One order, two exchange rates: the loss no report shows you
Selling on Ozon Global, you set the price in yuan, the platform converts it to roubles and shows that to the Russian buyer. The buyer pays roubles, the platform settles in roubles, and the money is converted back to yuan before it reaches you.
One order, the rate applied twice — and they are two different rates.
How the money moves
- You set the price in the seller account: yuan
- Ozon converts at the platform rate and displays roubles
- The buyer pays: roubles
- Commission, logistics, ads, penalties are all deducted in roubles
- On withdrawal the payment provider converts back to yuan at its own rate
Step 2 and step 5 do not use the same rate. The gap between them is your loss or gain.
How large is the gap
A payment channel's conversion typically sits 0.3–0.8% away from the mid rate, plus a channel fee of 0.3–1.2%. Roughly 1–2% in total.
That sounds small, but it is a percentage of turnover, not of profit. At a 15% net margin, a 1.5% FX loss eats a tenth of the profit.
Wildberries works differently
WB China POP settles in yuan weekly — simpler on the face of it, a single conversion.
But because there is only one figure, the rate used for that conversion is not visible in the report at all. The only way to know it is to work backwards: rouble revenue ÷ yuan received.
A cost you cannot see does not disappear; it just becomes harder to find.
How to account for it
The point is not to collapse everything into a single "profit in yuan". Every amount needs to carry:
- the value and the currency it originated in
- the rate for that date and the source of the rate
Purchases in yuan, commission and logistics in roubles, payout in yuan again. Convert all of it at one rate and your books will never match the platform's statement.
FX difference belongs on its own line in the P&L. Only then can you tell whether this month's profit fell because commission rose or simply because the rate moved.