It’s no secret that the Amazon marketplace is crowded with several thousand sellers in each category, and it is hard to find success.
As you likely know, our co-founders (at Eva) studied Amazon’s technology extensively when they first got started with their Amazon store. What they learned led them to write software that would help Amazon store owners in selecting the best products and suppliers while dynamically setting prices that consumers could get down with.
The software worked. Soon, they’d created multi-million dollar Amazon stores.
While Eva’s technology for supporting Amazon sellers with repricing, reimbursement, PPC management and other solutions have continued to evolve with the eCommerce industry, other services like inventory management have become more complex.
Supply chain shortages due to border closings, ports being shut down and shipments being limited, have changed the process for sourcing and paying for inventory from Chinese suppliers.
Buyers are realizing they need systems in place for sourcing and receiving goods in a profitable timeframe.
That’s where Eva’s partnership with payments company PingPong comes in.
PingPong is more than a simple payments company. They’re more of a multidimensional partner for growth to online merchants, not only via fast and reliable low-cost payment services, but by also helping sellers pay tax authorities (VAT/GST).
They also help merchants pay their suppliers internationally in a way that traditional banks aren’t really able to facilitate.
Benefits of Paying Your Suppliers with PingPong
Convenience
Make payments to your overseas suppliers, vendors, and business partners under a SINGLE platform. Pay suppliers in real-time in their desired currency, all while getting the most competitive FX rate available
Confidence
Money-sharing apps are risky and wire transfers are virtually untraceable. With banking technology and infrastructure built into their platform, PingPong allows you to pay your Chinese suppliers in their local currency at the click of a button.
Protection
Your money is protected from the risks of fraud and money scams under a single platform, including a rigorous KYC identity verification process for all customers, and the suppliers you choose to pay. Feel protected knowing suppliers have been vetted, accounts are insured, and PingPong is licensed and regulated in the countries where they operate.
Here’s a breakdown of how paying your Chinese suppliers works:
Paying suppliers should be as simple as moving money at the click of a button.
When someone using PingPong’s platform, they click a button to move money from a to b. There are a lot of things in the background that happen to make sure that process is low-cost and without any issues or delays for your money to arrive to your desired recipient safely and on time.
The banking technology and infrastructure needed to make that happen is built into their platform. As an end-to-end networks payments company marketplace merchants aren’t the only users the company onboards to their platforms. Suppliers and recipients on the other end also go through a KYC and a vetting process by local teams within that particular country where the supplier is located to eliminate time delays, fraud, scams and loss.
EXAMPLE
In the US a lot of companies are sourcing products from the asia region like Vietnam, India or China
Sending money from here to the other end of the world, A lot of business owners share some concerns (money getting lost or delayed when in transit) when sending money from the US to the other end of the world.
PingPong have established offices and local banking infrastructure in these countries on the other side to ensure payments get where they’re going on time.
This puts you, the seller, in full control of the entire payments chain reducing any risk of delayed payments by removing intermediary banks.
Now that you know the gist of how it works, here are the best tips we’ve gathered from our friends at PingPong for seamlessly and successfully paying your suppliers in 2022 to keep inventory stocked, supply chains flowing and supplier relationships in good standing.
ADDITIONAL TIPS
By now, this might seem like a no-brainer to many sellers: invest in more than a single supplier.
Traditionally, many marketplace merchants have relied on a single supplier to provide their inventory. They found someone they’d built a great relationship with and trusted, and that was the end of it. The con to that in the current market is depending on that supplier for everything.
It’s always a good idea to have a backup supplier for exploring other options just in case something goes wrong.
When you throw new product searches into this mix, quotes from various suppliers is crucial.
- Compare price points: eliminates surprises in raw material costs
- Don’t just have a single info source: for pricing, for info about supply chain
It’s important to have a backup plan because what if…
- Your supplier is hit with a raw materials price increase - they’re going to chare you more
- Nowadays, suppliers are bombarded with other orders
- And worse, factories shut down due to COVID or worker shortage
Instead of reaching out to 20 suppliers, consider narrowing your list down to three to five suppliers. And, even if you just go with one, keep in touch with the others. Often, sourcing agents or similar partners have representatives on the ground in China (and other sourcing countries) to help with this.
TRADITIONAL IS DEAD
SAY GOODBYE TO:
- Payments Time Delays Due to Multiple Bank Intermediaries
- More Parties Involved = More Risk
- Expensive Handling Fees
AND REPLACE IT WITH:
- Same Day Transfers
- Accurate Tracking
- Transparent Costs Across the Board
- Amount Billed = Amount Received
These benefits are vital to success for any eCommerce and Amazon seller. Vetting suppliers (or having a payment provider that does that on your behalf), forming better relationships with said suppliers and being able to pay them at the click of the button is critical when it comes to prevailing over the already disrupted supply chain and inventory challenges the world is facing.
Having a supportive payments provider as a part of your operational framework in place is a crucial differentiator when distinguishing success on marketplaces like Amazon.com, Alibaba.com, and Etsy.com, among others. This strategy will bring massive savings, transparency, and flexibility to your inventory and supply chains for the forthcoming future and beyond.