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As multi-platform layout becomes a trend, the actions of the leading e-commerce platforms in each market always attract people's attention. In addition to Amazon, the recent news that the payment of Ozon, the leading Russian e-commerce platform, was seriously delayed also attracted much attention in the industry.
According to industry sources, payment delays on Ozon, Russia's leading e-commerce platform, have lasted for more than half a month. It is learned that at the end of March this year, Ozon issued a notice about payment delays to the platform sellers: due to the impact of new bank regulations on the payment process, there may be delays in the arrival of funds in the seller's account. Ozon is trying its best to ensure that the funds are transferred to the seller's account as soon as possible and reduce possible delays in the future. Since the platform had experienced payment delays before, the notice did not cause too much anxiety among Ozon sellers at first. However, two weeks later, Ozon issued another notice of delayed payment processing: due to Ozon’s ongoing compliance review, banks have been processing and reviewing the RMB payment process from Russia, so payments at the end of March will be delayed. Some sellers consulted the platform about this and received the same response: the platform cannot determine when the payment will arrive, and the payment on April 15 may also be delayed. At the same time, Ozon also announced that the China Sellers Investment Summit originally scheduled for April 11 will be postponed to the end of May. Although Ozon stated in the notice that the reason for the postponement was that the number of Chinese sellers entering the market in the first quarter of 2024 far exceeded expectations, given that the recent payment delay issue has not yet been resolved, many sellers can't help but link it together. Under this circumstance, Ozon sellers began to feel uneasy: some sellers were worried that their accounts might not be able to recover their purchase costs in time due to the extended payment cycle of the platform , and they faced the risk of difficulty in cash turnover; other sellers began to suspect that the platform was in a financial crisis and was preparing to run away with the money because of delayed payment and failure to give a specific payment date. It is worth mentioning that Ozon quickly responded to the latter speculation a few days ago.
It is learned that on April 16, Ozon released an official statement regarding payment delays in the form of a video. In the video, Ozon Greater China President explained the recent rumors of payment delays and the latest developments. The key points are as follows: 1. The delay in Ozon’s payment is due to the bank’s compliance review, and the platform is actively responding; 2. Ozon's financial situation is sound and the delay in payment is not related to Ozon's financial situation; 3. Ozon has found a series of new solutions to facilitate the payment process and is actively testing them; 4. Ozon needs further confirmation on the specific payment time. It is understood that in 2023, Ozon's annual GMV, including services, will exceed 1.7 trillion rubles (about 18.883 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of about 110% year-on-year. And thanks to the rapid development of the Russian e-commerce market, as of December 31, 2023, the number of active users on the Ozon platform reached 46 million, an increase of nearly one-third year-on-year, and sellers' sales also increased by 2.5 times. Judging from the official's positive response attitude and Ozon's performance, it can be seen that Ozon's payment delay this time is likely to have little to do with the platform's internal financial situation, but is instead constrained by external factors.
▲ Scan the QR code and reply “ ozon ” to join the discussion group According to a Russian media report on April 12, Russian companies complained that Chinese banks had hindered Russian companies from paying for electronic assembly parts. A seller who runs foreign trade with Russia also said that it has been difficult to collect payments from Russia in recent months, and it is not just a problem with the Ozon platform alone. He speculated that there may be two reasons for this: first, politically Russia has been sanctioned by the West, resulting in a lack of foreign exchange; second, banks have restricted or changed their payment policies, resulting in a certain extension of the review stage, affecting the payment process. Judging from Ozon’s response, the reason for its payment delay is most likely the latter. However, according to reports, although Ozon has stated that it is still actively responding and looking for solutions, since the payment delay problem is difficult to solve in the short term, some Ozon sellers have chosen to suspend shipments to avoid the risk of worsening capital turnover difficulties. It is worth mentioning that Ozon is not the only platform that has recently encountered problems with limited payment processing.
It is learned that recently, many sellers have reported that when using a third-party payment software to process payment collection on multiple Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, they also encountered problems such as payment collection failure, strict audit and payment pending . Some of the reasons given by various platforms and the sellers’ related solutions are as follows: Shopee: The store audit failed because the store link could not be opened, and the store link of the source of funds needed to be noted; the second reason was that the payee of the two pending funds was inconsistent, and the reason for the change needed to be explained; Lazada: In case of payment failure, the seller needs to reauthorize to resume the normal payment process; TikTok Shop Indonesia: Sellers encountered problems with pending accounts. After completing store reauthorization, the efficiency of payment collection was improved.
Based on the feedback from sellers, there are three possible reasons why these e-commerce platforms are facing limited payment collection: 1. Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms are strengthening risk control and adjusting payment collection policies to cope with increasingly stringent international financial supervision; 2. The internal system of a third-party payment collection agency is being upgraded, resulting in a large number of sellers' payments being suspended; 3. The seller’s account fails to meet the regulatory requirements related to local e-commerce payments, resulting in difficulties in collecting payments.In fact, it is understood that it is not only Russia and Southeast Asia. Given the common problems in international payment links such as complicated handling fees, exchange rate differences and timeliness of arrival, cross-border export companies generally have pain points such as long collection periods and frequent payment risks. Therefore, we would like to remind all sellers that when facing the payment collection link in the cross-border e-commerce chain, on the one hand, they need to focus on the compliance qualifications and fund security of cross-border collection, and choose several service providers and banks to ensure that the funds are in their pockets; on the other hand, they also need to pay more attention to the platform and international policy developments to reasonably and promptly avoid the risk of restricted payment collection. At present, Ozon’s payment date has not been determined, and we will continue to pay attention to the payment progress of the platform. If sellers have the latest relevant news, they can share it in the comment area or discussion group. |
