why doesn't shop site REALLY handle euros?

[Vernontnh]

Hi There:

Shopsite lets you set up your primary currency in Euros, but when I have done this, a sale of a EUR295.00 jacket comes to my credit card processor as, $279.00...thus I loose the exchange rate ...I'm loosing money at this point. Need to know if this is something that can be fixed

My credit card processor told me that they can only process in Dollars, so shopsite would need to convert to dollars from euros before it reached the credit card processor. AND include the increase due to the exchange rate of approx. 1.4.

Doesn't seem like this is doable...so if this is the way it is with other credit card processors and shopsite does not convert adding the extra value in dollars, then shopsite really doesn't support using the euro.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Vernon

[Jim]

You should have the primary currency for your store set to what ever your payment gateway accepts. Exchange rates change at least daily. There is no code in ShopSite to contact any exchange company to determine today's exchange rate and apply that to a sale. If you want to use Euro's in your store you should have a bank account that accepts Euro as the payment currency. If your bank account accepts dollars then you should list your primary currency as dollars and set an alternate currency of Euro and input the exchange rate that you want to receive. ShopSite will calculate the alternate currency price and display it along with the primary currency rate but the actual transaction will be done in the dollar amount.

[Vernontnh]

OK, Jim...that makes sense for when shopsite deals directly with a credit card processor. NOT for when it deals with Paypal directly.

So I instructed my customer to process using paypal instead as it is a setting option in Shopsite. On the website pogapparel.co.uk, I have set the currency to Euros.

YET THE PAYMENT WENT THROUGH PAPAL AS DOLLARS SO I'M STILL LOOSING MONEY.

I just got off the phone with paypal...they assured me that they did not receive the payment as euros from shopsite or it would have shown up as euros and not dollars. They are 100% sure this is a problem with shotsite and I agree.

Please advise. I'm very close to switching to another shopping card. Easy to just use a wordpress site and be done with all this nonsense

Shopsite is causing me to loose customers on this...not just loose money, but loose customers. Please fix.

Thank you.

Vernon

[Jim]

ShopSite sends the order to PayPal based on the main currency, it does not and cannot compute what the value of another currency is at any particular moment. You should configure your PayPal setting to use the main currency not Euros.

If you want ShopSite to function in Euros then you must get a merchant account/payment gateway that handles transactions in Euros. You could then configure your PayPal setting to use Euros. There is no way to process orders in 2 different currencies.

If your PayPal account is set for Euro then you may need to get a PayPal account that is the same as the main currency in your store. When a Shopper pays with PayPal they pay using the currency that there account is configure for. PayPal does the conversion of the payment from the shoppers currency to your PayPal account currency. I believe that their is a PayPal charge of converting from on currency to another just as there would be if you went to a bank and change US dollars to Euros. You would need to contact PayPal to findout what the charge for making the conversion from the the shopper's currency to yours is.

[Vernontnh]

Jim:

Please see my responses to each part of your reply. The responses are bold and in Blue:

ShopSite sends the order to PayPal based on the main currency, it does not and cannot compute what the value of another currency is at any particular moment. ShopSite's main currency for this account is set to Euros. Why would it make any difference what the Paypal currency settings are as long as it is set up to accept either Dollars or Euros. The representative at Paypal told me it makes no difference. So ShopSite should be sending the amount in Euros because it is set for that on my site, and it makes no difference to Paypal. You should configure your PayPal setting to use the main currency not Euros. In the Paypal currency settings, there is not setting called "Main currency"...There is an option to make one your "Primary" currency, but again, according to Paypal this would not effect whether the money comes in as Euros or Dollars.

If you want ShopSite to function in Euros then you must get a merchant account/payment gateway that handles transactions in Euros. What Does my merhant account have to do with it? If it goes directly to Paypal, it is bi-passing the merchant account and has nothing to do with it. You could then configure your PayPal setting to use Euros. It already is set to accept Euros. There is no way to process orders in 2 different currencies. I'm not asking Shopsite or Paypal to do any processing in two currencies for this site. Just Euros. And again, according to Paypal, they will process in whatever the shopping cart they receive the order from tells them to use. Therefore, it is the ShopSite Shopping cart that is the problem.

If your PayPal account is set for Euro then you may need to get a PayPal account that is the same as the main currency in your store. Again, the Main Currency for the store, http://www.pogapparel.co.uk IS EUROS. When a Shopper pays with PayPal they pay using the currency that there account is configure for. This simply cannot be accurate. If it were the case, then businesses with shopping carts the world over would be loosing money, or gaining money depending on the currency. A shopping cart is supposed to instruct the credit card company and Paypal what currency the sale is in. PERIOD.
PayPal does the conversion of the payment from the shoppers currency to your PayPal account currency. Not according to Paypal. They say the accept whatever the SHOPPING CART tells them to charge and then charges the credit card that amount in that currency. It will then convert it to whatever your Paypal settings are , and yes, there is a charge to that. But according to them, ShopSite told them to pay it in Dollars...so Please advise how you will fix this. I believe that their is a PayPal charge of converting from on currency to another just as there would be if you went to a bank and change US dollars to Euros. You would need to contact PayPal to findout what the charge for making the conversion from the the shopper's currency to yours is.

[Jim]

Let's get back to the very basics.
1. What version of ShopSite is the store running?
2. Is it a PRO, Manager or Starter
3. Under Preferences >Locale what are your settings?
4. Under Commerce Setup > Payment Setup what items do you have selected?
5. If you are using the "PayPal Website Payments Standard" method what do you have selected "PayPal Account Currency" pulldown? Is your PayPal account actually in that currency?