International Catalogs

Commerce Server 2002 provides enhanced support for delivering catalog information that is appropriate to a particular locale. You can create a catalog that contains multilingual and multiple currency properties. Your application can then deliver catalog content in the appropriate language, with the currency symbol that is appropriate for a specific locale.

The following fictional business scenario provides some context for understanding how you can apply multilingual and multicurrency features to deliver appropriate catalog content. The scenario is an extension of the scenario described in Business Scenario for Enabling International Transactions.

Business Scenario for International Catalogs

In this fictional scenario, the Contoso retail site displays catalog content that is appropriate for the language and currency preferences of their users. The Contoso site developers implemented this feature by creating a catalog that contains data for each of the five locales the site targets. The catalog was originally developed in English with U.S. dollars as the base currency, and then translated into the four other languages (Spanish, French, German, and Japanese) and currencies by content managers for Contoso's subsidiaries in each of the four countries.

Prices in the virtual catalogs are determined by a pricing rule. This pricing rule sets the price in the virtual catalog by either increasing or decreasing the price based on the exchange rate. The following table illustrates the pricing rule.

Base Catalog Price Exchange Rate Pricing Rule Virtual Catalog Price
1 .5 Base Price * 200%  

Contoso automatically updates their exchange rate information regularly through a third-party service. They make these updates in order to more accurately reflect the true cost to their users. The exact cost to the user, however, is determined by the exchange rate applied when the credit card provider for the user completes the transaction.

In order to display appropriate content, the site developers modified the catalog browsing code to show items from the catalog that match the preferred language and currency of the user. If there is no preferred language and currency (for example, when the user is shopping anonymously) the English language catalog is displayed and prices are shown in U.S. dollars.

Ee784805.note(en-US,CS.20).gifNote

  • You could create a virtual catalog for the French market which only used the French language, and only used products appropriate to the French market, and contained pricing in euros.

See Also

Code to Set the Language Properties for a User Profile

International Scenario Summary

International Transactions

International Campaigns

International Shipping

Translating a Catalog by Exporting/Importing

Translating a Catalog with Business Desk

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