Joshua D'Costa
Growth & Marketing
Sep 26, 2024
|
5
min
Why Indie hackers Should Scale Globally
Fortunately, the internet is a borderless market and indie hackers are well-placed to fully leverage this global opportunity. Although starting up can be done locally to create some initial solid grounds, going international is usually important to achieve great scale. Here’s why:
Larger Customer Base: Local markets can be confined bearing in mind some products or services may not be popular or in demand in the region. Continuing to grow internationally indie hackers can reach a larger and more diverse customer base leading to more growth.
Diversification of Revenue: It has its risks since an individual market could be volatile. Market changes, political instabilities, or even competition from local firms cut client revenues. Global markets offer diverse sources of revenue; the risks are diversified in a way that makes growth over the long term more secure.
Higher Valuation: For indie hackers wanting funding or an exit, having users in many countries is a good thing. Businesses that offer services and products to clients across the globe are finding more favor with investors a factor that gives them higher valuation and accessibility.
However, it has to be said that the rewards are obvious, and taking indie hacker worldwide has its own difficulties – for instance, payments.
The Payment Challenges of Global Growth for Indie hackers
For the visitors of indie hackers, all the processing of payments might look quite simple in their home country. However, expanding internationally brings a range of challenges, including:
1. Foreign exchange and multiparty payments
Cross-border customers are expected to pay in their own country’s currency. Currently, Indie hackers have to ensure they deliver a stylish payment transfer process and mechanism that supports and enable the quick and easy change and acceptance of different currencies. The lack of this option can make some customers abandon the cart or make the overall conversion rate to be low.
Managing payments in cross-border transactions through the classic means of handling foreign exchange or using traditional payment intermediaries is costly because of the transaction fees and unjust exchange rates besides the general overhead costs.
2. The implementation of International Tax and Payment Policies
E-commerce tax laws and regulations vary from one country to another due to the differences in the prevailing laws. For example, the European Union has a laid down regulation that businesses should adhere to; the Value Added Tax (VAT). It also warns that failure to implement brings about fines or penalties or legal consequences.
To an indie hacker already biting off more than he can chew at any given moment, it’s quite difficult to keep track of all these regulations when growing, without help.
3. Fraud and Chargeback Prevention
Marketing in new regions demand also raises the odds of fraud. Transaction processing implies dealing with a wide range of frauds, and consequently, tends to have a higher risk of chargebacks and disputes. It’s possible that indie hackers will experience loss of revenue and the erosion of their reputation if it doesn’t have adequate fraud prevention mechanisms in place.
4. Managing Payments Across Various Regional Gateways
Various parts of the world prefer one mode of payment as compared to another. While credit cards might be more popular in the USA, direct debit/credit transfer is preferred in Germany now, and mobile payments like Alipay or WeChat Pay in China.
Establishing payment gateways in the different zones may be a little tiresome within a certain amount of time and expensive. Every gateway has its own regulation in operation, charge for a transaction, and ways of integrating. Synchronizing these systems can be done smoothly, but it is challenging to do so for solo founders.
5. Customer Support in Multiple Languages
Scaling globally requires not only selling in different countries but also offering customer support across languages. Payment-related issues like failed transactions, chargebacks, or disputes can lead to customer dissatisfaction, especially if there’s no accessible support in their native language.
So all in all, the challenges are multifold but where do we get answers?
Enter the Merchant of Record: The Ideal Solution for Indie hackers
Considering such payment constraints, indie hackers require a solution that enables them to concentrate more on developing and growing their product instead of being defiled by international restrictions and payment issues. This is where a Merchant of Record (MoR) comes in.
An M-o-R or Merchant of Record is considered a seller’s legal entity that handles payments, taxes, and compliance linked with cross-border sales. In short, the MoR does most of the work of selling globally, which means indie hackers don’t have to.
How does a merchant of record operate?
That means when an indie hacker integrates with a Merchant of Record such as Dodo Payments, the MoR handles the sale of the product or service being offered. The MoR handles the complexities of international transactions, including currency conversion, local payment methods, tax compliance, and fraud prevention. Here’s why this matters:
Streamlined Payment Processing:
The MoR makes international payments easy since it provides a single integrated solution for use with different currency and modes of payment. This is not entirely required when it comes to use of payment gateways or handling of expensive charges for conversion of currencies.
Compliance Management:
Every aspect of VAT registration and sales tax remittance is also managed by the MoR as per local tax and e-commerce regulations. This minimizes the chances of attracting fines while offering the indie hackers the opportunity to venture into new markets.
Fraud Prevention and Chargeback Handling:
Dodo Payments being an MoR has implemented high risk mitigation methods for fraudsters that seek to con businesses internationally. Also, MoR deals with chargeback and disputes which relieves the indie hacker from this task.
Customer Support:
Dodo Payments is steadfast in its endeavor to ensure great customer support. This support translates into a better customer experience for the Indie hackers and ultimately the customer.
Why Indie hackers Should Choose Dodo Payments as Their Merchant of Record
Despite the strength of the MoR concept, not all suppliers of such solutions are equal. Here’s why Dodo Payments stands out as the ideal choice for indie hackers looking to scale globally:
Global Payment Coverage
Dodo Payments covers numerous countries of the world accepting more than 130 currencies and various payment options such as credit cards, electronic wallets, and bank transfers. In this case, indie hackers can easily reach out to a world market without the hustle of having to look for new ways of processing payments.
What we know as Tax and Compliance
International taxation laws can be quite a challenge, but not for the company Dodo Payments. Indie hackers’ transaction and sales taxes, inclusive of VAT, GST, and sales tax, are taken care of by the platform, who follows all tax laws of the world to the letter without demanding founders have tax knowledge.
Transparency is maintained at its best by not charging any hidden fees.
You just pick the bundle that suits you best, and no indie hackers are in the dark about what they are paying for. No hidden fees or other additional expenses can be confusing for the founder, so there is little interference with budgets during the scaling process.
How To Work For Any Sized Business
For the indie hacker with little or with many customers already on board, Dodo Payments’ MoR solution is for any. It evolves with the business, implementing and providing partners with solutions that can scale according to transaction volumes or the geography of expansion.
Dedicated Support
Indie hackers have dedicated customer support from the team at Dodo Payments; from signing up to resolving payment problems. The team of professionals guarantee the founders’ possibility to stay concentrated on the product while Dodo will take care of payments.
Conclusion: Scaling Globally Without the Stress
When indie hackers try to scale up, the world can be overwhelming but it doesn’t need to be. Thus, indie founders can continue doing what they do best – start building and scaling their products while leaving all the intricacies of global payments and compliance to specialists from the Merchant of Record like Dodo Payments.
Indie hackers can expand internationally, open up to new opportunities, and increase their income thanks to MoR partner Dodo Payments. The global market has its doors open for you, do you have what it takes to dive into it?
