The proper set up of currencies and exchange rates mechanism is essential to any online store that targets worldwide community of buyers. This makes a store user-friendly and open to majority of customers independent of their country’s currency system.

The goal of course is to offer customers the choice of currencies in which they want to see the prices and pay for the goods. The list of possible currencies, their ISO’s, types and exchange rates is set up in an administrative mode of a store. An administrator also has to make a decision of which currency to consider the “base one”. Setting up prices in actual currency ($ for example) can be complicated, since $ value can change and consequently its exchange rate. Thus, you are more prone to make an error in calculations and present wrong information to customers.

In Shop-Script PRO and Shop-Script PREMIUM stores product prices, shipping rates, and sales amount are set up in conventional currency units, rather than in actual currency.  Thus, all prices are independent of “base” currency’s actual value. Converting prices to other currencies is based on currency exchange rates and product price in conventional units. This makes price setting and currency conversion more consistent and less confusing.

For example, you can set 1 conventional unit to be worth $1. This makes the exchange rate in your store to be the number that shows how many units of a currency make 1 conventional unit. For each currency in your currency list you can add the corresponding number, which later can be updated to keep up with currencies exchange rates. The picture below shows that a product worth 1 conventional unit is worth $1, or €0.73, or £0.50, or 25.68 руб.

When customers browse thru your product catalog, they can choose in which currency they wish to see product prices (from the list of those currencies that a merchant had setup in a store):