If you are a Sales Agency that represents a non-US Manufacturer, does business with non-US Customers, or is a non-US Manufacturer yourself, this article describes some of the important things you'll need to know to have MarketTime work in your favor.
Overview
At this time, MarketTime's primary currency is USD, and the system is generally designed to support Sales Agencies and Manufacturers based in the United States. As such, there may be additional steps or things to consider when doing business with non-US Manufacturers who may have different currency, payment, or order delivery needs than a US Manufacturer.
Currency
MarketTime only displays the USD "$" symbol for prices and order totals throughout the platform. While any numerical value may be loaded for a product to represent a different currency's amount, it will only display with the USD "$" symbol.
Customers
MarketTime allows users to create and accept both US and non-US customers throughout the platform. Choosing the correct country when doing so will allow you to enter address, city, country, etc. data accurately.
Relevant information regarding Territory creation and auto-assignment can be found below.
Manufacturers
The information in this article found below only applies to Manufacturers with US and non-US business, currencies, and/or order delivery needs.
Those who are using MarketTime for a single location (either US or non-US) can proceed with the use of the system as found throughout our Support Center for Sales Agencies and Manufacturers.
Territories for Non-US Customers
If you do business in non-US territories or countries, there are a few things to know about Territory creation and management.
Canadian Customers
For those who have Canadian customers, MarketTime's Territory feature currently only utilizes the first three characters of the zip code to populate any Territories you create. For example, the example below for Winfield, British Columbia, CA has a zip code of V4V.
Sometimes, that zip code may appear as V4V 1A1 in your customer data or on actual mailing labels, etc. While this format can be used when creating new customers or editing existing ones, territory creation, and customer auto-assignment works best with just the first three characters.
For more information about Territories, see our dedicated Support Article.
Manufacturer Data Management (Products, Catalogs, etc.)
In our experience, we generally see two scenarios with non-US Manufacturers and how they manage their data.
- They use the same pricing and data for US and non-US business - In this scenario, they can manage their Products, Catalogs, and Promotions within a single Manufacturer account (be it with a single price or the utilization of Price Codes to differentiate), and can connect to any Sales Agency they need to to support them with this data. In cases where they may offer both US and non-US pricing in the same Manufacturer account, it's typically for Sales Agencies who have significant crossover and know how to navigate the use of Price Codes.
- They use different pricing and data for US and non-US business. - In this scenario, they would manage their US data in one Manufacturer account, catered to US-only Sales Agencies, and manage another Manufacturer account for their non-US data and Sales Agencies. This is most often used when there can be no correlation to US and non-US business. This also extends to order delivery and payment processing (see each respective section below for more information).
In both scenarios above, Sales Agencies may directly link with a Manufacturer in a way that best suits them and their relationship with the Manufacturer, according to our Data Management options.
Order Delivery to Manufacturers
In our experience, we generally see a few scenarios with non-US Manufacturers and how they receive orders. These closely mirror those of the Data Management section above.
- They need to receive both US and non-US orders in the same location - At this time, the ability to receive orders from two self-managed Manufacturer accounts in the same location is not possible unless utilizing an external delivery option such as our public API or if receiving orders via SFTP for more information about order delivery options available to you as a Manufacturer, reach out to our Sales team by filling out THIS FORM
- They need to receive US and non-US orders in different locations - In this scenario, the Manufacturer would need two Manufacturer accounts, a separate one for each unique destination for orders. If they're already managing their data for US and non-US Sales Agencies, this aligns with the requirements of #2 in the Data Management section above. This also supports having different payment gateways for each Manufacturer account, as described in #2 below in the Payment Processing/Credit Cards section.
- They currently use Stream to receive orders - In this scenario, US and non-US orders may flow into the same Stream account if the Manufacturer needs their orders delivered in the same location. This also facilitates having different Payment Gateways for their US and non-US Manufacturer accounts (see below for more information).
Payment Processing/Credit Cards for Manufacturers
For Manufacturers who do both US and non-US business, there are a few ways to accommodate their ability to receive credit card tokens and/or process payments in MarketTime:
-
They intended to use MarketTime's payment processor, mtCharge. At this time, mtCharge is only available for Manufacturers with US-based banks. Those with non-US banks must choose one of the options below.
- They have their own non-US payment gateway/processor compatible with MarketTime - In this scenario, the Manufacturer can utilize a payment gateway/processor that is compatible with MarketTime to retrieve CC tokens or process payment within MarketTime for applicable orders. If they're already managing their data and/or receiving orders for non-US Sales Agencies, this aligns with the requirements of #2 in the Data Management section above.
- They have their own non-US payment gateway/processor that is incompatible with MarketTime - In this scenario, the Manufacturer will be required to manually retrieve Hosted PCI tokens from within MarketTime and process payment externally. For a list of compatible payment gateways, contact our Sales team by filling out THIS FORM.