Selling goods through China’s e-commerce is simple:

• For traditional e-commerce, payments are managed by the platform and directly accessible from the seller’s account on the e-commerce platform (seller’s direct access, or its importer/distributor/agent). The payment does not involve foreign currency, therefore everything is handled in RMB.
• For CBEC, cross-border payments are managed by the CBEC platform on which the transaction is made, through the local clearing system. No additional bank accounts must be opened, only a transaction and currency conversion fee are charged by the host platforms. Therefore, companies operating in CBEC can initiate transactions in the currency of sale (e.g. EUR), while Chinese customers pay directly in RMB.

One exception could be if goods are sold via the exporter’s own website. In this case, it is strongly recommended to work with a third-party provider to enable your platform popular payment methods such as WeChat and Alipay. International credit card payment methods, or other platforms such as PayPal, are not common in China. In general, selling via your own website is much more difficult (and costly) compared to opening official stores on Chinese popular e-commerce platforms.