Hi Shopify,
I am writing to you from Estonia, I am a small online shop owner (www.ehestu.ee) in Estonia and have been using Shopify for almost two years now. I am very happy with almost everything about Shopify. There is only one thing that needs fixing, which has been noted by multiple other Estonian online shop owners. Due to this problem a lot of small business owners do not start their online shop on the shopify platform and opt for another platform, which provides the right payment services. Most of the online payments in Estonian online shopping are executed using direct bank links, such as iDeal in the Netherlands, since many people do not own a credit card here.
The problem: Although, Shopify allows to integrate paypal and credit card payments in Estonia, there is no gateway or provider of bank links for banks such as Swedbank, SEB, Nordea etc. One of the biggest service providers has already voiced their concern regarding this, as they would be interested in developing a payment service for shopify in the Baltic states: https://makecommerce.net
I believe that if Shopify would contact them and support them in developing the gateway, they could substantially increase the number of online shops opened in the Baltic states on their platform, since most of the small and medium sized business owners are currently opting for your local competitors (Online shop platforms), which do provide those much needed bank links.
My request to you, Shopify, is that please contact Makecommerce and ask them to develop an gateway for Estonia and the other Baltic states. This is very much needed by all the merchants I have been in contact with over the two years, and I believe there is many more who would join if they knew Shopify supported this gateway.
Kind regards,
Erik