Multi currency (switcher etc) that is compatible with dynamic pricing

MizMix

I currently own a website with two subfolders- its an online retailer website with a UK subfolder with sterling prices and a Euro one. I have set up pricing bundles for my main product- more you buy, the unit price drops more etc. Hence I set up subfolders as I couldn't find a currency switcher to work right with them (my developer couldn't). I really want to target US buyers with prices in dollars (euro def puts them off). I really don't want a new subfolder to manage. Does anyone know a way around this?

Talisman

It's not that difficult. Some questions that you would need the answers to in order to get a full solution.

Are the prices fixed or do they fluctuate depending on the currency exchange rate?
Are the prices in the different currencies equivalent?

If the prices are fixed and you don't favour one currency over the other then the easiest option is to set your own exchange rate. For argument's sake let's say £1.00 : $1.50.

If you use £ Sterling as the base price then when you want to display the Sterling price you use the 1.00 multiplier, the $ US price requires the 1.50 multiplier.

Price x 1.00 = £ Price
Price x 1.50 = $ Price

That's very easy to implement and would allow you to display the two prices in the same page.

MizMix

Yes I am ok with that side of things. However it's finding a solution that's compatible with dynamic pricing plug in (i.e. bundle discounts). My developer isn't sure a way around it other than restructuring my pricing which isn't ideal.

So at the moment for my main product line each product is 5euro each. However buy 4 or more units the price drops to 3.75 each. But 10 or more 3.20 each etc. I don't seem to be able to get a currency switcher plug in that is compatible.

Baz_

I've been thinking about this problem and it interests me.

The thing that interests me most is that fact that it sounds on the surface to be trivial, but you're developer finds it difficult.

It also sounds like it is a problem that must already have a solution. Which leads me to presume that your site is a completely bespoke solution and not a "one click install" shopping cart plugin provided by your hosting.

In which case you probably need a bespoke solution.

The way I'm thinking about it probably requires shell access, the ability to run a cron job at the very least.

First set up a script to fetch the currency rates for your chosen base rate, lets say euro from: http://www.xe.com/currency/eur-euro

Then use the script to parse out the exchange rates for the other currency.

Update a table in the database with the currency values, and read these values upon page display doing the currency conversion on the fly depending on chosen currency.

This would be extensible and ultimately would allow for you to add as many currencies [sic] as you want.

I have included a python script file that scrapes the data and prints it to the screen as above, this could easily be modified to update a database. This should be easily converted to any other scripting language if python isn't on your system.

In my head the best solution would be to set up a cron job to run the script every hour or so, whatever is a sensible amount of time to track currency. It's most likely solvable without shell and cron access, but it's just more easily solved using them.

Itch scratched!

Baz_

Talisman

MizMix wrote: »

Yes I am ok with that side of things. However it's finding a solution that's compatible with dynamic pricing plug in (i.e. bundle discounts). My developer isn't sure a way around it other than restructuring my pricing which isn't ideal.

So at the moment for my main product line each product is 5euro each. However buy 4 or more units the price drops to 3.75 each. But 10 or more 3.20 each etc. I don't seem to be able to get a currency switcher plug in that is compatible.

What eCommerce platform is the site running?

MizMix

Thanks both. Again setting the currencies is no issue- it's the compatibility with pricing dynamics plug in (specifically bundle discounts). I should have stated- its simple a woocommerce site so not custom at all.

Baz_

So why can't you just calculate the price and convert it depending on the currency being used by the customer?

Display unit price as a product of set euro price multiplied by the conversion rate.

Then when bundles are chosen fetch set unit cost for bundle of that size in euro, then display the price as a product of that price times the conversion rate for the currency being used by customer, display that price as the per unit price and use the newly calculated unit price multiplied by the amount of units selected as the overall price.

Far as I can figure all that's needed to make it work is one more table in your database with the currency information.

Or maybe I'm missing something...

MizMix

Sorry I'm not technical at all. Anything custom I required for the site plug ins like pricing dynamics were used. My developer is relatively junior so I generally looked up plug ins to use as this was his biggest project to date.

So basically- my bundle discounts can be set up manually without a plug in? It's just a little bit more work but more custom to my requirements?

Baz_

I would be surprised of there wasn't an automatic currency converter available for it so

MizMix

There's not- I've emailed the developers of any currency switcher I can find and they have all said it's not compatible or they're not sure it is

Baz_

In answer to your question though, yes you should be able to add it in easily enough, what system is it

Graham

Baz_ wrote: »

In answer to your question though, yes you should be able to add it in easily enough, what system is it

Answered here:

MizMix wrote: »

I should have stated- its simple a woocommerce site so not custom at all.

Baz_

Graham wrote: »

Answered here:

Hah, to be honest I thought he was being coy and had used a made up name, had never heard of it before

Graham

Baz_ wrote: »

Hah, to be honest I thought he was being coy and had used a made up name, had never heard of it before

It's probably one of the most widely used e-commerce platforms out there. For WordPress I'd imagine it's the most widely used by a significant margin.

Baz_

A quick search shows a plugin for discounting bulk goods and a currency switcher is available for woo commerce, have you tried them in conjunction with each other?

Baz_

I had a look at the WordPress, woocommerce set up and it's not as easy as I thought it would be, the plugins are quite complicated to be hacking around in.

My suggestion though would be to start again, set up a separate WordPress and woocommerce instance and try to get your bundle pricing to work via one of the discount plugins available to add on, then try to get one of the currency switchers to work on top of that.

It sounds like your two folder solution makes things too complicated to be easily modified to add in more currencies so it needs to be a one database solution I would say...

MizMix

Thanks Baz. I looked up one of the currency switchers again and there seems to have been some recent development. I emailed support and it looks like it will work so long as I change my pricing bundles to be based on discounts instead of fixed amounts (I can still display fixed amounts but I just need to reset the discount at the backend to be the equivalent amount).

The two separate subfolders for UK and Euro works fine but it's too much for me to manage really- it's basically two sites, two inventories etc. My developer was adamant at the time there was no other way around it (maybe it wasn't a few months ago- the currency switcher does seem more evolved now). At least it looks possible now before I set up a third subfolder!