The Problem We Were Actually Solving
We wanted to create a seamless, global experience for our customers to purchase and download Canva templates, no matter where they were in the world. Sounds straightforward, but the reality was a jarring array of regional restrictions, payment gateway limitations, and endless frustration. Our customers were rightfully upset, and it was up to us to fix the problem.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We initially turned to the usual suspects: PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad, and Payhip. We assumed that these established payment platforms would have the global reach and infrastructure to support our global ambitions. However, it quickly became apparent that each of these platforms had its own list of countries where they simply wouldn't work, or where their services were severely limited. PayPal, for example, refused to support customers in certain countries due to 'regulatory reasons', while Stripe's availability map looked like a patchwork quilt of green and red squares. We tried setting up our own Stripe Connect instance to bypass these limitations, but this only added more complexity and increased our fees. The end result was a global payment system that was far from seamless.
