How DTC eCommerce brand, Linjer, saved more than HKD$78,000 in FX fees

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

1. In just a few months, Airwallex helped Linjer to save more than HK$78,000 in unnecessary FX and international transfer fees.

2. 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.

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".