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International orders - best practices

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by mc_user

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My company, which is in Chicago, is developing a web site for our customers to order services and goods from. I don't expect a lot of high volume traffic, but I do expect to see many orders come from all around the world.

I want to make sure the site is friendly to these users.

Does anyone have examples of sites that got it right? That you really like?

I know to make provisions for postal codes, extended phone numbers and extra address lines. But what else should I be watching for?

Does anyone have examples of American web sites that are

3 replies

by timwalsh

If you are expecting orders from overseas, I'm assuming that you will be using Credit Cards as the primary (or only) form of payment. Since buyers will get their credit card bills in their local currency, it will be beneficial to those buyers if you provide a utility for quickly converting US dollars to their local currency at the then current rate. Take a look at www.xe.com. You can provide a link to this site for free.

by john_wills

Watch out for ambiguous words like "paraffin" - is it paraffin wax or kerosene?

A pint can be 0.568 l or 0.550 l depending. Clothes and shoe sizes are also ambiguous.

Don't write your dates half-backwards numeric - in Europe 04/07/2002 means 4th of July, not April 7th. Best is ISO: 2002.04.07.

Issue loose-leaf documentation so it can fit in an A4 2-ring binder as well as Am Qto 3-ring.

Ask you telephone company about international toll-free dialing.

by mc_user

Thanks for the advise.

Currency conversion makes sense, I'll see if a link can be done. (It may be against company policy)

I had forgotten about the A4 paper standard. This is something that we can start on quickly. I knew about the date standard but it had slipped my mind.

My only other thought was that some orders have to be in by a deadline in order to get a discount rate. I thought that a clock displaying local date and time might be a usefull tool.

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