Selling at different prices in different countries

Discussions
#1

Ours is a desktop software that is currently sold from our website. But, potential customers in some developing countries might possibly find the software more expensive. Hence, we want to make it available at lower prices to customers in those countries. We are wondering what might be an easy way (i.e., not too much work) to sell the same software at different prices in different countries.

Thanks for your suggestions!

P.S. Our current selling process is the following. When the customer clicks on the “Buy Now” button on our website, the customer gets re-directed to the PayPal website. When the payment is made, the customer gets an an automated e-mail providing the download link and license key.

#2

Not really sure about PayPal, but I use FastSpring and it allows me to create different prices for different countries. The way I have it set up is the cost might be $39 USD but it is also $39 AUD which are effectively different prices due to the exchange rates but appear to be the same price to the user.

#3

I’ve accomplished that with a custom plugin for EasyDigitalDownloads. Essentially I update the price (Currency) base on the visitor IP using maxmind database. (Ping me if you want to take a look at the plugin)

I tested it for a few month and did not notice much of improvement in conversions. Plus paypal was killing with the currency conversion rate

Have anyone experience any improvement with this pricing strategy?

#4

Ouch, don’t let too many Aussies know this, it means you’re charging us a 40% premium at current exchange rates! (We used to be at parity with the US dollar, but now we’re back down to 70c USD.)

I’ve tried using MaxMind GeoIP to identify the customer’s country and offer a steep discount in some countries. At one point I tried offering an 80% discount for Argentinians after their currency collapse. But it didn’t help sales. The handful of customers who got the special price were very appreciative (and making them aware of the reason for the discounted price probably helps here too), but it’s something I’d do more for goodwill & to make customers happy, than because you think it’s going to move the needle on sales / revenue.

#5

It’s actually cheaper for Aussies. If I just standardised on US dollars like a lot of apps it would be ~ $60 AUD. It’s even cheaper if you are in NZ!

#6

D’oh, you’re correct, sorry for the braindead post on my part Craig! I read it the wrong way around.

If your pricing is standardised permanently in a country regardless of currency fluctuations, that’s a good thing, especially if you have recurring billing (as I think your SaaS app does). Budgeting is definitely easier if you know you’re paying the same amount each month.

#7

I found this old thread and was curious is anyone else had tried pricing in local currencies?

Also about 20% of our users are from India. I am tempted to try a lower price for that market.

Any advice would be appreciated.

#8

I do live conversions into local currencies (using the Open Exchange Rates API which I am extremely happy with), but I haven’t tried fixed prices in local currency yet.

Is that 20% of paid users in India? If so, that’s amazing! I’ve tried large discounts for India (around ~75%) with no luck. I get hardly any sales from there, but a lot of trial downloads & a ton of customer support enquiries, often for competitors products (!) and the rest are similar to “this is my hobby so I demand a free copy”. The handful of paying customers I’ve had from India have been awesome, though.

[Edit: I just got another enquiry from India for a competitor’s product. I looked them up - the competitor is based in India, and charges 4x as much as I do. They only allow their software to be delivered via courier & with an accompanying hardware dongle. Maybe discounting prices to India isn’t as important as fighting cracks.]

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#9

Good discussion, everyone.

I would also add that it depends on what kind of product you offer: B2C or B2B.

B2C tends to be more sensitive to pricing while people in B2B crowd do not care too much.