How to manage eCommerce inventory in the UK

By Margaret Nguyen•Published on 7 March 2022•3 minutes

In this article

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Paying your international suppliers
•
Inventory
•
Airwallex: your resource for overseas expansion

Your small business is growing, you’ve expanded to the UK, and you’re seeing growth and success — that’s great! Now it’s important to efficiently manage payments and inventory in order to continue your growing operations.

Avoid unnecessary fees and conversion issues and efficiently manage payments and inventory by considering the following.

Paying your international suppliers

A major element of running your business from overseas is how you pay your suppliers. Nowadays, a variety of options are available for securing business with international vendors and paying your suppliers regardless of where they run their operations.

Bank transfer

Bank transfers (also known as wire transfers) are one of the most common payment methods to take care of international transactions. International bank transactions are run through the SWIFT payment network.

SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, and it works with over 10,000 financial institutions worldwide to globally transfer money of different currencies. You just need to provide your vendor or supplier’s bank details to send the money.

Sounds simple, but international bank transfers can take a long time to process, and offer little protection on both sides. They also have high transaction fees as well as whatever FX fee your bank charges.

PayPal

Another method of facilitating an international payment is to use the online transaction service PayPal. PayPal works especially well with smaller payments, and provides secure technology and protection against possible fraud.

Keep in mind that PayPal has its own set of fees, including a percentage fee and a flat dollar fee per payment based on the total amount.

When using PayPal for international payments, you also run the risk of account holds, declined payments, and long payment times.

Peer-to-peer currency transfer

Peer-to-peer (P2P) currency transfer is another method of payment for international transactions that’s becoming increasingly common.

These platforms include Venmo and Cash App. While they are great for smaller monetary amounts, they offer less security and protection than other methods.

Peer-to-peer currency transfers can also end up taking a bit longer for payments to clear, which could throw a wrench in your business plans.

Airwallex

If you’re looking for a quick, reliable, cost-effective, and secure method for paying your overseas suppliers, you should opt for Airwallex.

Consider the following:

Our international payment system is lightning-fast, so you won’t have to worry about lengthy delays.
We also offer access to the interbank FX rate, meaning we’re up to 90% cheaper than the big banks.
Airwallex’s Borderless Cards come with zero transaction fees, and you can set up your account quickly online.
When it comes to security, we are PCI-compliant, so your data and funds stay secure each step of the way.

Inventory

So, you’ve secured how you’re going to pay your overseas suppliers. Now you need to decide how to receive and process your international inventory.

Using specialized resources can help you cut costs and precious time that you can put toward running your business successfully in the UK.

Market research

Since you’re going to be operating in an entirely new geography, your potential customers and their needs may be different. Do your research before securing your inventory and deciding what to offer.

Online data insight tools like ZonGuru can provide you with helpful information to guide your UK expansion. ZonGuru is here to tell you what sells and how to sell it in your new place of operations.

From product research to listing optimization, ZonGuru provides great tools by international sellers for international sellers.

“Inventory management has become the focus of eCommerce businesses across the globe, with no marketplace being immune to the challenges over the last two years. To effectively manage inventory throughout the year, businesses need to know the sales trends in a marketplace prior to expansion. It’s important to know the sales velocity and buying trends of a niche for effective calculation of inventory requirements to launch and remain in stock throughout the year.”

- John Tilley, CEO, ZonGuru

Listing inventory

When it comes to listing and managing your inventory, turn to JoeLister, which provides a quick and easy way to list and fulfill your inventory on multiple eCommerce sites by automating processes like listing creation, multi-platform catalog and inventory sync, and FBA order fulfillment.

Using JoeLister is an efficient way to reduce your operational costs. It allows you to edit, auto-fill, and sync product information across several sites using one platform.

Compliance, importing, and logistics

Additionally, take advantage of specialized companies like Zee to streamline your compliance, importing, and logistics.

Zee is a compliance, importer of record, and logistics specialist that offers a one-stop shop solution for the global expansion of your eCommerce business. As such, Zee facilitates partnerships with international freight, simplifies quick customs clearance for international eCommerce businesses, and manages all international shipping needs so that you can efficiently expand into the UK.

“Your shop is ready to take off. Your customers across the globe are filling up their e-carts with your one-of-a-kind products. However, getting those products from your HQ to your customer’s doorstep is a bit more complicated than licking a stamp and slapping it on a package. Shipping and customs clearance can be a daunting task if you don’t know the ins and outs of importing. This is where you need the right partner on your side.”

- Rael Lowenthal, Head of Business Development, Zee

Airwallex: your resource for overseas expansion

With the aforementioned information and tools, you can seamlessly manage your eCommerce inventory in no time — no matter where you are.

Airwallex is here to support your business expansion to the UK and provide you with the help you need to see global success.

Need more information and support? From virtual cards to international money transfers, foreign currency accounts, and more, Airwallex is your No. 1 resource for modern, global business support and border-free finances.

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