When most brick-and-mortar shops were forced to close during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, e-commerce platforms were instrumental in the continuity of essential services.
But despite the gradual return to normalcy on traditional retail habits, online shopping has remained a part of everyday internet activity. For e-commerce giant Coupang, “which aims to bring the world to Korea,” it meant catering to online sellers from different parts of the world, and therefore, integrating various currencies.
This is when the company decided to work with financial services firm Payoneer, to help facilitate payments to sellers.
Frontier Enterprise spoke with Gerald Hoe, Head of Coupang Global Marketplace, and Miguel Warren, General Manager, Payoneer Hong Kong, to check out how their partnership is transforming the payment experience for Coupang’s online merchants.
“As Coupang onboarded more global sellers, we needed a straightforward and cost-effective way for our sellers to receive payment whether they were based in the United States, Japan, or Australia,” said Hoe.
“This meant that we needed a payment provider that not only understands, but facilitates the needs of our global sellers. This meant allowing them to receive payments in various currencies whether it’s USD, Euro, GBP, JPY, or AUD,” he added.
Seamless payment
Recent developments in the e-commerce space has no doubt allowed retailers to reach bigger markets. However, receiving payments from sales made on e-commerce platforms can be burdensome, especially if the payments platform cannot handle cross-border payments.
“Our partnership with Coupang enables their sellers from all around the world to expand their business and sell their products into South Korea more seamlessly. Through this partnership, sellers in Payoneer’s extensive ecosystem – spanning countries including China, Japan, Australia, Europe and the US – will benefit from faster access to funds and greater flexibility in managing multi-currency payments when selling on Coupang. These essential tools allow sellers to expand into new markets, both within and outside of the APAC region, in a much easier way,” said Warren.
According to Hoe, their partnership with Payoneer has allowed sellers to focus their attention on boosting their sales, rather than worrying how and when they will be paid.
“Payoneer also reduces the cost for our sellers and increases their revenue. Payoneer offers efficient, flexible, and affordable solutions (that sellers) need,” he said.
Likewise, the payments platform is also assisting sellers from China to comply with local regulations.
“Payoneer has eased the process of receiving payments for our sellers across the world. Particularly in China, Payoneer has helped our Coupang sellers receive their payments by automating the reporting to government regulators,” Hoe noted.
“Chinese sellers will gain access to streamlined onboarding onto the Coupang platform through Payoneer’s Green Channel program. This includes a specialised support team to help them tap new growth opportunities,” Warren added.
Growing the e-commerce space
Coupang, aside from its online shopping platform, has also expanded into food delivery with Coupang Eats, and its fresh food delivery service, Rocket Fresh. It also ventured into video streaming, via its Coupang Play platform.
Down the line, the company is looking to grow its investment in sustainable efforts.
“We want to ensure that (the) world is one that is clean, green, and safe for our future generations. We are excited about our partnership with carmaker Kia to launch all-electric vehicles for cargo delivery by 2025,” Hoe said.
Meanwhile, Payoneer is seeking to enable more payment solutions to drive e-commerce growth.
“We recently launched Payoneer Checkout, marking our entry into payment acceptance for direct-to-consumer (DTC) webstores. This solution essentially offers e-commerce merchants a way to expand and grow their DTC sales all around the globe. Specifically, the launch of Payoneer Checkout creates a unified experience for Payoneer’s e-commerce merchants across multiple digital channels,” Warren said.
He added that by allowing merchants to consolidate all their funds across marketplaces and direct sales channels in Payoneer’s multi-currency accounts, merchants can manage their accounts payable needs, gain access to working capital, and use their funds to pay for business expenses such as digital advertising.
Payoneer Checkout is currently available in Asia-Pacific and will gradually be extended globally.
“Payoneer is always investing in technology that enables us to meet the ever-evolving needs of the entrepreneurs. One area where we’re currently excited about tech advances is in compliance, where we’re working with artificial intelligence technology,” Warren concluded.