Online purchases made from Spain on foreign websites totaled €16.604 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 14% from a year earlier, according to the latest CNMC data. In the opposite direction, purchases from abroad on Spanish websites stood at €3.833 billion, less than a quarter. That is, for every euro a foreign shopper spends in Spanish online stores, Spaniards spend €4.3 on stores abroad. Moreover, the same report shows that 94.1% of those cross-border purchases were made at stores in the European Union.
The asymmetry is especially relevant in scenarios like Black Friday, which falls on November 27, 2026. It is one of the weeks with the highest activity in e-commerce, and with deals the incentive to compare prices across stores in other countries increases. A payment failure on those days can be more costly.
«When a merchant perceives that it sells little in other countries, the first thing it thinks is that the product doesn’t fit or that the price isn’t competitive. In addition to product-market fit and correct pricing, retailers should analyze payment rejections and whether customers can find their preferred payment method,» explains Jorge Sorial, country manager for Craftgate in Spain.
Five payment obstacles affecting cross-border conversion
- Does not find their payment method. Several European countries have their own payment methods, equivalents to Bizum in Spain: iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, or MB Way in Portugal. They work connected to the buyer’s bank account or mobile. If the Spanish store only accepts card payments, that buyer must pay in a way that isn’t theirs, or they won’t pay.
- Cannot pay in their currency. A Polish, Swedish, Swiss, or British buyer does not use the euro. If the store charges in euros, the final amount depends on exchange rates and bank fees, and they won’t know it exactly until after paying. That uncertainty, at the last step, is enough reason to doubt.
- Gets stuck in the verification. The European payment services regulation requires many online card purchases to be confirmed in a second step: a code via SMS or an approval in the bank’s app. If that window delays loading, doesn’t adapt well to mobile, or the buyer doesn’t receive the notification in time, the purchase remains incomplete. For the store, the order shows up as not completed, with no further explanation.
- Card is declined. Even with funds, the buyer’s bank may treat a payment to a foreign merchant with more caution and block it. It’s the hardest failure to detect, because the buyer doesn’t notify you, they simply don’t return.
- The charge falls through during peak traffic. Many stores bill through a single payment provider—the company that processes the transaction between the merchant and the bank. If that provider slows down or fails at the peak of shopping, the store cannot collect from anyone, regardless of origin.
Much of these failures are not solved by changing the website, but by changing how the store connects to those who process its charges.
How an orchestration platform helps you sell abroad
This technology acts as a connectivity layer between the online store and the various payment providers. Instead of managing multiple integrations separately, the merchant can access different providers through a single technical integration.
For card payments, the platform can route each transaction to the most suitable provider based on the card’s issuing country, card type (debit or credit), issuing entity, brand (Visa or Mastercard), or currency, and manage the second verification step. Additionally, in the face of certain rejections or technical failures, it automatically retries the operation through another provider, so the buyer doesn’t have to re-enter the payment.
A clear signal of trust you can offer a foreign buyer at checkout is presenting the method they are used to. Orchestration platforms, like the Craftgate solution, allow brands to integrate preferred payment methods in each market and manage them from a single point, so selling abroad doesn’t require redesigning the payment flow country by country.
