When asking the question on how to increase sales in the global market many merchants look to their marketing strategy first. Am I spending enough advertising dollars? Is my advertising approach suitable to the market? While these are admirable questions to ask the solution may be simpler and less expensive than a boost in advertising.
Cardholders today are searching for ease of use, confidence, and understanding. International cardholders are no different. If you recognize the vast opportunity of targeting international markets and attracting new customers there is a solution. That solution is Multi-Currency Pricing.
Expanding your business into the global market is a great opportunity but attracting new international customers, and maintaining customer loyalty, is a challenge.
Humboldt Merchant Services has been offering Multi-Currency Pricing for nearly a decade, although it still remains a little-known secret in the adult billing arena. Multi-Currency Pricing let’s you increase your global sales by pricing your offers in the currency your shoppers understand best —their own. Imagine walking into a store and finding all of the prices in Japanese yen. How many bags of potato chips would you buy for ¥400? You’d probably walk out and find a store that was selling those same potato chips in US dollars. Well, the same goes for browsing internet shoppers. They may turn your site away because they don’t understand the fast-changing foreign exchange rate from U.S. dollars to their home currency. That’s where Multi-Currency Pricing comes in. You, the merchant, set the prices in the currency of your target market based on the exchange rate. Your customers have confidence in how much they are going to be billed, in their own currency, and you receive payment in U.S. dollars. With Multi-Currency Pricing you can choose from one or all the following currencies that best suit your market; Canadian dollar, British pound Sterling, euro, Japanese yen, and Australian dollar.
Added customer convenience and increased sales are not the only benefit of Multi-Currency Pricing. Multi-Currency Pricing can reduce your customer service costs by limiting the number of billing inquiries. That’s proactive customer services at its best. Even worse, some of those customers will go straight to their bank and issue a chargeback for something that could have been easily avoided. The last thing you need is an increased chargeback ratio due to customer confusion. Multi-Currency Pricing can save you the hassle and cost of dealing with chargebacks steaming from misinterpreted billing issues. Multi-Currency pricing also offers the added benefit of tracking your international sales. With separate reporting you can easily monitor and grow your business in the global market.
Expanding your business into the global market is a great opportunity but attracting new international customers, and maintaining customer loyalty, is a challenge. With Multi-Currency Pricing you cut out the hassle while building customer rapport by offering a more familiar shopping experience. Increase global sales with Multi-Currency Pricing while enjoying the convenience of U.S. acquiring solutions. Streamline customer service and avoid chargebacks by proactively catering to your international customers needs. Ultimately, your goal is to increase sales. Now you can do this without the requirement of an international entity or oversees banking relationship.
Barry Prentice is assistant risk manager at Humboldt Merchant Services.