Can I charge 2 different prices for my products?

[kirkhayes]

I have a client who has a paypal account and an international paypal account. He wants to sell digital downloads, but charge two different prices for each product. One price for USa customers and a different price for international customers.

Is this possible?

[fairestcape]

Aside from the technicalities involved, there are two other considerations:-

1. Legality of dual pricing. May be a good idea to see if there are legal restrictions.

2. Having two prices on the same site, applicable to different regions, would be very annoying for customers who were being asked to pay more - especially if it is a virtual product, where there's no packing and shipping excess. Your client could actually drive foreign business away with this policy. I most certainly would NOT pay extra, just for being a foreign customer (or vice versa). I would shop elsewhere - even if just to show my disgust for the dual pricing penalty.

If your client is intent on dual retail pricing, then it would probably be better to set up two separate shops. Configure one to accept orders ONLY from USA, and the other to accept orders from everyone else.

Besides, there is no mechanism in a standard install of ZC to cater for dual pricing on the basis you suggest. You can invoke the Pricing Groups feature, or consider the Dual Pricing Add-on:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=166

[kirkhayes]

Aside from the technicalities involved, there are two other considerations:-

1. Legality of dual pricing. May be a good idea to see if there are legal restrictions.

2. Having two prices on the same site, applicable to different regions, would be very annoying for customers who were being asked to pay more - especially if it is a virtual product, where there's no packing and shipping excess. Your client could actually drive foreign business away with this policy. I most certainly would NOT pay extra, just for being a foreign customer (or vice versa). I would shop elsewhere - even if just to show my disgust for the dual pricing penalty.

If your client is intent on dual retail pricing, then it would probably be better to set up two separate shops. Configure one to accept orders ONLY from USA, and the other to accept orders from everyone else.

Besides, there is no mechanism in a standard install of ZC to cater for dual pricing on the basis you suggest. You can invoke the Pricing Groups feature, or consider the Dual Pricing Add-on:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=166

I completely agree with you and I started to bring these issues up to my client when he mentioned his plan. His response was tailored toward a physical item and not a download, but he said that in England people have no problem paying 25 lbs for a t-shirt and in the USA people have no problem paying 25 dollars for a t-shirt, but the exchange rate between 25 dollars and 25 lbs is huge !!! Thus he feels that if all his items are sold based of the USD economy and poor exchange rate he will be missing out on potential profits in the international market.

I'm still not to keen on the idea myself, plus I'm not even sure how one would enforce users to not make purchase from the USA store vs. the international store.

As for legality...I'm sure there is nothing illegal about it, plus he has a lawyer involved too. All companies (think car manufacturers) charge completely different prices for their goods depending on what country you purchase from.

[fairestcape]

but he said that in England people have no problem paying 25 lbs for a t-shirt and in the USA people have no problem paying 25 dollars for a t-shirt, but the exchange rate between 25 dollars and 25 lbs is huge !!! Thus he feels that if all his items are sold based of the USD economy and poor exchange rate he will be missing out on potential profits in the international market.

What utter rubbish! Where does your client get his info from? A $25 t-shirt in British £ would have been £14.10 two weeks ago.

Today, a $25 tshirt is £14.50

The pound has lost value to the dollar in the last 10 days. 3 years ago the dollar lost value to the pound.

People are not stupid. If I see an item priced in US$, I will know roughly that the price in pounds ought to be numerically 35% lower.

People in England watch the exchange rate very carefully. If your client charges the US $25 and the UK £25 - he wont get orders from the UK - that's for sure - unless he HIDES the fact that US customers are getting a 35% discount!

[rstevenson]

There are many market-based reasons for selling products at 2 different price points in different markets. There's no reason to think that a simple currency conversion value is going to be right in all markets.

The Dual Pricing mod will do what you want, but using it that way means creating some logic so that customers are shown the price they "should" see based on their country (or whatever areas you define). Which means they have to create an account and log in before seeing the correct price. Practically speaking, that won't work for a retail store -- no one will create an account just to see the price.

I think your only option is to have two separate stores.

Rob

[kirkhayes]

What utter rubbish! Where does your client get his info from? A $25 t-shirt in British £ would have been £14.10 two weeks ago.

Today, a $25 tshirt is £14.50

The pound has lost value to the dollar in the last 10 days. 3 years ago the dollar lost value to the pound.

People are not stupid. If I see an item priced in US$, I will know roughly that the price in pounds ought to be numerically 35% lower.

People in England watch the exchange rate very carefully. If your client charges the US $25 and the UK £25 - he wont get orders from the UK - that's for sure - unless he HIDES the fact that US customers are getting a 35% discount!

Listen, I am not here to debate the morals of such business practices, I am here to learn if I can satisfy my client's needs.

However, I decided to explore this further and I went and examined the prices on Itunes USA vs Itunes UK and guess what? They are very very different. The same $.99 song in the USA is being sold for £.79 in the UK which is the equivalent of $1.36 usd.

Furthermore itunes has a separate store and different pricing for about 20 different countries. That being said I guess in a world of freetrade owners can price their goods based on demand and current market price for that region.

So please keep your emotional rubbish out of this discussion and stick to the technical expertise please.

[kirkhayes]

There are many market-based reasons for selling products at 2 different price points in different markets. There's no reason to think that a simple currency conversion value is going to be right in all markets.

The Dual Pricing mod will do what you want, but using it that way means creating some logic so that customers are shown the price they "should" see based on their country (or whatever areas you define). Which means they have to create an account and log in before seeing the correct price. Practically speaking, that won't work for a retail store -- no one will create an account just to see the price.

I think your only option is to have two separate stores.

Rob

Thank you for the information. I also came to the same conclusion. It does appear to be easier to just make separate stores.

[fairestcape]

Listen, I am not here to debate the morals of such business practices, I am here to learn if I can satisfy my client's needs.

However, I decided to explore this further and I went and examined the prices on Itunes USA vs Itunes UK and guess what? They are very very different. The same $.99 song in the USA is being sold for £.79 in the UK which is the equivalent of $1.36 usd.

Furthermore itunes has a separate store and different pricing for about 20 different countries. That being said I guess in a world of freetrade owners can price their goods based on demand and current market price for that region.

So please keep your emotional rubbish out of this discussion and stick to the technical expertise please.

Sorry if I came across as critical of you. I'm being critical of your client's logic.

Interestingly, the iTunes issue is the subject of a number of legal challenges right now, especially in the UK/Eurozone.

But Rob is right... It's not technically easy to get ZC to display prices based on geo-location PRIOR to login. You may investigate this via IP address, however...

[kirkhayes]

Sorry if I came across as critical of you. I'm being critical of your client's logic.

Interestingly, the iTunes issue is the subject of a number of legal challenges right now, especially in the UK/Eurozone.

But Rob is right... It's not technically easy to get ZC to display prices based on geo-location PRIOR to login. You may investigate this via IP address, however...

Right on, I appreciate the explanation regarding my clients logic. As for iTunes and multiple price points I believe that economic policies decided in a court of law are about as solid as predicting the direction of the wind four years from now.

What is legal today will be illegal tomorrow and then legal again 10 years from now.

So I will create multiple stores for my client in the meantime and let him decide how to price it :-)