Cross-border payment is the key to the development of cross-border e-commerce. Without a good payment and collection channel, cross-border e-commerce entrepreneurship and development will face huge risks, and may even be suddenly hit by a devastating blow. At present, there are mainly the following ways to collect payments for cross-border e-commerce.
(I) Direct collection of domestic sellers’ bank accounts
Direct collection of domestic sellers’ bank accounts refers to a method in which the cross-border e-commerce platform is directly connected to the online bank where the domestic seller opens an account, and the overseas buyer pays through the entrance of the overseas bank or payment institution connected to the platform, and the payment directly reaches the seller’s online bank account. Depending on the account bound to the domestic seller, the payment may go into the seller’s overseas foreign exchange account opened in an overseas bank, the regular foreign exchange account opened in a domestic bank, or the RMB account opened in a bank approved by the People’s Bank of China for RMB cross-border payment business. This model is essentially the same as the traditional foreign trade enterprise collection model. The e-commerce platform needs to connect to different domestic banks and overseas cooperative banks respectively and obtain the authorization of their online banking systems.
(II) Receiving payment through the channel of a third-party payment institution
Receiving payment through the channel of a third-party payment institution refers to the cross-border payment collection by domestic sellers through the third-party payment institution bound to the cross-border e-commerce platform. A third-party payment institution refers to a non-bank institution that has obtained a “Payment Business License” in accordance with the provisions of the “Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-Financial Institutions” of the People’s Bank of China and provides all or part of the monetary funds transfer services as an intermediary between payees and payees, such as Alipay and WeChat.
The flow of funds and information behind this model is quite complicated. In short, the third-party payment institution has a special reserve fund account in the corresponding bank. After the overseas buyer pays, the payment first arrives at the special reserve fund account of the third-party payment institution. After the buyer confirms receipt of the goods, the third-party payment institution will transfer the money from the reserve fund account to the account of the domestic seller. For example, Alibaba has bound the third-party payment institution, International Alipay, to the AliExpress platform it developed.
Collecting payments through third-party payment institutions solves the problem of cross-border e-commerce platforms connecting with banks individually, reduces platform development costs and platform usage fees, provides users with a more user-friendly cross-border payment operation interface, and can play a role in the supervision of payment in transactions between buyers and sellers. Therefore, collecting payments through third-party payment institutions is the payment collection model currently used by domestic sellers on most cross-border e-commerce export platforms.
(III) Global payment collection service of cross-border e-commerce platforms
The typical global payment collection service model of cross-border e-commerce platforms is the “Global Payment Collection Service” launched by Amazon, a cross-border e-commerce platform, in 2018. Sellers do not need to open foreign bank accounts or third-party payment institution accounts, and can “receive global payments in your local currency, directly into your local bank account” (Receive your global payments in your local currency, directly into your local bank account). This model is actually a cross-border e-commerce platform providing sellers with comprehensive payment collection and foreign exchange settlement services. The flow of funds is nothing more than one of the above two or a combination. However, the platform fee for this service is relatively high, and it may also involve market access qualifications for cross-border payment business pilots and compliance risks of platform funds, so this payment service has not yet been widely used.