CNY Local Currency Feature for Merchants

Introduced in December 2018, a merchant’s Local Currency Code can be found in the Currency Settings section of the Merchant Dashboard Account > Payment Settings page. This FAQ article walks merchants through all necessary information regarding CNY Local Currency Code (to learn more about EUR Local Currency Code, please visit this FAQ article instead).

A merchant’s Local Currency Code may be set in order to reduce the economic risk of fluctuating currencies and simplify the price-setting process for merchants. Currently for Mainland China-based merchants, Wish supports these Local Currency Codes: CNY (¥) and USD ($). Merchants based outside of Europe cannot dispute or manually alter their stores’ Local Currency Code.

Before January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the Local Currency Code was defined based on where the merchant does business. Starting January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the definition of the Local Currency Code is updated to reflect the currency that a merchant is receiving payments in (for example, if at a given time, the merchant is receiving payments in USD, the merchant’s Local Currency Code will be set in USD).

Wish may, in its sole discretion, update the Local Currency Code of merchant stores at any time, and request that merchants provide product prices in a currency consistent with the Local Currency Code; accordingly, merchants will also receive payments in the same currency consistent with the Local Currency Code.

To learn more on how to set localized prices for your new and existing products, check out the links:

Manual:

CSV:

API:

Frequently Asked Questions for China-based merchants:

1. What does the ‘Local Currency’ mean to merchants?

Starting December 10, 2018, merchants now have the ability to set localized pricing for their existing and new product listings based on the Local Currency Code in the Currency Settings section of the Merchant Dashboard Account > Payment Settings page.

Before January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the Local Currency Code was defined based on where the merchant does business. Starting January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the definition of the Local Currency Code is updated to reflect the currency that a merchant is receiving payments in (for example, if at a given time after January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the merchant is receiving payments in USD, the merchant’s Local Currency Code will be set in USD).

As of July 2, 2019 12:00AM UTC, some merchants’ accounts will be in CNY, meaning that orders released (i.e. ready for fulfillment) after this time will be paid in CNY. The CNY value is based on the CNY cost of a product as seen on the Merchant Dashboard Products page. Products that did not have the CNY amount set will automatically be converted over as well. The new CNY amount will be converted based on 6.7557 times the existing USD amount (this is the average exchange rate from February 27, 2019 to May 28, 2019).

As of May 29, 2020 12:00AM UTC, more merchants’ accounts will be in CNY, meaning that orders released (i.e. ready for fulfillment) after this time will be paid in CNY. The CNY value is based on the CNY cost of a product as seen on the Merchant Dashboard Products page. Products that did not have the CNY amount set will automatically be converted over as well. The new CNY amount will be converted based on the 60-calendar-day average USD <> CNY exchange rate from March 19, 2020 to May 18, 2020 (i.e. 1 USD = 7.0783 CNY).

Note that for the above-mentioned merchants, select policy penalties and amounts will also be issued in CNY and may be equal to seven (7) times the USD amount as reflected in each policy. Please see below for detailed penalty amounts in CNY. Merchants and EPRs should be aware of the relevant API changes as well, as noted in detail below.

Again, Wish may, in its sole discretion, update the Local Currency Code of merchant stores at any time, and request that merchants provide product prices in a currency consistent with the Local Currency Code; accordingly, merchants will also receive payments in the same currency consistent with the Local Currency Code.

2. Where do merchants view their current Local Currency Code?

The Local Currency Code can be found in the Currency Settings section of the Merchant Dashboard Account > Payment Settings page.

3. What are the Local Currencies currently supported?

Currently for merchants based in Mainland China, Wish supports CNY (¥) and USD ($) as the available Local Currency Codes.

Starting January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, if a store's Local Currency Code is set to CNY (¥), merchant only needs to provide product and shipping prices in CNY.

If a store's Local Currency Code is set to USD ($), merchant only needs to provide product and shipping prices in USD, and prices in all other localized currencies are optional.

4. Can I edit my store's Local Currency Code on Wish?

Starting January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, the definition of the Local Currency Code is updated to reflect the currency that a merchant is receiving payments in, and merchants based outside of Europe cannot dispute or manually alter their stores’ Local Currency Code.

5. Will I be paid in my Local Currency?

As of July 2, 2019 12:00AM UTC, some merchants’ orders released (i.e. ready for fulfillment) after this time will be paid in CNY if their Local Currency Code is set as CNY. In the coming months, the localized set product prices may be used to calculate merchant payments for more merchants whose local currency is CNY.

Note that for payment disbursements starting September 1, 2019, in the event where merchant accounts have positive USD balance and negative CNY balance, Wish will issue a “consolidation payment” that converts only the necessary USD amount in the merchant accounts to CNY to cover the existing negative CNY balance before disbursing payments to merchants. The conversion rate will be the exchange rate value at 12:00AM Pacific Time on each disbursement date (1st of the month and 15th of the month).

As an example, for September 1, 2019, the conversion rate that Wish uses to convert necessary USD balance to cover negative CNY balance in a merchant account will be set based on 1 USD = 7.157 CNY, the exchange rate value on September 1, 2019 12:00AM Pacific Time.

Note that as of May 29, 2020 12:00AM UTC, more merchants’ orders released (i.e. ready for fulfillment) after this time will be paid in CNY if their Local Currency Code is set as CNY.

6. What are some API changes I need to be aware of?

Effective June 20, 2019 12:00AM UTC, the localized_price, localized_shipping, localized_currency_code, localized_cc, and any other price-related fields with “localized_” will be mandatory for merchants that have their Local Currency Code set as CNY (not required for merchants whose Local Currency Code is set as USD).

/product/add

/product/update-shipping

/product/update-multi-shipping

/product/add-variation

/product/update-variation

/variant/add

/variant/update

ERPs are able to use the API endpoint /api/v2/get-currency-code to retrieve the merchant’s localized_currency_code. This API endpoints also returns the parameter: payment_currency_code, which represents the currency at which the merchant will be paid in at this time.

In addition, if merchants’ payment_currency_code = CNY, all price-related fields in the get pathways will return 999999 for the USD values. Please consume localized_ parameters instead.

Some merchants’ Local Currency Code will be updated from CNY to USD on January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC to reflect the payments these merchants are receiving at the time (USD, instead of CNY), based on the updated definition of Local Currency Code (noted in the “What does the ‘Local Currency’ mean to merchants?” Q&A above). As such, immediately after these merchants are notified by Wish of the January 14, 2020 updates made to their Local Currency Code, values in all “localized_” fields will be optional for these merchants whose “localized_currency_code” is planned to be updated to “USD” on January 14, 2010 12:00AM UTC, regardless of their current “localized_currency_code”.

Starting January 14, 2020 12:00AM UTC, for merchants whose “payment_currency_code” and “localized_currency_code” are both USD, values in all “localized_” fields must be in USD. If merchants provide inconsistent values in “localized_” fields and corresponding non-localized fields (for example, “localized_price” vs. “price”, localized_shipping” vs. “shipping” fields), an error will occur.

Effective January 25, 2019, the product and order API endpoints related to the new local currency API feature have been changed:

currency_code is now a response to all the following order pathways. Currency_code indicates the currency for all price-related fields for the related order. Currency_code returns need to be appropriately consumed by ERPs/private APIs for accurate records and/or displays of price-related fields for an order.

/order

/order/multi-get

/order/get-fulfill

/ticket

/ticket/get-action-required

For more details about the local currency API changes, merchants and EPRs may visit this API documentation.

7. How does using PayPal impact receiving payments in CNY?

Please note that PayPal does NOT currently support payments in CNY, so merchants cannot use PayPal to receive payments in CNY. PayPal is only available to merchants with Local Currency Code set as USD or EUR, or who receive payments in USD or EUR. If merchants wish to receive payments in CNY but currently use PayPal as a payment provider, they need to update to a different payment provider that supports CNY payments. Merchants can update their payment provider in Account > Payment Settings on their Merchant Dashboard. Payments in CNY will not be disbursed until merchants switch to a different provider other than PayPal.

8. For merchants whose accounts are in CNY, will policy penalties or amounts also be issued in CNY going forward?

Yes. Select policy penalties and amounts may be equal to seven (7) times the USD amount as reflected in each policy. The affected policies include: 2.3, 2.6, 2.7, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, 3.3, 4.5, 5.1, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.5, 8.6, 8.20, 10.1, 10.4.

Merchants may also refer to the tables below for specific penalties & amounts in CNY:

Penalty Policies:

Policy Link	Penalty policy	Penalty Amount (USD)	Penalty Amount (CNY)
2.3	Repeat IP Infringement	$500	¥3,500
2.6	Modified Product	Up to $20	Up to ¥140
2.7	Prohibited Product	Up to $10	Up to ¥70
2.10	Misleading Product	Up to $200.00 if >0 order(s) in last 30 Days. Merchants may be responsible for all future refunds	Up to ¥1,400.00 if >0 order(s) in last 30 Days. Merchants may be responsible for all future refunds
2.10	Misleading Variation	Up to $200.00 if >0 order(s) in last 30 Days. Merchants may be responsible for all future refunds	Up to ¥1,400.00 if >0 order(s) in last 30 Days. Merchants may be responsible for all future refunds
2.12	Manipulated Reviews and Ratings	Up to $10 per affected order	Up to ¥70 per affected order
3.3	Disable Promoted Product	$1	¥7
3.3	Disable Promoted Product Country	$1	¥7
4.5	Counterfeit and/or IP Infringement	$10	¥70
5.1	Orders not Fulfilled in 5 Days	$50	¥350
5.5	Late Confirmed Fulfillment	20% of order value, or $1, whichever is greater.	20% of order value, or ¥7, whichever is greater.
5.6	Fake Tracking	order value + $500	order value + ¥3500
5.7	Deceptive Fulfillment	$10,000	¥70,000
5.8	Orders from Mainland China not Shipped with WishPost	$100 / order	¥700 / order
5.9	Merchant Cancellation	$2	¥14
6.5	Directing Customer off Wish	$10,000	¥70,000
8.6	Directing Customer off Wish	$10,000	¥70,000
8.2	Wish Employee or Property Harassment	$100,000	¥700,000
10.1	Wish Express Fulfillment and Delivery Timeline	Refer to policy 5.1, 5.5, 5.9	Refer to policy 5.1, 5.5, 5.9
10.4	Wish Express Late Order	20% of order value, or $5, whichever is greater	20% of order value, or ¥35, whichever is greater

Merchants may also refer to Wish Merchant Policy 11 to learn more about Wish’s policy around local currency: https://merchant.wish.com/policy/currency.

Other Policy CNY Amounts:

Policy Link	Policy	Amount (USD)	Amount (CNY)
2.11	Extreme Price Increase	$1 or up to 20%	¥7 or up to 20%
3.3	Disable Promoted Product	$500+ GMV in the last 9 days	¥3500+ GMV in the last 9 days
3.3	Disable Promoted Product Country	$100+ GMV in the last 9 days in that country	¥700+ GMV in the last 9 days in that country
5.4	Confirmed Delivery Policy: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States	≥ $10.00	≥ ¥70
5.4	Confirmed Delivery Policy: Italy	≥ $7.00	≥ ¥49
5.4	Confirmed Delivery Policy: Russia	≥ $3.00	≥ ¥21

10. What other fees or amounts will be in CNY?

FBW (Fulfillment By Wish) fees and PB (ProductBoost) fees will also be converted to CNY based on the latest currency exchange rate at the time of when the fees or penalties are created.

Consolidation payments, one-off payments, or one-off penalties will be converted to CNY based on the exchange rate value at 12:00AM Pacific Time on each disbursement date (1st of the month and 15th of the month).

For example, FBW merchants can still view FBW fees in USD on their Merchant Dashboard. But once the FBW Invoice is created (once a month on the 14th), merchants are able to view the FBW fees in CNY based on the latest currency exchange rate at the time of the FBW Invoice is created. The timestamp of when the exchange rate is based on will be displayed on the FBW Invoice Summary page on Merchant Dashboard.

The above also applies to PB fees (PB fee is generated every Monday). The timestamp of when the exchange rate is based on will be displayed on the PB Fee ID Summary page.

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