Poll for international SDE shop customers
We’d love your feedback!
For the last few months we have been trialling having local currencies on the SDE shop to see if it’s something that adds value to our international audience and affords them a better shopping experience.
The general idea is that you can shop in USD, EUR, CAD, etc. which should make life easier for international shoppers inasmuch as they don’t have to do thumbnail currencies conversions in their head when looking at products that are all priced in GBP (UK Pound Sterling). Another aim was to remove currency conversion fees applied by your international card providers when buying a products in a currency that is not the same as your local currency and avoiding your payment providers maybe blocking a transaction because the ‘foreign’ currency purchase looks suspicious.
Shortly after we introduced this, in October 2023, we had some informal feedback from some of you, but the point of this post is to collect data properly and give you the chance to have your say. So below is a poll that we’d love you to complete if you do not live in the UK and have brought a product from on the SDE shop. It’s very straightforward: Please just indicate whether you are happy with shopping in your local currency; would prefer to go back to GBP (sterling) or have no preference.
Thanks for taking the time and we look forward to reviewing the results! Feel free to leave a comment if you wish to expand with further details, but do please complete the form also.
SDE Poll
As an international customer, how would you like to shop on the SDE shop?
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73 thoughts on “Poll for international SDE shop customers”
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As long as the VAT-issue is dealt with by SDE Shop, then GBP-EUR is not a big deal. But to be able to see the price in Euro is easier to compare prices. Where to buy for the lowest price (the best deal) for me. Voted: No Preference!
As stated by others, having the choice of currency would be great. Eliminating the VAT from orders shipped outside the UK is a much higher priority for me. I’m in Canada and 20% less for each item I order from the SDE Shop would definitely encourage me to buy more than just the SDE Surround Series blu-rays I’ve purchased to date. I’m happy with the customer service, shipping materials, tracking provided – but as a non-UK customer having to pay VAT leads me to shop elsewhere for non-exclusive items.
I don’t have any preference, having the IOSS or whatever it’s called is the business, though I’m still having stuff delivered to London as I’m over quite a bit these days. I’d like to also congratulate SDE on their great releases, great packaging, great service and wish everyone a happy, healthy new year.
Doesn’t matter to me.
I have the mental ability to convert GBP to USD
With Opera, I just have to select a GBP price mentioned on any site and it will automatically convert it to € for me, so shopping in GBP wasn’t ever a real obstacle for me, but I do appreciate the convenience of seeing it directly in €.
I don’t think the extra currency transfer is going to be any worse than what PayPal did to me so far…
Paypal would have to have the worse FX conversion rates going. (for the consumer that is) No wonder they make “zillions”
Original (in this case pounds)..
I don’t wanna pay for an extra ccurrency transfer, and my cc do NOT charge me extra for conversion if I pay in another currency than Euro..
Same for me. The thing with store-offered conversions to Euro is that these are nearly always come at a conversion rate that costs more than the conversion rate of credit cards. Still I voted “no preference” since the € conversion is handy by having an instant indication of the actual cost of an item (because of fluctuating conversion rates from Pounds Sterling to Euro).
For me, the shop being IOSS registered and properly dealing with EU VAT is more important if not essential (as import and customs fees are doubling the price of an item, whereas diffrences in conversion rates is about tiny ammounts).
Luckily SDE is, and handled my EU order properly, resulting in no customs fees.
Agree, my CC coverts pounds to my local currency at lower bank rates with no foreign transaction fees, and it’s easy enough to find out what the conversion rate is. Prefer to pay in pounds sterling.
Agree here too.
My job is easy. Prices are fair to the US. I have no hairs to split at this point.
hi, as a decently long-time non-UK purchaser, I do actually prefer paying in the currency of the item because my credit card does not charge any FX fee and gives me the interbanc rate, so it winds up being the net lowest price in my currency and basically impossible to be any cheaper any other way.
that being said, it would be nice to have the choice of local vs foreign at time of purchase.
If there is a choice, we’d all be happy. Seems a no brainer no one would be worse off but some like c-q and I would be better off if we could be charged in UK pounds
I am in Canada, I don’t really mind either way and voted as such.
However if VAT could be removed for purchases from the UK like Amazon (and some other retailers) do then I would buy more fron the SDE shop as otherwise I find prices (and shipping costs) pretty good
Happy New Year to all,
prefer to pay in GBP : the amount is clearer (23£ instead of 27.95€ for example ) , easier to compare (price are in pounds in widgets) and no additional fee from the bank.
would it be possible to let the buyer choose the currency ? it would satisfy everyone .
Thanks again Paul for all you are doing here, love the SDE bluray series.
As I wrote to Paul shortly after paying in local currency only had been introduced, I stopped buing anything from SDE since then. The reason is I have better FX conditions on my cards, I am not about to pay more unnecessarily and I want to have the exchange rate used under my control.
Thus I prefer paying in GBP as currency conversions into local currency offered by e-shops are always substantially worse based on my own numerous experience.
However, I have seen some middle-sized e-shops IIRC and they were offering choice of payment currency on their web pages. This solution might make everybody happy.
Hello, from a Swedish perspective I think that using GBP is totally okay. Most important is that the package states wether V.A.T for Sweden is paid or not. Most of the CD retailers in UK , the ones that ship from UK, manages this perfectly. Best regards Hans
Dear Paul,
First of all, I wish everybody who’s reading this a Super Deluxe and Happy New Year !
Looking forward what 2024 will bring in terms of Super Deluxe Editions or the further expanding of the ongoing the SDE Blu-ray serie.
Second, It’s very generous of you to ask everyone’s thoughts on this topic but don’t forget your own opinion.
It’s your business and you have to feel also comfortable about it.
If you lose (to much) money with it or you have to increase prices to compensate the loss of fees, just go back to GBP.
For me it is more important to be able to use IOSS than whether the currency is GBP, EUR or DKK (my local currency).
The hassle of having to pay import fee to the handling company is the biggest pain and the reason I often wait for the SDE releases to become available on eBay. For information the import fee to handling company equals €22 in fee only – then comes having to pay VAT twice (both UK and DK VAT) and the hassle of getting the UK VAT back is just not worth the effort. Therefore my 2024 wish is that the SDE Shop will begin using the IOSS.
We’ve been IOSS registered since August!!
Shopping in EUR is convenient, but not a necessity for me. I will continue to shop at SDE, regardless of the currency shown. I will go with whatever option is cheapest to both SDE and its customers
I have no preference as I have a WISE account and convert currency when needed for no fee. However, what would be useful is payment of VAT at source as I get stung for customs / import fee’s on every order to France (usually an extra 10 euro’s over and above the purchase price).
It’s always slightly more expensive for me to purchase abroad in my local currency – the credit card companies take en extra cut for this service – so I would prefer to pay in GBP.
Euro’s will do fine. Thx Paul and happy new year to you!!
As I use a credit card that charges no foreign exchange fees and gives me a better rate than any online store’s (FAR better than Amazon’s converter, for example, especially with their ridiculous “exchange rate guarantee fee” tacked on), I’ve voted to stay in GBP.
I am curious about the UK VAT issue that has been raised by some others. The SDE Shop’s listed prices appear to be inclusive of VAT. If that is indeed the case, why is it not being subtracted for items shipping to international destinations? Doing so would definitely make shipping costs a bit easier to swallow.
Happy New Year, Paul!
Same here, best exchange rate is just paying in GBP and let my cc handle it, it’s not a dealbreaker though since it’s usually just a few pounds difference
More a petty annoyance, however
I’m in Australia and have no currency conversion fees on my credit card, therefore purchasing CDs in Aussie dollars adds several dollars to the cost of each item, especially with shipping included. Other websites I use give us a choice of currencies, so why can’t you do something like that so customers can choose the option that gives the best value?
My preference would be to go back to GBP. I have always selected GBP when buying online from UK stores (Amazon etc) as I have generally found that my bank gives me a better exchange rate than the store. I have noticed that after the switch to local currency the SDEs have been slightly more expensive.
Additionally I have multi currency accounts with my bank and so if I use a debit card, it will automatically charge to my sterling account if it’s priced in GBP – I bought sterling when the exchange rate was very favourable and so save if I do this.
I note that Amazon give a choice – is that something that is possible with SDE or is it too complex / expensive for a ‘smaller’ operation ?
I don’t have a strong preference in the payment currency. Whichever way is the most advantageous on your side, Paul, is the way to go.
I’ll agree with other responses, if there’s a way to reduce shipping costs, that would be great.
I chose ‘GBP/Sterling’ but to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever even noticed the local currency option.
My main grumble is shipping cost to Australia – and I understand Paul has no control over that. If there was a way I could pre-order the SDE blurays but ‘hold’ them to ship together later on, would be great. But I have no experience running an online store, so I guess that could be quite complicated.
PS, thanks for the recent delivery of Peter Gabriel, Prince and Soft Cell!
Just to second this, as an American buyer, I’m not bothered by the currency at all but I’d love to be able to have multiple orders ship together. (It has as much to do with items not getting lost as it does with overall cost.)
definitely go back to GBP for me. If I use my credit card there are no currency conversion fees. If I use my debit card there is a fee but that’s preferable than using my local currency (EURO) as the converted amount is less favourable. Same when purchasing from Amazon UK – I always pay in GBP.
I don’t buy from you regularly but have never had a problem with fees or costs coming to the US. I am game for whatever makes life easier on you, honestly. I appreciate all you do to keep music fandom alive.
Thank you!
Any currency conversion costs, so the fewer, the better. GBP for me. I can do the math in my head ;)
I voted GBP as I have a zero fx fee card in Australia. Once I bought business class tickets on a different card, as price was AUD, but got whacked with a huge fee due to being ‘an international website’!
Agree with other comments on postage (Rarewaves is $6.99).
And VAT should be removed at 20% – where is this value going, as it shouldn’t be charged to overseas customers? No shade intended.
But love the website, and all that you do. Found some great deals, and purchased some beautiful items.
My credit card does not charge an extra fee for currency conversion so I’d be happy to pay in GBP instead of EUR, especially as I pay a bit more in EUR than in GBP. I understand that some of us prefer to pay in their local currency, so maybe it is possible to let the buyer choose the currency.
The most important thing though is that there are no more import fees which added up to app. 13 EUR for a BR disc. Being a record buyer/collector for more than 50 years now, this site is one of my favourite sources for new releases, and I’m very happy that ordering from the SDE shop has become much cheaper since. Thanks Paul for all your hard work!
I fully concur with Andreas’s comments on the CC and import fees. Same scenario with my credit card (no currency conversion) in Germany and would like to stick to paying in GBP. Though I see from the poll that the majority seems to judge this differently.
Happy New Year to Paul and his team. You are doing an amazing job! Thanks so much
Plus one for what Andreas wrote and i too would like it most if i’d be able to choose the currency while shopping but don’t know if that would lead to additional cost and / or work for you, Paul.
If it finally comes down to local currency OR GBP i’d definitely stick to Pounds because the final amount i pay is lower in that case.
I put that I prefer shopping in local currency but I’m easy either way. More importantly is the shipping cost. If I could bundle orders together to save shipping that eould be a big thing. The exchange rate from AUD$ to GBP£ is bad enough but
when the postage costs almost as much as the item itself, it makes it much harder. Means a £23 disc becomes $46 and then with shipping comes close to $70. Any help there or with VAT/GST would be great too.
However I have been very happy with the SDE Shop otherwise, am thrilled that the special Blu-ray editions exist and really appreciate all your hard work Paul, so I will just buy where I can if nothing else can change. Happy New Year to you and your family and the SDE team, Paul and thanks again!
Thanks and appreciate the kind words at the end! :)
The Aussie dollar seems to move almost imperceptibly against the GBP, so after many individual blu-ray purchases from SDE I have a pretty good idea of what the final figure will be. When the local currency came up last time, my first thought was “oh, here we go”, since that sort of thing rarely works out in our favour, but to my surprise, it was actually pretty much on the money, and allowed me to use my points-earning card. That said, I wouldn’t insist that things remain that way if it’s costing more at the SDE end.
I have to agree with OberonOZ, though – the postage to Australia is killer. If there was one only feature that SDE could add to the shop to make it better, it would be “add to existing order”, or maybe “buy now, ship later”, but I know that those would both be logistical nightmares for a small operation.
Thanks Mick. “Add to existing order” is something we’d love to do but it’s a tricky logistical challenge. But there could be something in ‘buy now, ship later’ so I’ll give that some thought. Cheers, P.
Here’s the thing: It’s more expensive for us to allow customers to purchase in local currency. Paypal charge more, Shopify charge more. Some people seem to think that it’s some kind of duplicitous way of making extra money, but that is not the case. It’s more expensive and is much more complicated to administer. I’d be quite happy to go back to GBP. That’s why I am asking the question because a few people were complaining. However we want to do what works for the majority and at the moment it clearly shows that more people prefer to buy in their local currency.
I appreciate you asking us folks who are impacted, and for the transparency of the situation on your side too. Happy New Year Paul and SDE team.
Happy new year, Paul and Anne.
I’m glad this is being looked into as I wanted to complain about it, but hesitated so far to do so. Someone is making some extra money is exactly what I was thinking when this was introduced back in October. Paying in EUR is more expensive for me as the currency conversion rate used isn’t reflecting the actual rate (which can be checked at http://www.xe.com/ucc).
When Amazon increased the annual Prime membership from 70 to 90 Euro I no longer wanted to get ripped off and canceled my membership. Now I’m paying almost an additional 100 Euro on my SDE purchases just for getting the prices in the shop shown in my currency? I think anybody can quickly find out that 23.00 GBP = 26.50 EUR. For 100 Euro I could get two more SDEs per year.
If it’s more expensive on your side and our side, why continue to do it? Why not save that money and instead use it on physical product or anything else? Would love to get back to paying in GBP. No currency conversion fee on your side, you get paid in your currency. Or at least allow buyers to choose whether they prefer convenience (pay in their currency) or want to save some money (pay in GBP).
Where are you getting “additional 100 Euro” from?! Why continue to do it? We will be guided by what the majority of customers want.
My last order would have been about 8 Euro cheaper if paid in GBP. Based on 12 orders per year I will pay about 96 Euro more. The more I order the bigger the difference will get.
What I meant is, why continue to offer payment in local currencies when you have higher costs (and much more complicated to administer) on your side and we pay more because of a bad exchange rate and conversion fee used by Shopify?
Listening to your customers is a good thing to do. Offering both options (GBP and local currencies) will satisfy all customers and could avoid some of the costs on your side.
I have used xe.com to transfer international funds for many years. The xe.com rate shown on the site is the mid-market rate, not the actual purchase/sale rate for live conversions. Any purchases of that currency will be a slightly higher rate, and any sales of that currency will be a slightly lower rate. Logging in as a customer and attempting a currency conversion will give the actual live rate.
Please change back. I buy products from all over the world these days and am used to just typing 22 pounds to aud into google to see the price. We don’t need websites doing it for us and increasing the cost for the privilege.
Happy New Year, Paul!!
I chose the pay in local currency option, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have you do what is best for the site and keeps it going in the long run, since I get far more benefit from you just being here as opposed to this site not existing. Hope that is of help….
Please do Paul – we need you to operate as efficiently as you can. You incurring higher fees for a facility that isn’t expected or sought after by SDE supporters, really makes no sense. If GBP works better for you than please bring it back.
For me, I have a credit card that gives more CC points when carrying out a foreign transaction. So the preference would therefore be GBP. That said, I believe the SDE shop prices include VAT ? It would be great to not be charged the UK VAT ( I know Amazon removes it when shipping to Canada, and the listed price is reduced at checkout – and Shop/Shopify should have no issues). Of more importance, is then listing the “item” price on the CN22, otherwise I am paying duties / handling fee / tax on the “item + UK tax” price, which is not great. Especially now with the electronic customs info, prevalent with the postal offices, it’s no longer a lottery, more of a certainty on paying additional duties. So along with other comments, if you can put the item value in the local currency it certainly helps the local postal authority with their calculation. But then, similar to what you have done with the EU, are you able collect the local taxes, so the upfront price we pay is just that – no extra bills or surprise costs?
Happy new year, Paul.
I prefer to pay in my local currency, rather than pay VISA or PAYPAL conversion fees.
Thank you for making the purchase easier for SDE Shop customers.
By the way, there are some backorders (I guess the Suede singles are part of the reason.)
Best regards
Paying in my local currency on theSDEShop still incurs conversion fees through Shopify, which have worked out to be very similar to the PayPal conversion costs back when I was paying in GBPs.
Precisely – its the way they make money at our (including Paul’s) expense.
I live in the US. I have 3 credit cards (one with no annual fee) that do not charge for international currency transactions. The conversion rate is almost always better than Amazon’s conversion rate. I did not compare SDE’s rates to my credit card rates. In general, cards from Amex, Chase, Citi, & Capital One offer the best foreign conversion rates, especially on their premium cards. That said, compared to shipping costs, foreign currency conversion rates are a non-issue. I am a dedicated fan of SDE, I have met Paul and can unequivocally state he is a great guy, loves what he does, provides a great website, and now produces audio Blurays that are what the record companies should be doing if they were not greed driven by the profits they are making on vinyl. Now if he can only find a way to reduce the cost of international shipping. One resolution may be, if there are a significant amount of orders, to bulk ship the US orders to one location in the US and then have them packaged, labeled & sent by 4th class media mail, which is crazy cheap, to their final destinations. Best wishes for a happy new you.
Well, I can give you exact figures for me. I have bought SDE ATMOS blu-rays one at a time. Once the change was made, I saved $3 on each blu-ray. So I only have a slight preference for local currency. $3 in either direction will not influence my buying decision.
Import fees in my country are strictly calculated from USD, so it’s always a welcome option to avoid headaches calculating the equivalents when declaring them.
I am from the eurozone and I have noticed that GBP is more favorable for me, even considering the exchange rate offered by VISA. I lose a couple of euros on every order I make if the prices are in euros.
Honestly would prefer a choice. It’s not a straight conversion, it appears to round up to a proper number, at least for CAD, and as I have a credit card that gives me an excellent exchange rate I feel I’m spending more with the new policy. If choice isn’t possible I’d prefer to just get the GBP price. Experience with overseas shopping in general suggests that any time the seller is doing the exchange as a service, I lose out.
I agree to a point. I voted for preferring payment in my local currency (CAD). However for the sake of a buck or two I don’t always have the time to do calculations every time I buy. Having a choice though is good too.
Welcome back and a happy new year.
As for me, I am not buying product that I can get from Amazon or any other vendor. I prefer to buy in USD because I deal with that daily so it’s just easier. However, some conversion into a different currency would not be a major headache because I’m getting a premium product and those come with some effort/inconvenience which is a part of the experience.
I am already happy that this vehicle exists to moan about currency but am happy to express a preference.
I would like the choice, the local currency system has a 10% mark up on total when process in you local currency
Thanks. It is not correct to say it has a 10% markup.
I doubt it’s 10%, but my recent experience in almost purchasing the Paul Young suggests that it definitely rounds up to a whole number of Canadian dollars. If it was a genuine conversion, the price would change daily by a few cents at least, but it doesn’t, so they must be building in a cushion. Checking my history it appears I’ve bought 8 items off you so far, with a few more where I’d have liked the product but I’ve been put off by the shipping costs, just because it takes the total cost to more than I’m comfortable with for a particular item, but Paul Young was the first one where I didn’t follow through just cause it appeared I was going to be overcharged by a buck or two because I couldn’t pay in sterling. It’s not just the cost of the blu ray that was rounded up, the shipping was too, so it’s a double whammy.
All the above is based on my most recent (non) sales experience, if it’s a product I absolutely must have then I’d just bite the bullet, but it will make a difference for those items where I’m not committed.
Universal have the same issue, but on their site I can choose which currency I want to be charged in. The cheapest varies.
In Canada also, as I mentioned on the FB post it would be significantly more palatable to be able to order two titles at the same time. The rarely overlapping order windows are disconcerting. Might even result in a purchase you might not otherwise have made.
If there were a way to find a US distributor to soften the cost of shipping, that would be appreciated.
It could be the same for any country outside of Europe [and UK].
It would also be very welcome if there was a direct dealer especially for the german market. I would really appreciate that.
B.tw. A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE !
I prefer local currency (NZD) Initially it took me by surprise and didn’t realise i was looking at an already converted rate during that trial period but aftrr realising. The idea was much better.
I’m also in NZ, and after the change to the website the first few conversions were a NZ dollar or 2 more than previous purchases, but for the last 2 purchases the cost came down slightly. I don’t care about a couple of dollars here and there on conversion, but as others have mentioned, shipping costs on individual items make the price quite high, and if there were a way to combine items together to help lower the average shipping cost per item, I’d go for it (like the ‘pay now ship later’ someone else mentioned). I don’t care if I get things near release date, as some of my overseas purchases take 3 months to get here anyway, so if I could get SDE #s 18, 19, and 20 shipped together it could help.