Going Global

When determining your prices in foreign currency, “you have to be careful,” warns Hurlbut, who points out that “you can have a currency fluctuation of 5 percent to 10 percent within the life of a catalog.” While the cataloger doesn’t necessarily raise its prices to counterbalance the increased cost to market overseas—as many overseas marketers do—it does build in the Value-Added Tax (VAT) charged in Europe. This is important because Europeans are accustomed to having VAT incorporated into the quoted price. While it factors in adjustments for currency fluctuations, Hurlbut maintains its overall strategy is to keep its prices the same internationally.