Should I have local currency stores?
10 weeks ago, I launched a second online store where US and Canadian customers could make purchases in USD, rather than GBP.
I’ve always wondered how much impact seeing and paying for things in your own currency has and today I’d like to review the results of the first 10 weeks.
To try and account for general growth, new products, and stock as much as possible, I’ll be talking about percentage of sales rather than specific sales numbers.
For the period of 7th November – 16th January, in:
- 2020, 52% of sales came from US and Canada, 48% came from elsewhere
- 2021, 54% of sales came from US and Canada, 46% came from elsewhere
- 2022, 70% of sales came from US and Canada, 30% came from elsewhere
That’s a very noticeable difference, with 2020 and 2021 being close to each other, and 2022 having a large shift towards the US and Canada.
Let’s take a look at year on year trends, in:
- 2018, 29% of sales came from US and Canada, 71% came from elsewhere
- 2019, 47% of sales came from US and Canada, 53% came from elsewhere
- 2020, 56% of sales came from US and Canada, 44% came from elsewhere
- 2021, 55% of sales came from US and Canada, 45% came from elsewhere
- 2022, 64% of sales came from US and Canada, 36% came from elsewhere
- 2023 (so far), 69% of sales came from US and Canada, 31% came from elsewhere
2018 and 2019 were both much smaller years for me as they marked the start of my journey into selling directly while 2020 was the first big year.
It’s interesting both 2020 and 2021 (56% and 55% US/CA) were very similar overall to our 10-week snapshots (52% and 54%).
Similarly, you can see the overall year for 2022 is already leaning more into the US/CA direction at 64%, and the 10 weeks of 70% over November and December are likely the reasoning for this. Keeping in mind I get a very large increase in sales during November and December, so those 2 months play a big part in the overall years performance.
At this point it is looking like the addition of a USD currency store for US and Canadian customers has increased sales to those markets somewhere around 20%, which is substantial.
I’ll be reviewing this periodically over the year and hope to launch at least one additional currency store in 2023.
Frank West
Frank West is a gamer and designer based in Bristol, UK. He published his first board game, The City of Kings, in 2018 and now works on other games and organising events in the local area. His goal? To design and publish games focusing on immersive themes, fun mechanics and beautiful components. If you have any questions or would just like a chat, feel free to get in touch at any time!