UK Sellers Benefit From Weaker Pound When Selling Overseas

Modern business now bring in more customers than ever via the internet. For some it is an add-on to their main geographical business, while for others it is increasingly their sole means of income. There are certainly plenty of perks to doing business online.

One of the main perks is that you are able to sell goods and services to people all over the world. This can mean doing business in different currencies, although if you sell to people and accept payments via PayPal it is generally the buyer who will convert their currency to yours when making payment.

You have no doubt read about the state of the British pound lately. It hasn’t always been at its strongest, but the good news is that when it is weaker on the world markets it can attract more business. For example many online sellers based in the UK have found that their recent sales have included more foreign buyers, thanks to the state of our own currency. You can see that a poor pound may not be good for us when we want to change it up to go abroad on holiday, but it can still be good for business.

So this time we are in now could turn out to be a good one for people who are looking to build their online business and bring in customers from all around the world. Obviously some areas, such as those which have the Euro, will be more attracted to the weakness of the pound than others. But it is interesting to keep an eye on this area so we can see whether our home grown internet businesses will benefit from having a healthy or a poor currency.

You might think that buyers from other countries have to pay more in postage to get their goods from the UK. This would be true, since they have to pay more than they would to receive the same item from their own country. So perhaps the growth in business depends on what you happen to be selling as well. If you sell unusual things that are not always easy to get hold of in other countries, you could find yourself with a nice flood of sterling coming into your PayPal account as a result.

The situation may be different when you are selling services though. Many UK online workers charge in US dollars, since this appears to be the currency used most often online. If you charge in dollars you have probably noticed that the amount you are getting when exchanged into pounds has been a little less lately than it was a few months ago. Sellers in this position would have been rejoicing when the pound was down to less than 1.50 in dollars. They would have been paid more than they were when they were seeing a two dollar pound.

So you see there are interesting exchange rate situations occurring for those who are working and getting paid online. Are you among them, and do you know how the latest news about sterling is affecting you?