We now offer international currencies as a standard feature in MOD Machine.

Here are some common questions:

I’m currently selling products internationally. How does it work when a customer outside the U.S. makes a purchase through MOD Machine?

When a customer outside the U.S. makes a purchase through MOD Machine in USD  (U.S. Dollars), a currency conversion fee is added to their purchase by their credit card company, and shows up on their monthly statement. This fee varies quite a bit and can be anywhere from 0% up to 10% of the purchase price. In short, the international customer gets “dinged” for buying a product in USD.

In our experience, this extra fee has not seemed to impact international sales, which make up about 35% of MOD Machine sales. (Perhaps this is because this fee is in almost every case far less than the customer would pay for shipping and duties when ordering a physical DVD, and these customers realize that, and/or, customers are just used to the surcharge when buying items priced in USD.)

(With over 70,000 products sold outside the U.S., we have yet to receive or hear about a single complaint from an international MOD Machine customer about this extra fee. They all just seem overjoyed to be able to order products without any shipping or duties and get them in minutes.)

Additionally, for sales outside the U.S. in USD, Leaping Brain pays a 1% “cross-border” fee, which is reflected in the extra 1% Leaping Brain percentage for international sales.

If you wish, we can put an option menu in your catalog that will allow users to select their native currency. For example, someone in the U.K. would select “GPB”, while someone in France would select “Euros”.

Upon making this selection, product prices would show up in their native currency.

When they make a purchase, Leaping Brain pays a currency conversion fee, which is reflected in a higher Leaping Brain percentage for these sales. The customer only pays the amount of the product, without any extra fees tacked on by their credit card company.

Initially, we will add support for these four currencies:

• GBP (U.K.)
• Euro
• Australian Dollar
• Canadian Dollar

The countries using these currencies currently make up the vast majority of MOD Machine sales outside the U.S. More will be added when we determine them to be advantageous.

We have developed a script to automatically price your products in these currencies, taking into account the conversion fees, and also avoiding odd price points (e.g., £11.09 or £18.31), instead, pricing at “normal-looking” price point (e.g., £11.99 or £19.95).

Assuming it makes no difference in sales, our pricing script works so that the revenue you receive is very close to what you would receive if your products were only pricing in USD. Some will be a little more, others a little less.

Of course, as exchange rates move up or down, how much you receive in USD will vary on a daily basis. If, in the future, there is a significant change in exchange rates, we can reprice your catalog higher or lower in other currencies.

No. Native currency support is optional.

For your MOD Machine catalog, you can either:

• say “yes”, and choose to offer native currencies, or

• say “no”, and continue to sell to international customers only in USD.

If you say “no” at this time, you can change your mind anytime in the future and decide to add the native currency option.

If you say “yes”, you can change your mind later and remove native currency support.

NOTE: Some of our clients and affiliates based in other countries will definitely be offering native currency purchase in their catalogs. So if you want your products to be included in their catalogs, you will definitely need to price your products in other currencies, even if you choose not to offer native currencies in your own catalog.

We will only charge shop rate to rebuild your catalog and import your product prices, and price your products if you wish us to do so. Obviously larger catalogs will cost a little more. We will give you an estimate upon request.

Possible advantages we can think of might include:

Goodwill: Not forcing customers to pay a currency conversion fee could lead to appreciation among international customers, who might become more loyal to your brand and buy more as a result.

Positive brand messaging: Being internationally “savvy” and offering native currency purchase could send a message to international customers that your company is more a “planetary citizen” than just a U.S. company, leading to, perhaps, more international reviews, buzz, and word-of-mouth recommendations in other countries, leading to higher sales.

There is a a nominal charge for pricing your products in other currencies and rebuilding your catalog