Currencies: A Simple Way to Expand your eShop
Why are currencies so important?
The internet gives eCommerce’s access to a wide audience and the ability to reach customers who would have otherwise been unavailable to them. But how do you engage this new audience? If you are looking at expanding into a non-local market it’s not enough to have content in that language, there are other elements which must also be considered, currency being one of them. Having your product in a local currency builds trust and improves conversion rates.
What are the options available?
In this article we’ll look at the pros and cons of the three of the main foreign currency pricing strategies for online shops; “One Currency”, “Floating Prices” and “Fixed Pricing”. And how shops are able to process multiple currencies.
One currency
This is where retailers stick with one currency across their site and leave the consumer to take on the exchange rates when they pay. Retailers can still display alternative currencies so that the consumers will see an estimate of what they would be paying in their local currency. However, this can cause confusion as to when they come to pay, the price during checkout is again presented in the one that the shop actually supports. This is also known as “display currency.” This used to be the most popular method as it was easy to implement, however with the rapid evolution of online shopping, consumers expect a sleeker and personalized experience.
Floating currency
This is when the prices are reflected by how the currencies are performing on the Foreign Exchange in the global market. Prices are updated to reflect the changes on a daily basis. This poses different issues, as sometimes people put things in their shopping cart to buy at a later date and when they return to complete the transaction the price may have increased.
Fixed Pricing
This is currently the most popular method for online shops. Fixed Pricing is when the prices are static and do not shift according to the daily changes in the Forex market. This gives shoppers price stability, meaning that if they place something in their basket on Monday it will still be the same price on Friday. Most platforms used to build shops have the ability to switch currency so that products can be advertised in USD in the US, EUR in the EU, GBP in the UK, and ZAR in South Africa. Exchange rates don’t usually suffer massive long-term changes, so your prices should be safe.
If you would like your eCommerce business to accept transactions in multiple currencies, you need to make sure that your payment gateway provider has the right connectivity. A payment management platform will be able to offer you connections to various currencies and alternative payment methods. This is essential as different countries have preferred payment methods. A system that is able to automatically suggest the most relevant payment methods for a country based on the user’s IP address will increase conversion. Users are likely to abandon the shopping cart if, at check-out, they are presented with unfamiliar payment methods.
IXOPAY is integrated into eCommerce platforms including Opencart, Prestashop, Magento, and WooCommerce. The platform displays the currency exchange rate so you know exactly where you stand in your local currency. Connect to payment service providers (PSPs) and alternative payment service providers (APMs) from around the world and offer your clients the most trusted payment method for their region. Avoid potential provider lock-in and store payment details in the IXOPAY PCI & GDPR compliant card vault, which also allows returning customers to make one click payments. It is worth remembering that some payment service providers will only settle in one currency – even if they accept multiple – with the IXOPAY reconciliation & settlement tool, you will able to cross check the difference between the expected and settled amounts and be automatically notified if there are any mistakes (such as common rounding errors.) These features and more make it easy for you to confidently expand your business into new markets. To find out exactly what IXOPAY can do for you, get in touch with our sales team.
About IXOPAY
IXOPAY is a payments orchestration platform enabling independent, flexible and global payment processing. As a highly scalable and PCI-DSS certified “fintech enabler”, IXOPAY fulfills the needs of large merchants as well as those of “white label” clients: payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs). The modern, easily extendable architecture offers smart transaction routing & cascading, state-of-the-art risk & fraud management, fully automated reconciliation and settlements processing, comprehensive reporting as well as plugin-based integration of acquirers, payment service providers and alternative payment methods (APMs).
IXOPAY is part of the IXOLIT Group, founded in Vienna, Austria in 2001. With local entities in Austria and the USA, IXOLIT supports national and international customers across various industry verticals. The owner-led and -financed company has grown from 2 to more than 65 employees and is focused on building innovative solutions for eCommerce.
Please find more information about IXOPAY here: https://www.ixopay.com