ICON. AMSTERDAM cuts its FX bill and makes efficiency gains by switching to Airwallex Online Payments

Introducing ICON. Amsterdam

Established in 2018 in Amsterdam, ICON. AMSTERDAM is now a leading eCommerce brand known for its timeless, high-quality apparel for men. 

ICON. AMSTERDAM initially focused on its home market of the Netherlands, but quickly scaled internationally to become a contemporary, international brand, with a strong presence in Germany, the US, the UK plus many other European countries. 

Now with a team of around 50 people, ICON. AMSTERDAM is expanding its clothing range while still retaining its premium quality and core products that customers know and love. 

The Challenge

Fashion label ICON. AMSTERDAM has risen to international popularity thanks to its high-quality, contemporary approach to menswear. ICON. AMSTERDAM sources its clothing from manufacturers in China and sells globally to customers who purchase from its online store on the Shopify platform. 

“Before using Airwallex, most of our payments were collected through Shopify,” begins Ruben, ICON. AMSTERDAM’s Co-founder and CEO, when the Airwallex team caught up with him. “But we also work directly with buy-now-pay-later brands including Klarna and AfterPay.” 

In fact, ICON. AMSTERDAM was working with multiple payment partners, and consolidating them was one of Ruben’s primary goals. 

For its cross-border transfers, ICON. AMSTERDAM was using 3S Money, an electronic money institution. But this was fraught with dramas, as Ruben explains; “Payments got lost en route, then sent back days later, meaning our manufacturers didn’t get paid on time.” 

Ruben also found the platform’s lack of collaborative features frustrating, as it created bottlenecks in the business. “I had to spend a lot of my time checking invoices and finding workarounds for its shortfallings, because only I could use it,” says Ruben. 

To serve its international customer base, ICON. AMSTERDAM receives incoming funds in multiple currencies, including Euros and British pounds. On the payouts side, ICON. AMSTERDAM pays its Chinese manufacturers in US dollars, meaning Ruben frequently needs to convert EUR to USD on a large scale. 

“Using Shopify for currency conversions was getting too expensive,” Ruben recalls. Plus, the fashion brand was also prevented from operating through its US entity by Shopify, which was hitting ICON. AMSTERDAM’s bottom-line. 

It was clear that ICON. AMSTERDAM needed a single, Global Treasury solution with competitive conversions, bullet-proof transfer processes and more collaborative features. With these goals in mind, Ruben approached Airwallex.  

Ruben Onuha

Co-founder and CEO of ICON. AMSTERDAM

“Before Airwallex, we were paying too much in foreign exchange conversion costs and our cross-border payments provider caused us major headaches.”

The Solution

Switching to Airwallex has unlocked a suite of global financial products and services to streamline ICON. AMSTERDAM’s operations and support them on their expansion journey. ICON. AMSTERDAM now uses Airwallex for: 

• Collecting online sales, including Klarna payments

• Sending international bank transfers faster with the full amount on delivery

• International foreign exchange at market-leading rates

• Issuing multi-currency cards to employees for global company expenses 

Frictionless cross-border eCommerce

At the centre of ICON. AMSTERDAM’s new global financial infrastructure are Airwallex Global Accounts in all the major currencies it works in. This means that ICON can accept customer payments in their preferred currency at the checkout, including GBP, USD and EUR, and spend the proceeds later in the same currency.

“We now use Airwallex to collect funds and hold them in our Global Accounts. So euros go into our EUR account, dollars into our USD account and so on. This means we can make payouts directly in that currency, without the hassle and FX and transaction costs we were paying before,” says Ruben.

Impressed by Airwallex’s capabilities, ICON. AMSTERDAM now routes its Shopify Payments proceedings through its US Global Account with Airwallex. As a result, the US dollars ICON. AMSTERDAM collects can be held in that account and used to pay its partners in China. 

Plus, ICON. AMSTERDAM now uses Airwallex to accept Klarna payments in Europe. Using an all-in-one payments provider instead of multiple partners has increased ICON. AMSTERDAM’s efficiency and reduced costs which the brand can re-invest in growth.

Expenses made easy 

As an added benefit of switching to Airwallex, ICON. AMSTERDAM can now issue Borderless Cards to its team members for global expenses. These allow ICON. AMSTERDAM employees to make purchases in multiple currencies from held balances in its Global Accounts.

ICON. AMSTERDAM employees use virtual cards, which can be created instantly, to pay for SaaS and marketing expenses. They also use physical cards for company and office expenses. ICON. AMSTERDAM can now spend directly in 10+ countries with 0% foreign transaction fees. This has streamlined ICON. AMSTERDAM’s global purchases, giving the finance team greater expense control and eliminated costly foreign transaction fees and other hidden charges.  

Efficiency gains

On top of the €9,000 saved each month in FX fees, Ruben calls out the time he’s saved with his switch to Airwallex.

“One of the reasons I like Airwallex so much is because my team can use it to set up payments, but I can still retain oversight of everything.” This balance of collaboration and visibility works perfectly for Ruben, as he explains; “Switching to Airwallex has been such a time-saver for me,” says Ruben. “All I need to do now is spend a few minutes approving payments initiated. I’ve saved at least one whole day per month.” 

The move to Airwallex has consolidated the number of payment partners ICON. AMSTERDAM works with, saving precious time and eliminating the burden of managing multiple partners. Plus, it has also eliminated the bottleneck that ICON. AMSTERDAM was experiencing with its previous financial partner, since only Ruben could access it and so everything fell to him. 

Now, Ruben and his team have greater visibility over all ICON. AMSTERDAM’s finance operations, including expenses, cashflow and payments in and out. This has empowered the team to make informed financial decisions to continue driving the successful clothing brand forward. 

A financial solution fit for the future 

With fashion always being future-focused, Ruben is thinking ahead to how ICON. AMSTERDAM’s partnership with Airwallex can deliver even more value. “We want to expand our US and UK markets by offering more local payment methods and going more natively in those markets with expanding our collections and optimising our customer experience,” says Ruben. This will help ICON. AMSTERDAM improve the customer experience, drive conversion rates and access more markets.

Ruben Onuha

Co-founder and CEO of ICON. AMSTERDAM

“Since using Airwallex, it’s simplified our global finance operations and freed up at least one day per month of my time. Plus, it’s really easy to use.”