Hi Ted, > Has anyone had any experience with a shopping experience that includes > purchasing items using different currencies in the same basket? We > have a > situation where we may be constrained by the business to sell > products this > way. It is a heavily compromised user experience and we are doing > all we can > to fix things behind the scenes, but exploring options if we do need > to > handle it as is. > > A single credit card charge will go to the customer for the USD > amount and > the GBP amount, with the GBP amount converted into USD by the credit > card > company. The client does not want to show a converted price in the > basket > because the actual charge may be different. The most we can do is > show an > approximate conversion, which means the customer will not see a > confirmed > total price. > > The whole thing is awful, but if we fail to make the business > change, we > will have to find a way to make it as painless as possible on the > front end. > > Any thoughts or examples of someone handling this gracefully would > be much > appreciated.
As you say, it's a far from ideal situation - a foreign currency transaction against a credit card is not only likely to involve a variable exchange rate but also, at least in the UK, a fixed foreign transaction fee from the card provider. So, the final cost may vary significantly. On the other hand, customers need at least an idea of how much they're spending. I think all you can do is to be as transparent with customers as possible - split the basket into two in this instance: One section for USD transactions, the other for GBP. Next to the GBP amount, have a link along the lines of 'How much is this in USD?' When a customer clicks on that, display the approximate amount with a very obvious disclaimer. All the best, -- Ian Fenn Freelance UX Consultant Chopstix Media Limited http://www.chopstixmedia.com/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
