For sellers, selling goods is only the first step of a transaction. Receiving payment is the initial completion of the transaction. On the Amazon platform, Chinese sellers usually receive Amazon payments through US bank accounts, Hong Kong bank accounts, and accounts provided by third-party payment collection tools such as Lianlian Cross-border Payment.
The following is a detailed explanation of the account opening, fee rates, functions and account security of the above payment methods.
1. Account opening method
US bank account: You need to register a US company yourself or find an intermediary company to register a US company, and then use the US company’s information to open a bank account in the United States. The entire account opening time usually takes more than one month, and the account opening fee is 15,000 to 30,000 yuan.
Hong Kong bank account: You need to use Hong Kong company information or mainland personal identity documents to open a bank account in Hong Kong. With the tightening of China’s capital supervision and foreign exchange policies, Hong Kong banks have begun to strictly control mainland individuals opening accounts in Hong Kong, and will also make various account reserve funds requirements for the opened accounts. The entire account opening time usually takes about one month.
LianLian Cross-border Payment: It is easy to open an account. You can open a personal account or a corporate account. It usually takes 1 to 2 days to open an account. It is free of charge and no fees will be incurred before the account receives any money.
2. Rate comparison
US bank account: There is no fee when receiving payments from the US site, but when receiving payments from sites such as Canada and the five European countries, the Amazon platform will first convert the local currency into US dollars for account entry, and there will be a foreign exchange loss of about 3.5%.
Hong Kong Bank Account: During the payment process, the Amazon platform will first convert the receiving currency into Hong Kong dollars for account entry, so there will be a certain foreign exchange loss for receiving payments. Many mainland companies want to do export tax rebates, and they need a record of remittances from Hong Kong banks to mainland banks; some merchants have overseas businesses and will also pay for goods to overseas companies through Hong Kong bank accounts, so some sellers currently choose to use Hong Kong bank accounts to receive payments from the Amazon platform.
LianLian Cross-border Payment: It is a company in Hangzhou, and currently has opened payment collection in currencies such as US dollars, euros, and yen.
3. Functions
From the perspective of Amazon platform operations, the functions of US bank accounts and Hong Kong bank accounts are relatively simple, and only one store can be added for collection. If multiple Amazon stores are added to the same bank account, the stores will be associated.
Third-party tools such as Lianlian Cross-border Payment can provide sellers with multiple sub-account services under one account. Sellers can add each sub-account to the Amazon account separately, which is convenient for collecting payments and will not cause Amazon account association due to problems with the collection account.
4. Security
Bank account: The security of bank accounts is beyond doubt. Some countries and regions have strict supervision on bank accounts. If a large amount of money is deposited into an account for a long time, the bank system may warn that the account is at risk and the account will be reviewed, frozen or even closed. Therefore, for Amazon sellers, bank accounts are not the first choice.
Third-party payment collection accounts: LianLian cross-border payment and other third-party payment collection tools are relatively safe and mature payment collection channels currently used by many sellers. In the countries and regions corresponding to each Amazon site, these tools have the qualifications for local payment processing and fund distribution (or qualified partners). Relatively speaking, security is guaranteed. They are all commonly used payment collection tools for current Amazon sellers.
After the account registration is completed, the backend of the seller center becomes the main battlefield for Amazon sellers’ daily operations. From account information settings, product releases, order processing, to email replies, performance reviews, advertising, downloading and viewing data reports, and other key operations-related matters, all need to be completed in the seller center.