The Maze: Amazon has launched a wallet for eligible businesses selling on Amazon.co.uk. It lets them hold the money Amazon pays out from UK sales in pounds and use it to pay UK suppliers directly. That option is available to eligible sellers based overseas as well as in Britain. For an overseas merchant with bills in pounds, the decision is how much of the UK payout to keep in that currency before moving the rest to its bank.
Source: About Amazon UK. Amazon’s launch image shows an example of a seller scheduling a transfer from the pound wallet in Seller Central.
The Details:
The wallet changes where the payout lands. In the standard bank payout process, Amazon settles the seller’s balance and sends the available money to a registered bank account. Eligible merchants opt in through Seller Central, the website they use to manage their Amazon sales. The wallet then becomes the default destination for their UK store payouts. Once the funds arrive, a seller can hold them, pay a supplier or transfer money to a bank account. Bank transfers can be one-off or scheduled weekly, every two weeks or monthly. Amazon’s UK product page says transfers to banks can take one to five business days, depending on the bank and currency. Sellers still need to allow for when Amazon releases the payout and when the receiving bank makes the money available.
Moving pounds and converting pounds have different prices. Opening and keeping the wallet is free. Amazon also says it charges nothing to send pounds to a UK bank account or to pay a supplier with a bank account in pounds. Moving money to a seller’s bank account in another currency comes with a fee. Amazon offers conversion to more than 20 currencies. Its UK pricing table lists fees from 0.75% to 1.50% in its standard schedule, with separate rates for Chinese yuan and possible variations by currency. The tier depends on the seller’s net proceeds over the previous 12 months from Amazon stores that use a currency other than the seller’s local currency. Amazon shows the exchange rate before a one-off transfer.
Sellers still need a verified bank account. Amazon’s UK terms describe the wallet as an e-money account, which holds Amazon sales funds electronically. Sellers must register and verify at least one bank account and supply accurate payment information for third-party recipients. The UK wallet holds pounds. Amazon keeps the wallets for euros and US dollars separate, including for merchants who enrol for pounds and euros together. Transfers to a bank outside the UK or in a currency other than pounds use Amazon’s separate currency conversion service and its terms.
MarketMaze Take: Consider a merchant based in the euro area that sells on Amazon.co.uk and buys packaging from a UK supplier. If its current payout route converts all its UK sales into euros, the merchant may have to buy pounds again to pay that invoice. Amazon now gives it the option to pay an eligible supplier from the pounds it already earned. The potential savings come from skipping those conversions on the part of the payout that the merchant will spend in pounds.
For a seller that pays most bills in its home currency, the useful comparison is what its bank receives and when. The wallet lets the seller hold pounds and decide when to convert them. The fee, the exchange rate and the date the seller needs the funds still determine whether that is a better route for the money it sends home.
