Any entrepreneur who works with overseas sales knows that receiving payments from international customers can be a hassle and a half. In fact, it can be so bad that many would drop the idea of selling internationally altogether. All of that because the revenue gained from this won’t be enough.
International money transfer fees are a major factor in overseas collection accounts because they are the thing that makes entrepreneurs lose a lot of their rightfully earned money. The good news is that there are many money transfer services emerging today that can change this situation by offering cheaper transactions.
Selling Overseas with the Help of Amazon Currency Exchange
If you sell on Amazon it seems that using Amazon’s own currency exchange service is the best way to go, right?
Wrong!
According to many a disgruntled user, Amazon Currency Converter is anything but a good opportunity for an online seller. It’s true that it is convenient, especially if Amazon is your primary selling platform. However, it’s also insanely expensive.
This means that this service isn’t all that different from the slow and expensive bank money transfers or services like Western Union. Its convenience doesn’t outweigh the foreign currency exchange rates, which are prohibitively high for many sellers.
Overseas Collection Accounts Done Cheap: Who Is in the Race?
Online retailers the world over will be most happy to know that today their options for overseas money transfers aren’t limited to Western Union, banks, and Amazon. In fact, more options are popping up regularly as new businesses are starting to battle for a piece of this industry.
The globalization and rise of international businesses made the demand for an affordable money transfer service skyrocket, and more progressive of financial businesses responded instantly.
It all started with Payoneer and PayPal, which are currently among the top of international money transfer service providers. However, each of these companies is limited in some way (here is a more detailed article about the benefits and limitations of PayPal for business). One of those ways is that the foreign exchange rates you get through them remain rather high.
Meet online money transfer companies like WorldFirst, Currencies Direct, HiFX, and OFX, who are currently working to provide online sellers with a better option for receiving payments from their international customers. MoneyCorp is offering such collection accounts too and it’s not the last service on the list. The thing that they all have in common is that they are able to offer foreign currency exchange rates that are close to mid-market. This means they are as affordable as one can get in this business, which is the reason why such companies are a game-changer for online sellers.
What’s in the Future for Cheap Overseas Payments?
The future for all sellers who are looking to expand their sales overseas is bright and promising. It’s definitely looking better than when Payoneer was the only decent service that offered one opportunity to receive payments from abroad without losing a huge part of them in the process.
Payoneer is still good, but it also charges up to 2.5% in currency conversion fees. Online money transfer services like MoneyCorp, on the other hand, either charge no fees at all or a very small amount. In terms of costs, there is no competition, these companies are much cheaper, meaning they allow sellers to retain more of their revenue.
But the question is which of these services is the best?
There is no answer to that because they are all quite similar in their benefits. Therefore, one needs to research reviews of each service carefully and make the decision based on their specific needs.
This decision can be influenced by the countries one targets (money transfer companies aren’t available everywhere) and currencies they need to accept payments in. Other factors, like the presence of offices in some locations and ease of use, also matter when you are choosing the best service to provide you with an overseas collection account.
It must be noted, however, that there might soon be an ultimate international money transfer service for online sellers. That’s because recently, Alibaba bought WorldFirst. This means that an online retail giant now has its own money transfer service that specialized in cheap international payments to begin with.
According to reports, after the change in ownership WorldFirst will cater to online sellers first. This means that there is a high chance that this service will offer even better terms for retailers who want to expand their reach overseas but cannot afford it yet.
Hopefully, this service will evolve into something that will boost overseas sales businesses, and its direct competitors will follow in order to win a piece of this lucrative market for themselves. For sellers, this is a very good situation because competition will motivate these money transfer companies to come up with better terms and features to win over more clients.
For money transfer companies, this is a good situation as well because by offering better terms and low currency exchange rates they boost their own consumer pool. This happens because online businesses that couldn’t afford to sell overseas before are getting this opportunity now.
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