Sales Sites Need to State Currency Being Used

There I was, paused to press the BUY button on a sales site when I thought I had better check whether I was paying in US dollars or AU dollars.

Currency exchange rate

There's a vast difference at present as can be seen in the image.

So I checked and suddenly, the product that I thought would have been a good deal for me turned into a bad deal because of the exchange rate.

This reminded me of a few years back when I used to create internet sites and audit the sites of others to ensure compliance with the: Australian Guidelines for Electronic Commerce.

One of the requirements is spelled out as:

"All information referring to costs should indicate the applicable currency, including guidance on how to get information on exchange rates, or a link to a site where such information may be found."

If an ecommerce site is selling widgets in the USA, then one would expect the currency to be in US dollars; similarly, an Australian ecommerce site would be expected to display currency in AU dollars.

This was much simpler when the US used the two vertical lines through the S and Australia used a single line. Now, both US and AUS use the single vertical line it's confusing.

Where sites are actively advertising internationally, although these guidelines are only valid for Australian businesses, it is good business practice to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy your product or service. Doesn't that make sense?

It's very easy to install a link to a currency calculator and indicate the currency you are using where it's not readily identified.

There's nothing more annoying than going through a purchase routine only to find at the end of it that the price is in USD when you thought it was in AUD. Obviously, US customers purchasing from an AUD site wouldn't have the same problem since they'd be paying much less.

What do you think? Are you an Australian consumer who has paid much more than you thought because your purchase was in USD?