Wells Fargo and Mitsubishi Unveil Multiple Currency E-Commerce Service

On the e-commerce superhighway, there are no borders. With a single click of the mouse, shoppers can easily land in online stores owned and operated by international companies across the globe. However, once an overseas consumer decides to make an online purchase, traditional issues of currency conversion and credit card settlement arise.

To address these issues, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, known as One Galaxy Solution, and Wells Fargo Bank have developed a new e-commerce service to process transactions that involve multiple currency conversion and international payment processing.

While the new service will initially be applicable only for sales of software over the Internet, the system is expected to be available soon for other products, as well. This is, indeed, good news for Internet sellers.

NetObjects and Allaire are two of the initial U.S. software vendors to use the One Galaxy/Wells Fargo solution.

Facilitating Global Sales

According to Tim Knowlton, vice president of business development for Wells Fargo E-Commerce/Future Payments, “Instead of switching back and forth from yen to dollars, or pounds to dollars, [consumers] can concentrate on what’s important to them. When you make it easier for customers to buy, they’ll keep coming back.”

Without a multi-currency credit card processing system, U.S.-based software publishers that sell globally via e-commerce sites must establish complex banking relationships for credit card settlement and e-commerce infrastructures for each host country. This new solution from One Galaxy and Wells Fargo offers a range of services that allows U.S.-based vendors to choose how best to deploy and manage an international e-commerce presence.

For those vendors with existing e-commerce sites — whether one site in the U.S. or multiple sites overseas — One Galaxy hosts comprehensive multi-currency credit card processing capabilities. Vendors without existing international e-commerce capabilities can become members of the “One Galaxy Marketplace,” an international storefront hosting service which provides support for the complete sales cycle, and according to the company, allows organizations to establish an international e-commerce presence with “minimal” investment.

How It Works

At the One Galaxy Marketplace, the price for each software title is listed in the local currency rather than in U.S. dollars.

When a customer submits credit card payment information to the Marketplace, that data is transmitted to Wells Fargo, which then checks with the bank that issued the customer’s credit card for funds verification and authorization. Once approval is given, Wells Fargo settles the transaction with the cardholder’s account in their local currency. At the same time, Wells Fargo settles the purchase with the One Galaxy Marketplace in U.S. dollars, at the established exchange rate for that particular day and time period.

After the purchase is authorized and the product is delivered, consumers will find the sum, still in their own local currency, listed as the “amount due” on their monthly credit card bill. International customers will no longer have to purchase a product in U.S. dollars and take a chance that the amount that appears on their credit card bill might be different due to currency fluctuations.

“Offering pricing in yen and pounds rather than dollars eliminates confusion and currency variances for the Internet consumer,” said Ichiro Takano, president and CEO of One Galaxy Solution.

1 Comment

  • Yes! This is a great idea. I know World Pay already does this in the United Kingdom offers this Multi-Currency service to any product to anyone in Europe & North America.

    It would be interesting to NOTE the costs involved.

    Any idea when this Multi Currency solution is available for other products other than software.

    Can any one outside of the USA use it? i.e. United Kingdom.

    Looking forward to your replies.

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