Doing business from Canadian site

U.S. or Canadian funds?

[Marcia]

I'll be starting a site for a crafter in Canada who wants to take payment in Canadian currency, and wants credit card processing. I haven't handled anything outside the U.S., and the company I'd generally do the credit cards through has said that Canada is fine, as long as it's American currency on the site.

I've read, in several places, that it's usually best to list prices and take payment in U.S. currency, since this is where most of the orders will come from. The link exchanges I'll arrange, and web rings I'll have her on will most likely be 99% U.S. sites

Any thoughts on this, and what's involved with selling online with American/Canadian currency?

[Woz]

Marcia,

Personally I would not charge/quote anything other than US funds. This certainly seems to be accepted as the universal currency of the internet and is also less volatile in the FX market.

I made the mistake of quoting a job recently for a fellow Aussie in Australian Dollars when the rate was .66 to US. It is now .51; I lost. Never again.

I would advise your client to quote US prices.

Onya
Woz

[oilman]

Marcia - I would try and talk you client into going with US dollars on the site simply because the bulk of the customers are gonna be outside Canada. She will see alot more success that way because people won't have to be concerned with what it really costs.

On the other hand everybody knows that the Canadian dollar ain't worth the paper it's printed on which does encourage some cross border shopping because there is the perception that buying from Canada is cheaper.

Still - I would recommend US dollars.

[Air]

I agree with what has been said so far. IMO the biggest advantage to listing prices in US dollars is that everyone, including Canadians, are so used to seeing things priced in US$ that they don't even blink. I can't say the reverse is true for Canadian dollars.

Canadian money does have one advantage over US, it is much more colorful:)

[Marcia]

>it is much more colorful

Air, that's important, these are crafts sites - LOL.

woz, you stopped me just in time! I was about to send off an email telling her how much, and I will have to count on my fingers to give her the Canadian price also, so she doesn't misunderstand. I do know that PSP7 is $109 US and about $160 or so Canadian, so I could have taken a major beating, even though it's a tiny site.

I just this morning heard from a crafter friend who's in Canada, and 99.5% of her sales are in the U.S. - all from link exchanges and webrings. She gets no search engine traffic, which is why she wrote. She lives a half hour from the border, so she's got an American bank account.

oilman, I will insist that she go with U.S. prices or I won't do her site.

Thanks for the feedback, it's all settled!

[spope]

1. In the import-export business, transactions are generally denominated in U.S. dollars. The world wide web really puts you into international trading.
2. I guess that's what happens when you become a dominant world power. With a large portion of the world population being Chinese, you would think that Chinese would be the language of international trade. But, again, because of the dominance of the United States (and the British Empire), English is.
3. I am a Canadian but my website prices are currently quoted in U.S. dollars. Most of my suppliers are U.S. based. Even a Canadian supplier billed me in U.S. dollars.
4. One of my Canadian suppliers has a currency converter to help you understand what it will cost you in your currency. He also will bill you in either Canadian or United States dollars. I don't know if he has to use multiple merchant accounts or not. He claims increased sales because of it. Currency converters are available on the internet (sometimes free in return for advertising). A person could also write their own script.

[Marcia]

thanks spope, good idea. I've found a nice site with a currency converter - I'll add it to a "resource" page and link out to it.

[mousemoves]

what i have done with a canadian site is put the canadian dollar amount and then an approximate U.S amount beside it.
CAD $0.00 approximately USD $0.00

when the bank receives the customers credit card it is automatically charged at the accurate currency difference.

your client may want to work in canadian dollars because of how she/he has their accounting/inventory system set up. it could be a real problem for them to change it into U.S dollars.