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Coconut Bowls eliminates unnecessary conversion fees with Airwallex

How Coconut Bowls, a high growth eco-friendly brand, improved their margins and streamline global finances with Airwallex.

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3%

improvement in profit margins by eliminating double conversions

3%

savings on SaaS like Shopify and Klaviyo from international transaction fees

4+ hours

saved each week from simplified processes

Coconut Bowls provide a sustainable alternative to bowls, inspired by the opportunity to reduce single use plastics.

Industry

Retail

Location

Byron Bay, Australia

Company size

20 - 50 employees

Airwallex products used

Global Accounts
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The challenge

Before using Airwallex, Coconut Bowls were faced with two challenges:

Unnecessary currency conversions resulting in high fees eating into margins

Coconut Bowls were forced to convert foreign currency revenue to AUD within 72 hours when using their previous FX provider. However, they would then frequently convert that back into USD and other currencies to pay overseas suppliers and contractors.

Highly manual and inefficient processes to manage cash flow

Coconut Bowls were using a variety of finance platforms in their business, such as AMEX for international payments, an FX provider for collecting funds internationally and bank-issued credit cards for managing their online subscriptions. This process was not only time-intensive to manage, it was impacting their bottom line.

The solution

Coconut Bowl boosted profit margins by 3% and simplified global finance processes with Airwallex. They can now collect, hold and pay with multiple major currencies like USD, GBP, EUR and AUD. Eliminating unnecessary currency conversions while having better visibility of their global cash flow in a single place.

Jake McKeon

Founder

“Coconut Bowls very quickly attracted global attention and we began making sales in USD, GBP and Euro. Before Airwallex, we were making unnecessarily expensive conversions. Our margins have easily increased by 3% simply by switching to Airwallex.”

About Coconut Bowls

In late 2015, Australian digital nomad Jake McKeon was at a beach in Bali, watching a local man carve and polish souvenirs out of discarded coconut shells. Jake was inspired by the coconut shells, naturally shaped like a bowl, no plastic needed. Thus, Coconut Bowls was born. Coconut Bowls instantly attracted customers on a global scale, and started seeing international sales take-off. Very soon, the team needed a better way to manage their global cash flow that didn’t take a huge clip on each transaction.

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Today, Coconut Bowls has sold hundreds of thousands of bowls to customers in over 150 countries. They have replaced single-use items in more than 600 cafes in Australia.

How Coconut Bowls transformed their Business With Airwallex

Improved their profit margins by 3%

Coconut Bowls can now collect and hold their USD, GBP, EUR and AUD revenues in one place with Global Accounts. They could then pay their suppliers and contractors directly with these currencies at no additional conversion fees. Eliminating unnecessary currency conversions that they were previously forced to make.

Airwallex Global Accounts also gave their wholesale customers the option to pay in their local currency, without Coconut Bowls needing to set up a local business entity.

Saved 3% on their USD SaaS subscriptions like Shopify and Klaviyo

With their fast-growing business, fees on their Shopify and Klaviyo subscriptions were becoming sizable, alongside the 3% international card transaction fees they were paying on them. By simply paying with their Airwallex’s multi-currency virtual cards, the team realised immediate cost savings.

Streamlined processes with better visibility of their global cash flow

Coconut Bowls could now have full visibility of their global revenues and expenses in one place. The integration to Xero also meant the days of manual reconciliation between multiple accounts were over. Now, their transactions automatically sync every hour, saving hours of manual work each week.

Dedicated virtual cards for each major SaaS subscription also gave them better control of their SaaS spend. The team could easily cancel the subscription by cancelling the card, no login details to remember or phone calls to make.

More stories from Airwallex customers

How The Sheet Society saves over AUD$12,000 each month with Airwallex
How Hawkeye Vintage saves $10,000 each month on international payments
How Dovetail regained control of team spend and reduced SaaS bills by 15%

See how our customers are finding Airwallex

Airwallex Testimony

"Airwallex have been a fantastic partner for Olsam Group as we grow our eCommerce brands to new channels and new markets. Their easy to use interface and integrations have been a joy for our finance team to use as we scale."

Sam Horbye

Co-Founder, Olsam

Airwallex Testimony

"For ME + EM, expanding into international markets such as the US has been our focus - and with Airwallex, we were able to use their local USD Global Account to collect from our Paypal US account, thereby allowing us to save 3% on each transaction. The process of working with Airwallex has been seamless - our suppliers get paid quickly, we have a dedicated Relationship Manager who has been really patient, helpful and quick to respond. I am keen to use their cards to pay for our ad spend in the near future to save further on our USD invoices."

Meera

Finance Manager, ME + EM

Airwallex Testimony

"We've had such a fantastic experience switching to Airwallex. Previously we were using a traditional bank to make all of our international transactions and they'd constantly lock us out of the account everytime we made a transfer, resulting in hours and hours of lost time on hold. Airwallex is secure, makes it super quick and simple to make and receive international payments."

Rupert

Managing Director, Perspective Pictures

Airwallex Testimony

“We used to pay Stripe between $5,000 and $10,000 a month in conversion fees because most of our customers pay in dollars. Now we funnel that money into our Airwallex US dollar account, we don’t have to pay commission. We’ve saved more than $100,000 so far this year”

Thomas Adams

Founder and CEO, Brandbassador

Airwallex Testimony

"We love Airwallex! It has considerably eased our invoicing and payments to contractors around the world. Sending and receiving money is much faster and cheaper than before."

Edle Tenden

Co-Founder, Mobile Transaction

Airwallex Testimony

“We are so glad that we have found Airwallex! There are no hidden charges, they are quick to respond to any queries and we had the smoothest transaction with amazing support from the team continually.”

Andreia Beja

Supply Chain Executive, Miss Patisserie

Airwallex Testimony

"Our water solutions company, Dropterra (go.dropterra.com) has partnered with Airwallex since inception and it has been the best banking and payment partner a company can think of. International transactions are easy, secure, and fast, the technology is incredible and their client service fantastic! We look forward to growing and deepening our relationship with Airwallex!"

Francois Schramek

Co-Founder, Dropterra

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