Global Payment Requirements for International Merchants
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At MerchantPlus, we have been helping US-based merchants accept global payments for some times.  Every case is unique, but we see a particular pattern on a regular basis: US-based startup targets the largest and easiest market first (The United States).  With limited time, resources and experience, they punt on the global market unless it bangs on their door (speak English and pays in dollars with a standard credit card).  Then, if things go really well, the startup realizes that there are local copy-cats showing up in Europe, maybe parts of AsiaPAC (Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, etc) and perhaps even Russia or Brazil (the BRICs).  Oh Sh$@t!  Simply because of localization problems (most often with payment acceptance!), they are being out-executed in foreign markets by a sub-par competitor.  Our Enterprise Accounts work great for these types of high growth Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), eCommerce or service-based businesses.  Depending on the corporate structure, we can establish regionalized merchant accounts that have high quality acceptance rates, low fees and support for the proper currencies and alternative (non credit card) payments.  Paired with the proper gateway platform, most companies are surprised how quickly they can start competing in foreign markets.
Over the past week, I’ve been up late on Skype talking with businesses in Hong Kong and the Philippines.  Being involved in International Payments, I’m used to talk to processing partners at all hours, but this was a bit different.  These were local merchants in Hong Kong and the Philippines looking to solve very different problem: one needed help accepting a particular card type in Hong Kong for it’s local customer base, another needed to reach US customers more effectively (they were seeing a lot of declines from their solution) and the third wanted to get rid of the cross-border charges their US customers were being taxed with due to their ‘out of region’ merchant account.
Maybe it’s the Alibaba IPO or just the maturation of the eCommerce and SaaS market — but 3 distinct “out of the blue” conversations from Asia-based merchants looking to address their payment needs with a US processor makes a trend for me!  The variables involved in assisting a foreign merchant are a bit greater than with the more typical use case of US merchants going aboard (i.e. many to many vs one to many).  So, I generally ask merchants to help outline their requirements as follows:
- Where is your business entity formed?  Are you willing to open a foreign subsidiary (generally EU, BVI or US) in the jurisdiction of the ideal processing partner?
- Where is your bank account where the funds need to be received?
- Where are the bulk of your customers TODAY?
- Where do you expect the bulk of your customers to be in 1 and 2 years time?
- What currencies do you want to transaction in? What currencies do you want to receive in?
With that information, a well informed international payment processor or consultant can provide a matrix of the available options.  There is no “perfect” option, but a collection of solutions that meet different business needs, its critical to outline hard requirements versus idealistic intentions up front.  And with new payment types (ApplePay, mobile wallets, country-specific schemes, etc) on the rise, one can expect these questions to increase in complexity.  If you have questions on your international payment needs, reach out to a MerchantPlus payment expert for a quick analysis.
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