Chances are you already know Kobo is a global company.

But did you know that Kobo has merchandisers around the globe creating unique web store views in the major global territories? Did you know that the merchandisers in Canada might have special features on Books by Canucks, or the merchandisers in New Zealand have a special list of Kiwi Reads?

Similarly, the Top 50 Bestseller lists and the category ranking on Kobo are unique to each of the many territories that Kobo serves.

Due to recent improvements to the web-browsing experience on Kobo, you can now easily see how your book is ranking (as well as the pricing for the local currency) but following a few simple steps.

First, when you’re on an item page look up to the top of the screen.

As you’ll see in the example in the image below, a customer in the US browsing the store comes across Colleen Cross’s Game Theory. The book is displayed, on this US URL, in USD.

URL: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/game-theory-a-katerina-carter-fraud-legal-thriller

Colleen Cross’s Game Theory seen in the US store

If you click on the US Flag (or the flag from whatever country view you are looking at) showing at the top of the screen, you’ll be brought to the following page . . .

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/choose-your-country

. . . where you can select the country view that you wish to see.

Country Selection – Scroll to the country you wish to see and click that country’s flag

You’ll notice, when you select the new country view, that the price is represented in the local currency.

Whenever you are viewing a country that is not associated with your local IP, you’ll see a message similar to the one below which appears below the price.

Click on this on an item page to be brought to your local page for purchasing

The image below shows the result of either clicking on the flag at the top of the screen and then selecting Canada (for a Canadian customer) or for a Canadian customer who sees the “Available in Canada” link that helps them easily get to their localized store based on their IP.

The same book, as in the example above, now shows the Canadian view and Canadian dollar price for the same book. (You’ll notice that the book was $8.99 USD, but is showing, in Canada, at $9.99 CAD)

URL: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/game-theory-a-katerina-carter-fraud-legal-thriller

Notice the Canadian pricing and the different Canadian ranking on this same title by Colleen Cross

The good news is that, even if you provide the US link and a customer in any other country clicks it, they’ll easily be prompted to click to see the book’s listing on the localized site they can buy from (assuming the book has rights in that territory — and, by default, KWL titles have global rights, unless you de-select particular regions when setting the title up)

Author Colleen Cross has already, as you can see in this example, optimized her global pricing at Kobo.

If, after looking at your global pricing from the customer’s perspective, you want to ensure your pricing looks “natural” to customers in that territory, you can control your pricing using Kobo Writing Life’s global pricing controls. (For ideas on global pricing strategies, check out these posts: KWL Pricing)