Pricing apps in the Windows App stores

Earlier today I tweeted this:

Are you selling you mobile app in Russia? Have you upped the price to reflect the falling value of the Ruble? #wpdev #windev
— Matt Lacey (@mrlacey) December 17, 2014

It prompted some discussion on how the store adjusts prices between different currencies and how often these are adjusted to reflect changes in exchange rates.

Some discussion of this has already started on twitter (feel free to carry it on there or in the comments) but I wanted to share a bit more than I can fit in 140 chars.

Let's look at how the Windows Store translates prices at the moment.

The lowest price tier is 0.79 USD or 0.99 GBP which the store translates as 34.00 RUB

However, right now, Google says that 1 USD is worth 64.59 RUB

That means that the 34 RUB you get for a sale in Russia is really worth 0.53 USD

This may mean that you're getting much less for sales of your app in Russia than you are expecting.

If you've set your price based on the cost per user this may seriously matter to you. Getting new user (in Russia) could end up losing you money!

On the plus side, this means that your app just got cheaper for people in Russia. Maybe you're considering this an early Christmas present for them ;)


The solution: increase the price in Russia.*

The take away (for everybody even if you;'re not selling a lot in Russia) : If you're business is based on selling in multiple countries then you need to keep an eye out for large, rapid changes in exchange rates.



* If you want to adjust the price in an individual country see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh694062.aspx