The traditional payment method for international trade mainly adopts offline remittance, which requires both buyers and sellers to go to local banks to make and receive relevant payments. Unlike the traditional payment method for international trade, the payment method for cross-border e-commerce mainly adopts online payment, which allows both buyers and sellers to receive and pay.
(1) Selecting a payment method
Because cross-border e-commerce platforms require sellers to have certain business qualifications when directly using bank cards in the region where sellers are located to withdraw order funds, such as sellers being rated A by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China, sellers engaged in cross-border e-commerce generally receive order funds through local bank accounts in the country where the site is opened or third-party cross-border payment platforms (such as Lianlian Cross-border Payment).
The opening method of a local bank account in the country where the site is opened is relatively complicated, requiring sellers to go abroad in person to handle the process, and the withdrawal and transfer work is even more cumbersome. Third-party cross-border payment platforms are easy to operate, low-cost, and provide value-added services. Therefore, third-party cross-border payment platforms have become the main payment method chosen by cross-border sellers.
Third-party cross-border payment platforms are different from traditional financial service institutions such as banks. Instead, they are Internet payment platforms with independent operating capabilities. This cross-border payment platform has strong electronic communication capabilities and information security technology, and can achieve fast and efficient capital flow between buyers, banks and sellers.
The general process of transactions between buyers and sellers through third-party cross-border payment platforms is as follows.
●American buyers use online banking or electronic checks to pay for orders on cross-border e-commerce platforms;
●After receiving the payment, the cross-border e-commerce platform will keep the loan on behalf of the seller, and then notify the Chinese seller that the payment has been received and the goods can be shipped;
●Chinese sellers use cross-border logistics to ship goods;
●After receiving the goods, American buyers go to the cross-border e-commerce platform to confirm receipt;
●After a certain period of time, the cross-border e-commerce platform transfers the funds to the Chinese seller’s account on the third-party cross-border e-commerce platform;
●Chinese sellers apply for cash withdrawal and transfer it to their own bank card account, thus completing the capital flow of an order.
Through the above process, it can be seen that the main function of the third-party cross-border payment platform is to provide cash withdrawal function for cross-border e-commerce transactions. Therefore, when sellers choose a third-party cross-border payment platform, they must consider the handling fee for cash withdrawal and reduce the withdrawal cost. On the other hand, they must consider whether the service content of the platform meets the seller’s own requirements.