Payments for online marketplaces and international e-tailing
Online marketplaces and online retailing, or e-tailing, offer professionals, small businesses, and corporations a secure solution for sending or receiving funds for their products and goods sold over the internet. A number of service providers offered customized solutions for companies or individuals who need to sell their products or services overseas, making it fast and secure for them to accept overseas payment from customers, and then quickly convert it into their local currency. These e-tailer providers offer fast, convenient, and cost-effective solutions for managing a company’s overseas currency transfers, no matter how big or how small.
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Traditionally, selling products or services via international online marketplaces meant high transaction costs (often up to 4% of turnover) and could mean long wait times to receive the fx international payments into the seller’s account. With the advent of specialized e-tailers, however, today it is easier than ever to manage and convert foreign currency receipts when selling or purchasing international services. These specialist e-tailing and online marketplace service providers help to reduce not only the costs associated with international currency conversions, but speed up the time which it takes to receive payments.
E-tailers create local currency accounts to receive the foreign currency payments, and then transfer funds back to the home currency account, often at a much better rate than what is typically offered by a bank or through the marketplace. Transfers typically occur within hours versus weeks, and sellers can choose to have their money delivered through an account set up with their service provider, their local bank, a US- or EU-based payment service, a global company such as Amazon or eBay, or through a pre-paid card.
Benefits of using a Specialist Payments Service
By using a specialist international e-tailing service provider to manage global customer billing and payments, individuals and companies are able to expand their businesses globally and no longer have to rely on a physical location to sell their goods and services.
Specialist e-tail providers and online marketplaces can help to significantly reduce both cost and time of not only doing business overseas, but repatriating foreign currency sales back into the seller’s local currency. E-tail providers do this by opening and overseeing local currency accounts where the seller is doing business. By having these local currency accounts, the seller is able to reduce the costs of currency conversions, as well as reduce their exposure to foreign exchange currency risk due to price fluctuations brought on by market volatility. Once funds have been received into the seller’s local currency account, they are then transferred back into their home currency, often at a better exchange rate than they would have received if going through a more traditional route, such as a bank.
E-tailers provide sellers a secure, legal means to transfer money back into their home currency accounts, and the convenience of being able to choose from a variety of locations and currencies, as well as multiple payment options. Many e-tail specialists today offer the ability to set up payment solutions in a variety of currencies and hundreds of countries across the globe.
Services are offered from companies such as Currencies Direct, OFX, Payoneer and World First.
Online Marketplaces/e-tailing Risks and Issues
If you choose to use the online marketplace and e-tailing for your business, there are a few risks to keep in mind. Although the internet seems ubiquitous today, it is important to remember that some customers still do not have access to the web, and you may lose potential business to those who do not have the ability to shop online.
Customers may also be concerned with the security and privacy of online transactions. Be sure to choose an e-tail provider who offers the ability for transactions to be safe, legal, and private.