashboard, specifying the amount, currency, and order reference and shares it via any channel. The customer clicks and pays, and the merchant receives INR settlement with documentation already attached. Including an order reference in every payment link makes reconciliation straightforward from day one, before volume makes manual matching impossible.
• API and SDK integrations allow D2C brands to embed the full payment flow directly into their own website, mobile app, or headless storefront, fully branded, no redirects, with Pay10's PA-CB-compliant settlement and FIRA generation running in the background. Explore Pay10's integration methods for full technical details on which option suits your existing setup.

Step 4: Ensure Clear Settlements and Reporting

Cash flow is everything for a growing D2C brand. International payments come with uncertainty about when money will actually arrive, how much will remain after FX conversion, and what documentation proves the receipt. These are not abstract concerns, and they affect inventory planning, supplier payments, and the brand's ability to reinvest in growth between sales cycles.

Pay10 settles inward remittances to the merchant's verified Indian bank account within T+2/T+3 business days, a predictable schedule not subject to the multi-day uncertainty of SWIFT bank wire transfers. Real-time currency conversion happens through AD bank partnerships at transparent rates, with no hidden FX markup embedded in the conversion spread.

FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) is generated automatically for every eligible inward remittance and is available directly from the Pay10 merchant dashboard: no separate bank request, no waiting 7–15 days, and no manual matching of remittance advice to order records.

For D2C brands claiming GST export refunds or DGFT incentives, FIRA is the prerequisite document the AD bank needs to generate an eBRC. Having it auto-generated for every transaction keeps the eBRC trail clean and accelerates downstream claims without additional paperwork.

Pay10's unified merchant dashboard shows every transaction, including domestic and international, with authorization status, settlement timeline, currency, FIRA availability, and reconciliation records in one view. For a D2C brand managing orders from multiple countries simultaneously, this single-dashboard visibility directly reduces the finance team's monthly reconciliation overhead.

Step 5: Prioritise Security and Scale

As a D2C brand expands internationally, security stops being optional. Customer payment data crossing multiple country borders, international card networks with their own fraud and chargeback rules, and increasing transaction volumes all require payment infrastructure built to international security standards from the start, not bolted on later when transaction volumes make a breach or chargeback spike genuinely expensive.

As international order volumes grow, more currencies, more markets, more transactions per day, Pay10's infrastructure scales without a platform migration or a new integration. The same setup handling a brand's first 50 international orders handles 5,000 monthly, with the same settlement predictability, FIRA documentation quality, and compliance posture throughout.

Common Pitfalls D2C Brands Should Avoid

These are the mistakes that consistently delay settlement, reduce actual payout amounts, or create compliance problems for Indian D2C brands accepting international payments. Most are entirely avoidable with the right setup from the start.

1. Using a personal PayPal or informal payment account instead of a verified business account

   This creates a mismatch between the business name on the storefront and the name receiving payment, a mismatch that triggers holds and verification requests from both the payment provider and the bank. Always ensure the entity receiving international payments matches the registered business name across every platform.

2. Ignoring the FX markup embedded in the advertised rate

   A payment provider charging a low transaction fee but applying a 2–3% FX spread can cost more per order than a provider with a slightly higher fee and a transparent, mid-market-aligned rate. Always calculate the effective all-in cost, transaction fee plus FX spread, not just the headline percentage. On ₹50 lakh in annual international revenue, a 2% FX markup is ₹1 lakh gone annually, invisibly.

3. Sending payment links without order references

   Shareable payment links generated without a clear order reference or product description make reconciliation genuinely difficult as weekly volume grows. Pay10's dashboard includes order reference fields in payment link generation; use them consistently from the first order, not after reconciliation has already become a problem.

4. Assuming a domestic-only gateway will handle foreign cards

   Domestic payment gateways that are not PA-CB authorized cannot legally aggregate cross-border payments. Routing international orders through a domestic-only gateway creates a compliance gap and often results in foreign card declines or incorrect settlement routing discovered at the worst moment, during a product launch or seasonal sale. Choose a PA-CB-authorized provider like Pay10 before the first international order, not after.

5. Not keeping FIRA documentation on file

   Without FIRA for every inward remittance, D2C brands cannot claim GST export refunds, close EDPMS entries correctly, or prove foreign income during a tax assessment. FEMA requires five years of records. Pay10 generates FIRA automatically for every eligible transaction; download and archive it monthly. Five minutes a month now prevents hours of document reconstruction during a tax assessment later.

Conclusion

International payments for D2C brands do not have to be complicated, but they do require choosing infrastructure built for how the brand actually sells: through a storefront, social commerce channels, or custom order flows across multiple currencies and markets simultaneously. The brands that scale internationally without payment friction are the ones that get three things right from the start: a PA-CB-authorized provider, transparent FX pricing, and automatic FIRA generation.

Pay10 is built specifically for this: one platform covering domestic and international payment acceptance, with compliance infrastructure that runs in the background so D2C brands can focus on the customer relationship rather than the paperwork behind each payment.

Learn more about Pay10 World explore UPI for Global Merchants, or contact the Pay10 team to get started.

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