How DTC eCommerce brand, Linjer, saved more than HKD$78,000 in FX fees
Learn how Linjer uses Airwallex’s multi-currency business account and corporate cards to save on FX.
HK$78,000
saved in a few months from currency conversion fees on global expenses
3%
savings on SaaS such as Shopify and others
10+ hours
saved per month from simplified processes
Linjer is an eCommerce company based in Hong Kong. They make sustainably-made jewelry, bags and watches without the luxury markup.
Company size
10 - 50 employees
Location
Hong Kong, Singapore
Industry
Retail
Nowadays, there are many direct-to-consumers affordable, high-quality fashion brands. But in 2014, it's either fast fashion or luxury brands. Jennifer Chong and Roman Khan, then-couple, now husband-and-wife, created Linjer to solve this problem. They create products of the same quality as luxury brands, and sell directly to customers online, without the high markup. They started off with just US$20k savings and crowdfunding. And in the first 14 months, they hit US$1 million in sales.
Jennifer Chong
CEO of Linjer
"I’m so thankful that Airwallex exists! In Hong Kong, it's so hard to find financial service providers that are friendly to small businesses. Airwallex allows me to exchange currencies at really great rates, and the interface is very modern and easy to use compared to my bank. We save so much money with Airwallex! In just a few months, we've already saved more than HK$78,000 in unnecessary bank fees!"
TLDR
In just a few months, Airwallex helped Linjer to save more than HK$78,000 in unnecessary FX and international transfer fees.
Airwallex's VISA Multi-currency Card has great FX rates and it helps Linjer's CEO to save time on expense reimbursement.
Challenges: High FX and transfer fees by bank and PayPal
Before using Airwallex, Linjer made international transfers to their overseas suppliers using bank transfer and PayPal. Their bank and PayPal charge costly fees for foreign exchange. Each bank international transfer costs HK$120 per transfer.
Other than international transfer, they were using their bank's credit cards to purchase items online. When it comes to purchases in foreign currencies, banks usually charge a 3-4% markup on top of the prevailing FX rate determined by Visa/MasterCard. In order to avoid the high fees by the bank, their employees will use their personal credit cards for purchases to get better FX rates. Afterwards, their employees will get reimbursed.
Airwallex | Banks | PayPal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sending money overseas | Transfer fee | Free, unless you use the SWIFT network for transfer (Airwallex charges a flare fee of SGD20 whereas banks and other Fintechs charge a variable fee of between SGD5 and SGD80) | From SGD20 onwards | 2% of total transaction amount |
FX fee | 0.3% or 0.6% above our FX base rate | Typically 0.47 – 1% markup | 4% markup | |
Receiving money from overseas | Transfer fee | Depends on the sender’s bank | From SGD10 onwards | 4.4% + SGD0.50 per transaction |
FX fee | Free | 1 – 2% markup | 2.5 – 4.5% markup | |
Card fees | Annual fee | Free | Typically SGD180 per annum (usually it’ll be waived for the first year) | No card for business |
FX fee | If it requires conversion, 0.3% or 0.6% above our FX base rate.
If you already have the currencies in your Airwallex Global Account, we’ll deduct directly without any fees. | Around 3.6 – 3.7% markup | No card for business |
Solution & Results: How Airwallex international transfers and cards help Linjer save HK$78,000 FX fees
Airwallex helps Linjer to exchange currencies at market-leading rates. And make international transfers for a fraction of the price of a wire transfer or PayPal transfer. Their recipients of the transfers are very satisfied too, because they aren't charged with any incoming wire fees. Typically, businesses will go through the SWIFT network for international transfer via the banks, and there might be a fee incurred on the recipient's end.
Jennifer Chong
CEO of Linjer
"In just a few months we've already saved more than HK$78,000 in unnecessary bank fees!"
Linjer also uses Airwallex's VISA Multi-currency card for online purchases in any currency. There are zero transaction fees on international card payments. Apart from cost saving, this also helps Jennifer to empower her team easily to make purchases without a long, tedious process. She said that this is "not how she wants to spend her time".
See how our customers are finding Airwallex
"Airwallex has been a game changer for all our banking needs. As a fast-growing startup, we need a scalable yet cost-efficient batch payment solution to pay our employees and vendors both inside and outside Hong Kong. Airwallex helps us save money on every bank transfer with their near-zero transaction fee and market-beating FX rates. We also use Airwallex’s multi-currency Visa cards for business travel expenses and SaaS subscriptions to avoid hidden bank fees that would otherwise have been difficult to spot. Would highly recommend other startups to get started with Airwallex!"
Henson Tsai
Founder, SleekFlow
"Importing the best wine and sake overseas always involve extra costs on transaction fee & FX fee. With Airwallex, we saved 100% of our overseas remittance cost and we could provide the best price for our customers."
Tomy Wu
Co-Founder, MyiCellar
"Airwallex is an innovative fintech platform with a first-class customer support team. They transformed the previously painful process of creating corporate cards and managing business accounts into something simple, convenient, and cost-effective. The onboarding was quick and smooth, the security features exceeded our expectations, and most importantly, it is really easy to use. Airwallex saves a lot of my team's time and the simplicity is genius."
Gavin Black
Interim CEO & Chief Financial Officer, PURE Group
"I’m so thankful that Airwallex exists! In Hong Kong, it's so hard to find financial service providers that are friendly to small businesses. Airwallex allows me to exchange currencies at really great rates, and the interface is very modern and easy to use compared to my bank. We save so much money with Airwallex! In just a few months, we've already saved more than HK$78,000 in unnecessary fees!"
Jennifer Chong
CEO, Linjer
"Airwallex provides us with flexibility and cost savings on our international fund flows. We are using Airwallex to pay international suppliers and are saving up to 90% on transaction fees and FX verses traditional banks - thanks to their competitive exchange rate and low transaction costs."
Kelvin Kan
Founder, Homemakase
"Airwallex has been great for our team - it makes payments and transfers so much easier, and has saved us significant amounts of time compared to what we were doing before with HSBC. Airwallex's platform is easy to use and very intuitive. Airwallex virtual card has solved most of our painpoints with sharing corporate card numbers and credit card limits. The best part is being able to save money on all our monthly bank transfers, and we've already saved thousands of dollars by using Airwallex. Airwallex's support has also been highly responsive to troubleshoot any issues in a timely manner."
Sarah Chang
Co-founder & COO, Forkast.News
"Airwallex offers both physical and virtual corporate cards tailored to the needs of different staff. Their virtual corporate card can even be set up in just 1 minute. Its features make expense management and approval processes notably easier for us."
Justin Chu
General Manager, K Dollar Program
"With Airwallex, we were able to start accepting local payments quickly. Because the user experience is intuitive and the checkout process faster, we’ve actually had a 50% increase in shoppers using local payment methods."
Rebekah
Business Development Director, Slowood
