Art.com lands more international sales with new currency convertor
Because its international shoppers can now focus on its art offerings instead of also wondering what the price is in their local currency, Art.com is converting more shoppers into buyers, chief strategy officer Mike Marston tells InternetRetailer.com. “We’ve been able to convert our international traffic from visitors into customers significantly more than before,” he says.
Art.com is using a currency conversion tool from E4X Inc. that automatically converts Art.com’s U.S. dollar pricing into any one of 13 foreign currencies. Art’s E4X system includes a Currency Detector module that automatically detects an online visitor’s home currency, then instantly converts the site’s product pricing into that currency, Marston says. “That helps with conversions, because without it shoppers have to choose their currency from a pull-down menu,” he adds.
Marston notes that earlier versions of the E4X currency exchange tool were not as effective, because shoppers might have been put off by U.S. pricing before pulling down a menu to convert it. In addition, earlier versions only provided converted pricing in the shopping cart.
“Now as shoppers browse, everything they see can be in their local currency,” Marston says.
E4X provides the retailer with guaranteed currency conversion rates over a pre-determined period; the longer the period, the higher the conversion service fees paid by the retailer.
Retailers can also pass on part of the conversion fees to customers, although conversion fees are usually rolled into the prices shown on the web site.
The E4X system provides the retail web site with updated currency values through a web connection with a E4X-hosted server. Retailers also must install software on their own web servers for maintaining multiple currency information. Retailers pay E4X a percentage of transaction values, but no other set-up fees. Implementation can take up to a few months, depending on the number of currencies included, E4X says.
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