What is going with the Paypal module? EU, USA modules?

[MockoB]

@Havouza there is a way to choose your bank exchange rate instead PayPal, during payment with PayPal. I think I succeeded couple of times, and I remember another couple of times I gave up trying :)

[dynambee]

@Havouza Unfortunately here in Japan even if you have a USD-denominated PayPal account they force you to convert to JPY before withdrawal. It's one of the reasons we have a US company as we can then bill in USD and manage the conversion ourselves. In the end though the higher rates just get passed along to customers as part of the price, just like PayPal fees and any other costs or fees needed to sell. If more consumers understood this I think sites like eBay would quickly go bust.

[Havouza]

The onl time i would need to let PP exchange is if I have no time to transfer the money to the bank and do it there. With this new EU rules the transfer take max 2 days so normally it is no problem, just some work. The bank exchange I can do instant in the Internet bank

[dynambee]

Looks like Stripe and PayPal are both nicer to EU companies than to US or JP companies. In the US and Japan currency exchanges upon withdrawal are forced to the national currency. In the EU that's not the case and accounts can withdraw in multiple currencies. While there are certainly downsides to heavy regulation there is the occasional win too, and I'm betting this is one of those wins.

[Havouza]

We sell on Ebay also but to higher price than in the shop. And explain why the price is higher. I have notised many customers that buy first time on ebay but next time directly, because they find the shop address in the delivery note

[MockoB]

@dynambee I'm not sure if you could accept withdraw in multiply currencies. I think if your bank account is in eur and you wish to withdraw usd there is no way to get over their exchange rate.

[Havouza]

I have three different accounts. One for each currency

[MockoB]

@Havouza that's the way, yes.

[Havouza]

All are reachable from the same internet bank and I can transfer between them when the rate is good.

[dynambee]

@MockoB said in What is going with the Paypal module? EU, USA modules?:

@dynambee I'm not sure if you could accept withdraw in multiply currencies. I think if your bank account is in eur and you wish to withdraw usd there is no way to get over their exchange rate.

In some countries PayPal and Stripe allow you to specify the currency of your bank account. You can add multiple accounts, each with a different currency -- of course the account actually needs to match that currency or you will probably have problems with your bank! Once you have this set up you can withdraw from PayPal in multiple currencies without having to do conversions at PayPal's rate.

This service is offered in most (all?) EU countries but outside the EU you generally are forced to convert at PayPal's exchange rate to your national currency before you can withdraw funds.

[Havouza]

All EU by law, but the banks is probably reluctant if they dont know you

[dynambee]

@Havouza said in What is going with the Paypal module? EU, USA modules?:

We sell on Ebay also but to higher price than in the shop. And explain why the price is higher. I have notised many customers that buy first time on ebay but next time directly, because they find the shop address in the delivery note

This is our goal as well. We sell about 80% on eBay right now and about 20% to repeat customers who just contact us by email. With the website we hope to reverse that and sell about 20% on eBay and about 80% away from eBay. Ideally 10/90, but I'd take 20/80 too.

[Havouza]

What I understand the Amazon fees are even higher than Ebay?

[dynambee]

@Havouza said in What is going with the Paypal module? EU, USA modules?:

All EU by law, but the banks is probably reluctant if they dont know you

I have several multi-currency accounts here in Japan, including one with Shinsei Bank who gives the best exchange rates I have ever seen from a bank. IF you get to their Gold (easy to attain) or Platinum (still not so difficult to attain) customer level the rates are even better. Unfortunately I can't make use of it with PayPal or Stripe. :(

[Havouza]

I have even an account in Russian Rubles in Moscow. My wife is a translator and does some of the jobs for a Russian agency. The problem is to get the money out without paying huge fees

[michael]

Hello Bees, we start very nice discussion. I am happy about it. I have few question that we can share and provide my thoughts.

1. What is the best exchange service? I have found worldfirst.com

2. Do you have opened your bank accounts in different countries? in which? what are running monthly costs?

3. Regards paypal I learn that you can open few paypal account and collect money in different currencies then you can transfer to one Paypala e.g. Paypal DE where you sent Euros then you can withdraw it and then exchange via online cantors. Have you try it? The problem is to open a bank account.

I have find a trick, you can add international bank to Paypal via hidden link https://www.paypal.com/businessexp/money/add/bank I did not test it, it understand that it works with banks in Euro countries.

1. What are other online markets than ebay and amazon to sell on it?

2. What is a popular market in Japan to sell there goods?

3. Have you tried this service? worldfirst.com/uk/online-sellers/ I know that you can collect only money from ebay and amazon. Not for other cust and to pay for something.

[dynambee]

The biggest eCommerce sites in Japan are Amazon.co.jp, Rakuten, and Yahoo Auctions. Customers will expect natural Japanese descriptions and communications, and most won't be too interested in buying items shipped from overseas. Most Japanese don't speak any language other than Japanese so dealing with anything that isn't sold, supported, and described entirely in Japanese is not of much interest.

[michael]

@dynambee are you Japanise? What are you selling? Rakuten is it Japan or German company?

[dynambee]

I'm Canadian but have lived in Osaka for about 25 years.

We sell a variety of things. On the "new product" side we sell Casio/Seiko/Citizen watches, Shimano/Daiwa/Miya reels/rods/other tackle, lines & lures from many Japanese companies, some music-related items, some AV stuff, some computer parts & accessories, some camera equipment. On the "used product" side we sell used photo gear (mostly lenses) as well as used handbags, LV and Chanel in particular. In the past year we have not focused much on the used business but do plan to get back to it later this year.

Rakuten is a Japanese company and one of the world's largest eCommerce platforms. They also own a bank and some other businesses such as a point system used by many companies, credit cards, etc. The site layout is very Japanese which means it will make your eyes bleed to look at it for too long. Here is a item page from a Rakuten seller that I just pulled at random now. I've never looked at this item before now but it's an example of a typical product page on Rakuten. The majority of information on the page has nothing to do with the product being sold and you actually have to dig around on many pages to find product information. This is quite common on Japanese websites.