Web Design Forum: Multiple currencies in an shop - Web Design Forum

Jump to content

WDF
WDF Premium Memberships Reseller Hosting
Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

Multiple currencies in an shop What is the best approach? Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 29 January 2012 - 07:37 PM

Hi there,

What is the best way of handling multiple currencies in an online shop? I am building a simple shop with WordPress and the getshopped plugin with the aim to just support PayPal so all payment is handled on their servers. The client would like multiple currencies to be supported, but I am sure PayPal will accept most currencies anyway, its just what is the normal way to do this? I have a feeling the client wants people to be able to choose their preferred currency and then all items on the website will be displayed in that currency. This I guess will cause issues with the rate being up to date etc.

Here are a few options I can think of:

1) Have prices displayed in the default currency of GBP. If someone from outside the UK is shopping, the amount will be converted into the overseas amount i.e. USD at checkout stage - this is what I understand as default PayPal functionality.


2)The getshopped plugin does allow individual currency amounts to be added per item, but depending on the number of currencies that want to be supported this could make adding and editing products quite tedious. The inevitability is that as exchange rates change, all of the prices on the website will become incorrect and will need updating. This could prove an issue.

3) There is potential of automatically working out alternative currencies, but again this might prove tricky to get the most accurate and up to date exchange rate.

Can anyone link me up with any example websites which handle multiple currencies in a way described above, or give me any advice?

Cheers
Rich
0

#2 User is offline   ReformedGeek 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 20
  • Joined: 23-May 11
  • Reputation: 3

Posted 30 January 2012 - 10:24 AM

Hi Rich

Our ecommerce system (www.TCRM.co.uk) displays the prices of the products and the resulting shopping cart in the currency of the user's choice (from the ones we've made available). They are then taken to PayPal in that currency. Even though this was the more complex option to implement I believe people are happier if they can clearly see how much things cost right from the start.

Exchange rates do not have to be set every minute. Think of a store like Tesco which labels clothes in both sterling and euros. They set it at an acceptable rate then absorb any differences (good and bad). The change isn't vast over the course of a couple of weeks or months.

Hope this helps
Gareth
0

#3 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 31 January 2012 - 12:35 PM

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for your reply. I see your point about shops having to list their prices in multiple currencies - they obviously risk taking a hit. I didn't think of that as it happens a lot. I know apple produces always translate to the same amount but in GBP instead of Dollars - such a rip off, although I'm sure that is part of their strategy.

I am actually going to do 'option 2' on client request. It will potentially make it possible for users to choose a currency (other than their own) and pay that way if it works out cheaper for them as PayPal will still accept the payment. It shouldn't be totally obvious to non savvy customers. The other option would be to ask the customer for their delivery address first so it would have some logic in there to lock them into their currency. I think for now this might be over engineering a solution to a problem that might not be there while also adding an additional step into the customer journey, causing more harm than good.

Will see what happens!
0

#4 User is online   Renaissance-Design 

  • Available for custom WordPress work
  • View blog
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 3,592
  • Joined: 12-August 10
  • Reputation: 559
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Wales
  • Experience:Web Guru
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 31 January 2012 - 12:46 PM

Some ecommerce systems (Magento does it, off the top of my head) will ping a currency exchange service to check prices and adjust accordingly.

IMNSHO you're approaching it backwards. First work out what features you need, then choose software that fits the requirements. Makes more sense than picking a package then trying to hack it to fit the requirements.
0

#5 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 31 January 2012 - 01:46 PM

View PostRenaissance-Design, on 31 January 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

Some ecommerce systems (Magento does it, off the top of my head) will ping a currency exchange service to check prices and adjust accordingly.

IMNSHO you're approaching it backwards. First work out what features you need, then choose software that fits the requirements. Makes more sense than picking a package then trying to hack it to fit the requirements.

Thanks for your post.

The client wants the ability to name their price per currency, per item i.e £60, $100 and 70 Euro (which is more time consuming and difficult to manage) rather than a script or service working out a random (but correct!) calculation of the price as it would look a bit odd to their customers. I do actually see the point now - I hadnt seen it from that point of view initially though. I think as mentioned above lots of multinational business' use this approach and absorb the difference. When I first wrote this tread I anticipated an automatic system would be best, but it seems it might not be, at least the client doesnt want this.

I see what you mean about getting the right platform first - I think its more or less there with this as we are talking about a simple paypal payment system here rather than something with more features that I would possibly not need, such as Magento?
0

#6 User is offline   AdvantageDigitalMedia 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Group: Gold Membership
  • Posts: 21
  • Joined: 31-January 12
  • Reputation: 1

Posted 31 January 2012 - 04:30 PM

View Postrichimgd, on 31 January 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

Thanks for your post.

The client wants the ability to name their price per currency, per item i.e £60, $100 and 70 Euro (which is more time consuming and difficult to manage) rather than a script or service working out a random (but correct!) calculation of the price as it would look a bit odd to their customers. I do actually see the point now - I hadnt seen it from that point of view initially though. I think as mentioned above lots of multinational business' use this approach and absorb the difference. When I first wrote this tread I anticipated an automatic system would be best, but it seems it might not be, at least the client doesnt want this.

I see what you mean about getting the right platform first - I think its more or less there with this as we are talking about a simple paypal payment system here rather than something with more features that I would possibly not need, such as Magento?


With respect though, getshopped is not really built as a multi-lingual, multi-currency e-commerce platform. I've used it on a few occasions and have not been impressed, it's great for small stores just selling a few items I guess and I'll probably get someone chime in saying they take £10 million a year shortly but I stand by my opinion. I really think you should look into a better package as there's an abundance of them out there. If you insist on using WordPress for an e-commerce platform then take a look here for some WordPress e-commerce plugins.

I think personally you're better off starting with software designed for what you want to do such as OsCommerce or OpenCart. I don't really recommend Magento as this is really a different ball game. I have 43 Magento sites on one of my node servers and they have the potential to be a mare if not installed, setup and maintained correctly, and that's before you even go down the hardware route!

Cheers
0

#7 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 31 January 2012 - 08:46 PM

View PostAdvantageDigitalMedia, on 31 January 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

With respect though, getshopped is not really built as a multi-lingual, multi-currency e-commerce platform. I've used it on a few occasions and have not been impressed, it's great for small stores just selling a few items I guess and I'll probably get someone chime in saying they take £10 million a year shortly but I stand by my opinion. I really think you should look into a better package as there's an abundance of them out there. If you insist on using WordPress for an e-commerce platform then take a look here for some WordPress e-commerce plugins.

I think personally you're better off starting with software designed for what you want to do such as OsCommerce or OpenCart. I don't really recommend Magento as this is really a different ball game. I have 43 Magento sites on one of my node servers and they have the potential to be a mare if not installed, setup and maintained correctly, and that's before you even go down the hardware route!

Cheers

Hi thanks for the insight. I am now slightly worried, although the development hasn't begun yet so I am still able to use an alternative plugin, or platform if necessary.

To give a bit more info about what the requirements are about the site. Its a wedding invitations website and there are about 20-30 different types of invitations, but it is only the samples which are going to be available to purchase online - the actual full orders are to be done via a form and then invoiced outside the shop, so although the shop might sound really complicated when I said it has different currencies, it is only really quite small in terms of items available to buy and ways to pay (only paypal).

Would you still stand by your opinion that getshopped is not the right way to go for this? Is it mainly because of the multi currency that you make this decision? I did install the plugin and add a few mock up items and the way the multiple currencies seemed to work looked quite good - this wasn't in a production environment and I didnt really do any testing though...

I would prefer to use WordPress as I am quite comfortable with it and the rest of the website would really lend its self to the platform - its more like a WordPress site with a few things to buy rather than a full on eCommerce website.

If you have had some negative experience with that getshopped plugin, would you recommend any of the other plugins you posted for the purpose I described?

I really appreciate your advice and glad I posted at this early stage in the project!
0

#8 User is offline   AdvantageDigitalMedia 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Group: Gold Membership
  • Posts: 21
  • Joined: 31-January 12
  • Reputation: 1

Posted 31 January 2012 - 09:16 PM

Hi,

When you put it like this, perhaps WordPress is the better platform for what you're doing, in this instance. I've had experience with getshopped and it was more a case of being underwhelmed than negative, but then I do come from a Magento/Lemonstand background so it's not really a fair comparison.

My problem with this sort of thing is experience with clients in the past and their inevitable want to scale up in the future. In a years time you don't want to be re-doing the whole site because the client has "come up with an idea" and your original choice of platform was not scaleable, who do you blame?

If, and it's a big if, you're only going to be selling what is basically 1 product then I'm sure a variant of e-commerce plugin would be just fine, however you do require multi-currency with automated conversion rates, which is not what these simple e-commerce plugins are designed to do. Perhaps the best thing would be looking at an additional plugin for the free e-commerce plugins to deal with the currency or perhaps even paying for one of the WordPress e-commerce plugins if they contain such a feature.

I'm afraid I can't give you much more information about the e-commerce plugins other than the link I provided. From a design and feature point of view Shopp "looks" reasonable but it may be worth asking the question to a couple of them see if they can handle your requirement. Else it's probably going to be a custom job or some clever negotiating with the customer!

Hope this helps.
0

#9 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 31 January 2012 - 10:10 PM

View PostAdvantageDigitalMedia, on 31 January 2012 - 09:16 PM, said:

Hi,

When you put it like this, perhaps WordPress is the better platform for what you're doing, in this instance. I've had experience with getshopped and it was more a case of being underwhelmed than negative, but then I do come from a Magento/Lemonstand background so it's not really a fair comparison.

My problem with this sort of thing is experience with clients in the past and their inevitable want to scale up in the future. In a years time you don't want to be re-doing the whole site because the client has "come up with an idea" and your original choice of platform was not scaleable, who do you blame?

If, and it's a big if, you're only going to be selling what is basically 1 product then I'm sure a variant of e-commerce plugin would be just fine, however you do require multi-currency with automated conversion rates, which is not what these simple e-commerce plugins are designed to do. Perhaps the best thing would be looking at an additional plugin for the free e-commerce plugins to deal with the currency or perhaps even paying for one of the WordPress e-commerce plugins if they contain such a feature.

I'm afraid I can't give you much more information about the e-commerce plugins other than the link I provided. From a design and feature point of view Shopp "looks" reasonable but it may be worth asking the question to a couple of them see if they can handle your requirement. Else it's probably going to be a custom job or some clever negotiating with the customer!

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. I see what you mean re clients wanting to expand. Automated conversion is not actually something that is required now as the client has specified that they would rather choose their own price in each currency (about 4 currencies in total) so there is no automation at all. The client didnt like the idea of the odd numbers that might be thrown out of an automated currency system. By the sounds of it the getshopped plugin might be ok so long as the shop is not to expand...
0

#10 User is offline   AdvantageDigitalMedia 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Group: Gold Membership
  • Posts: 21
  • Joined: 31-January 12
  • Reputation: 1

Posted 01 February 2012 - 07:03 AM

In which case you may find getshopped will suffice.

It's just one of those things experience has taught me to be mindful of. I always try and build in a level of scaleability in a project, to be perfectly honest not for the customers benefit, but for mine. Too many times a client will come back to me a year later and want to change tact, depending on how limiting your initial decision was could end up with you losing a client or losing money because you're having to "correct" your initial "mistake", for lack of better words.

WordPress is a fantastic CMS, for all levels of users, however all too often it's used as the start point for every project known to man. I have used it and will use it again, and personally love it so this isn't a WordPress bashing post, just try and make sure that you use the right base to build from, it's only going to make your life easier. Most of the time clients don't understand nor care about how hard or easy it is to add functionality to a site, they just want it!

To summarise, it's not about whether getshopped is good or bad, just right or wrong. It's important to remember what it is, which is a secondary plugin to a CMS, not an e-commerce platform, therefore it's always going to be limited compared to standalone e-commerce platforms. I know several developers who use Magento (one of the best e-commerce platforms around - incredibly feature packed as a shopping cart) as a CMS, just because it's available. They then spend hours removing all traces of carts, compare, wishlists, checkouts and other e-commerce references from the program!

I wish you all the best, if you get any problems let us know.

Hope this helps?
0

#11 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 01 February 2012 - 05:24 PM

Thanks, I have found your posts really useful.

I think I will give getshopped a go but there is a bit of functionality I need to add such as the ability to input a variable into a url to change the currency i.e shop.com/currency=usd
I will probably try and do the more tricky things like this first before I settle into the plugin too much so will keep my options open to other plugins.

I will let you know how I get on, or I dare say post some questions in a help thread when I get stuck on something..! :rolleyes:
0

#12 User is offline   AdvantageDigitalMedia 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Group: Gold Membership
  • Posts: 21
  • Joined: 31-January 12
  • Reputation: 1

Posted 01 February 2012 - 06:52 PM

Glad to be of assistance, good luck!

Cheers.
0

#13 User is offline   richimgd 

  • Forum Newcomer
  • Pip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 13-October 11
  • Reputation: 0
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Leeds
  • Experience:Advanced
  • Area of Expertise:Designer/Coder

Posted 03 April 2012 - 03:09 PM

Hi there,

Just an update with this job. I haven't started development yet as the design has only just been finished but now I am approaching the development stage and now going to assess my options.

A quick update about the job: The website is for a company that hand make Wedding Invitations and similar products including: Save the Date, Favours, Thank You cards, Table Stationery and Engagement Invitations. Each types of product has about 8 – 15 ‘ranges’. Each range will span different product types as people could order multiple products in the same range so everything matches the theme of their wedding. In total that would be roughly 50-60 products available to buy. The only eCommerce part of the website is to order individual samples of products. A customer can browse around the website and select a number of different products they want to order samples for, but once they want to make a full order then they contact the company via email or phone rather than ordering through the website – so with that regard its not really a full ecommerce solution, but it at least needs the main essensials such as shopping cart functionality, and one other thing which I will explain shortly...

I'm not sure if I need full eCommerce functionality for this, because ultimately all I think I need (and what the client is happy to have) is a WordPress website which users can order samples using PayPal only. The reason wordpress was preferred is ultimately this is a content based website with the ability to choose a series of products to order samples for. There are no special things to consider such as item stock (items will always be in stock) or product sizes or other special requirements. The only specific and perhaps tricky functionality I have been asked to implement is the ability for customers to choose to display prices in the following 4 currencies: GBP, USD, EUROs and Australian Dollars. The idea was that people are more likely to buy if the prices are displayed in their currency, so the ability to perform this function by adding a variable with the currency choice to the URL so that the website owner could advertise to locations which use the specific currency. I.e website.com/products?currency=usd Also if there were the 4 currency choices on the website such as in the header, the user could click to change the prices to their currency.

The client would like to specify each product with the different currencies manually rather than using some kind of service to calculate the difference, so they could choose nicer looking values such as £50, €60 $90 for the same product, even though they are aware they will be absorbing the difference.


Up until now I have been planning on building the website in WordPress and using the GetShopped plugin as it seemed to offer all these features out of the box (more or less) but now I am having my doubts as I haven’t seen an example of a GetShopped powered website which has multiple currency selection functionality even though it says it supports it. It offers the abiliy to add a product and specify a number of different currency amounts which is fine, its just I haven’t seen any front end working example on a website where it lets you switch prices to your currency of choice.

Can anyone offer any advice or suggestions? I would really like to use wordpress if possible as I am more confident with it, but I would consider other options also. Can anyone show any examples of a wordpress plug-in powered website or an alternative ecommerce platform being used on an website which lets a user change the prices to match the currency of choice?

Many thanks
Rich
0

Share this topic:


Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

2 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 2 guests, 0 anonymous users