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Two simple questions

Submitted by RTT on 27 Oct 2009
  1. Every time a customer of mine buy one of my EUR priced products, and pay in EUR, I receive, in my Plimus account, less USD than if I sell the same product to a customer who pay in the, nowadays, crap USD. Go figure it!!!
  2. The exchange rates being used to calculate the USD price, of my EUR priced products, to the customer who pay in USD, also penalize vendor.
  3. When Plimus pay me, another USD->EUR exchange must be done and, I loose money again.

Yes, I know, sell and buy exchange rates are not equal, but why also vendors, and not customers only, have to pay the exchange service to the company Plimus use to do the conversions?
I suppose it's handy, and profitable, for Plimus to maintain things this way, but, for sure, its nothing like that for non USD vendors.

So, my two questions are:

1º - Where can I check the exact daily exchange rates being used?

2º - A Plimus multi-currency account is what's needed to make things fair, so, is this long time talked feature, multi-currency Plimus accounts, already scheduled, or we are going to wait until leaving Plimus is the only solution?

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No one to reply?!!

Submitted by RTT on 11 Nov 2009.

So, this subject don't deserve a reply from anyone from Plimus staff?
Shame on you, guys.

Apologies

Submitted by Derek on 11 Nov 2009.

Hi there,
I am chasing this up on your behalf. Apologies for the delay.
 
Derek, Plimus

Apologies accepted

Submitted by RTT on 12 Nov 2009.

Thanks for the reply, Derek. Looking forward to know what is exactly the Plimus position on this subject. If the multi-currency vendors account is not a feature already scheduled for the very near future, I expect a clear NO, as response.
And all the annoyance my previous post denote, result from the fact that a similar subject, posted in the "The Wish List" forum, http://home.plimus.com/ecommerce/community/forum_topic/when-plimus-multi... , also never got any response from anyone from Plimus team, even with a PM to SimonJ requesting his reply!

Mutlicurrency issues

Submitted by Derek on 17 Nov 2009.

Hi there,
 
Whenever currency changes take place as part of a financial service there is charge for the conversion. Plimus uses a third party to run currency conversion, and accordingly that service comes at a price. It is part and parcel of the cost of being involved in  global commerce, and part of the 'price' reflects the ongoing risks everyone in the currency chain faces in having to hedge and play off different currency fluctuations against each other.
 
The Plimus system enables you to set a specific currency for your product -- so that you gaurantee yourself the full product price you wish to set in the relevant currency, so that for instance you can quote the price of a product in Euros and always ensure that you collect that Euro sum from the customer.
 
We are working towards a multicurrency solution for 2010 and this is on our roadmap, but it involves a significant re-programming effort, so we cannot give you a firm date for such item. A lot of programming resources are being directed into improving the product and building a significant API competence, and the flow of those projects will also have a bearing the multicurrency solution.
 
In addition, providing a multicurrency solution also means that Plimus as a company has to effectively manage significant sums of different currencies on behalf of its Vendors which adds another dimension of risk management and responsibility for our business as well. I don't want to over-exaggerate that point but it is another  layer of complexity to this issue.
 
Derek, Plimus
 

I'm looking forward for it

Submitted by RTT on 19 Nov 2009.


The Plimus system enables you to set a specific currency for your product -- so that you gaurantee yourself the full product price you wish to set in the relevant currency, so that for instance you can quote the price of a product in Euros and always ensure that you collect that Euro sum from the customer.

That's what I have done since the beginning, but the problem is that, even with same day exchange rates, exchanging EUR>USD>EUR always end in losses to the vendor. That's the way the exchange business work, and, in this situations, we just don't need the exchange service, so why pay for it.

PayPal multicurrency account model is the way to go. If Plimus finally implement it, will transform this already very good e-commerce platform in the best one.

I just don't see why so much delay in the implementation. In the end, it's just numbers, and software is all about numbers, so enhancing the platform software is not too complicated. I'm sure the bank service Plimus use to collect the money can handle multicurrency accounts without problems. If not, why Plimus don't partnership with PayPal to simplify the process? Rivals can always partnership to enhance profits.


In addition, providing a multicurrency solution also means that Plimus as a company has to effectively manage significant sums of different currencies on behalf of its Vendors which adds another dimension of risk management and responsibility for our business as well. I don't want to over-exaggerate that point but it is another layer of complexity to this issue.

Banks do it all the time, and Plimus for sure use a bank service to handle the sum. And distributing the sum into different currencies statistically augment the overall stability of the total, reducing the risks involved of keeping only one currency.

Thank you for the time taken to reply, and I'm looking forward to be able to configure my EUR account in my Plimus vendor control panel area. ;-)

Banking on the banks

Submitted by Derek on 19 Nov 2009.

Thanks for your well-considered response, and I hope we meet your expectations!
 
As for banks -- I wouldn't bank on them given their track record over the last couple of years. Derek ;)