This article was adapted from “The common and forgotten pitfalls of receiving international payments” by Steve Thompson of TransferMate.

In October of 2020, Alibaba.com surveyed 5,015 US B2B SMBs and found that 63% of B2B companies report conducting some amount of business cross-border. While there is great opportunity in global trade, it is not without its challenges. Take this scenario for example: a growing business has just made its first sale to a new international customer. It’s a big deal because the company has been working hard to attract clients outside of the US for quite a while. They’ve sent the customer an invoice and they’ve waited patiently for the funds to hit their bank account. But when the money finally arrives, something is not right. The amount deposited into the account is much less than the invoiced amount. What happened?

One of the most challenging aspects of international expansion can be receiving money from international customers, and what happened above is quite common. Many businesses have experienced the growing pains of going global and this is just one of the places where unexpected complications can pop up.

When doing business internationally, getting a payment from clients abroad often means changing currencies, but banks don’t just do that for free. There are fees for changing from one currency to USD, for example. Additionally, there are often other wire transfer fees as the funds make their way through intermediary banks from one country to another.

To help businesses address this problem and better realize the benefits of global trade, TransferMate Global Payments, the world’s leading provider of payments infrastructure as a service, is teaming up with Alibaba.com. TransferMate will introduce its simple cross-border payment experience to sellers and buyers of the global B2B marketplace. Alibaba.com customers can then use TransferMate’s award-winning platform to receive and make payments, benefitting from preferential FX rates, quick transaction times and no wire transfer fees on cross-currency transfers.

Solving for the payment hassles that plague global ecommerce

Businesses that sell globally online deal with buyers all over the world who want to pay in their local currency. Using TransferMate’s platform, ecommerce companies can invoice their customers with a secure link, enabling the customer to easily pay in their native currency and allowing the seller to quickly receive the full amount the same day or next day, incurring no incoming bank transfer fees.

This cross-border solution from TransferMate can then improve the cash flow of the billing business, which might normally wait days for a payment. How? TransferMate’s unique global network of payment licences around the world allows transfers to take place at a faster pace, while also bypassing the traditional correspondent banking system where transfer fees are often taken out of the payment amount and billers receive funds that fall short of the full invoiced amount.

“We are thrilled to offer our payments solution to users of one of the largest platforms for global trade, eradicating traditional cross-border payment challenges for these businesses,” said Sinead Fitzmaurice, CEO of TransferMate Global Payments – a subsidiary of Clune Technology Group. “TransferMate was founded to make international payments easier for businesses that wanted to transact globally, and we could not agree more with Alibaba.com’s mission to make it easier to do business anywhere. Together, we are bringing cutting-edge solutions to companies of all sizes, allowing businesses to expand their global reach.”

For more information, visit www.alibaba-na.com/transfermate or www.transfermate.com/alibaba.

This week's #B2BTuesday Tip:

Before s buying or selling on a global marketplace, have a clear plan for your payment method and how you will receive payment.