Best Ways to Receive Export Payments for Handicraft Exporters

Handicraft export payment follows one of four terms: 1. money in advance, 2. a letter of credit (LC), 3. documents against payment or acceptance (DP/DA), or 4. open account after shipment. Wholesale money usually arrives as a bank wire (T/T) in USD, EUR, GBP or AED into your authorised dealer (AD) bank account in India. Online orders are paid out by the marketplace.

Which route you get depends on who the buyer is and how big the order is. Importers and retail chains pay by wire on advance or open account terms, while a shopper on Etsy or Amazon pays the platform, which then pays you. Buyer credit is the hard part in handicrafts, because long credit has to fit inside a deadline of nine months from shipment.

Your risk depends on the term you accept, your fees on how small orders are paid, and your deadline on how much credit you give. After the money arrives, you also close the shipping bill and its entry in the RBI's Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS), and keep the foreign inward remittance advice (FIRA) and electronic bank realisation certificate (eBRC) that prove the payment.

Handicraft export payment from wholesale buyers follows four terms, from safest to riskiest for you. For the full mechanics of each, see our guide to export payment terms.

• Cash in advance - The buyer wires part or all of the money before you ship, which suits new buyers and made-to-order pieces because a full advance leaves you little payment risk.
• Letter of credit (LC) - The buyer's bank promises to pay once your documents match the credit, so the bank's promise replaces the buyer's and most of the risk of not being paid moves off you.
• Documents against payment or acceptance (DP/DA) - Your bank passes the shipping documents to the buyer only against payment (DP) or a signed promise to pay later (DA).
• Open account - You ship first and the buyer pays after an agreed credit period, which in handicrafts often runs to 180 days and leaves you most exposed.

For wholesale buyers, whichever term is set, the money usually moves the same way: a SWIFT wire from the buyer's bank into your AD bank in India. Consignment, where the buyer pays only after the goods sell, works differently and is not covered here. For other ways of being paid, see our guide to export payment methods.

Each term carries a different cost and risk, and that decides which buyer it suits.

These are SBI's charges for customers without export credit. Customers with export credit pay nil on export receipts and LC advising. Other AD banks differ.

Which term to take depends on the buyer:

• New importer - Ask for part-advance or a confirmed LC until they have paid you on time once or twice.
• Repeat importer - A part-advance with a short open-account balance keeps the relationship easy without full exposure.
• Retail chain or brand - A large retailer often asks for open account, so the work is in managing the risk, as the credit section below explains.

EPCH, the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, advises booking orders on an LC or advance and treats DP as a safe term. It says DA is acceptable only against a bank or ECGC guarantee, or to your own subsidiary or office abroad. The documentary route has its own rules and costs, covered in our export bill collection guide.

Small orders do not follow the wholesale terms. A shopper pays a marketplace, and the marketplace pays you in a different shape. Etsy pays out through its own payout partner, while Amazon Global Selling pays into your Indian bank account.

Three points matter on every small order:

• The platform or its payout partner pays you, not the shopper - Where a payout reaches you as a foreign remittance, your bank can accept a receipt from a party outside the sale once it is satisfied the payer is genuine, so keep the payout statements ready.
• Ask your bank what advice it issues - A foreign inward remittance advice (FIRA) is proof that money came in from abroad, so ask your bank what advice it issues for each payout that arrives as a foreign remittance.
• Count every fee on an order - Etsy takes 5% plus INR 25 on each sale, and the payout partner and your bank add their own charges, so work out what an order leaves you before you price it.

Large importers and retail chains often want long credit. EPCH says handicraft credit periods often last 180 days: goods take about 90 days to reach the destination port, and the payment is realised about 90 days after that.

The nine-month deadline counts from the shipment date, not from delivery or the invoice date. Every day of journey and every day of credit comes out of the same nine months, so add them up before you agree a long term.

Example of how many days you have left to get paid

In this example, nine months is taken as about 270 days from the shipment date, and the money arrives exactly on the due date.

In case B one late payment takes you past nine months. Case E fixes the due date on day one, but the buyer then has only about 30 days after the goods arrive, so agree it before you book the order.

To give credit and stay inside the deadline:

• Ask for part-advance before you make the order - A share paid upfront covers raw material and labour, so a cancelled or delayed order does not leave you carrying the whole cost.
• Write the credit start date into the contract - State whether credit runs from shipment, delivery or inspection, and list any deductions, so a buyer cannot quietly stretch the term.
• Check the buyer before you ship - EPCH warns that some people pose as buyers and order goods with no intention to pay, and a buyer's credentials can be verified through ECGC.
• Ask ECGC about cover - ECGC's Small Exporters Policy is for exporters with annual export turnover up to Rs5 crore and covers commercial and political risk, so ask ECGC for a quote before you agree to long credit.
• Ask your bank for more time before the date passes - If a buyer is genuinely late, your AD bank can extend the period on a reasoned request, so apply while the deadline is still ahead.

If proceeds stay unrealised for more than a year past the due date, RBI rules let you make further exports only against full advance or an irrevocable LC. To bridge a long credit period, see our guide to export finance companies.

A T/T is a SWIFT wire sent bank to bank, from the buyer's bank to your AD bank. Settle these four points before the buyer sends the wire.

• Choose the invoice currency - Bill in USD, EUR, GBP or AED and you have nine months to realise the money. If you invoice or settle in INR, it is 12 months.
• Say who bears the charges - Write OUR (the buyer pays all charges), SHA (charges are shared) or BEN (you pay them) on the invoice, or intermediary banks can deduct amounts before the money reaches you.
• Name the payer - If a buying agent or sourcing house pays instead of the buyer, your bank can accept it only once it is satisfied the arrangement is genuine, so agree it in writing before you ship.
• Expect a purpose code request - Your bank needs the purpose of the receipt, such as an advance against exports or the realisation of an export bill, and tells you which one applies.

Every shipment has a shipping bill, and each one has to be closed. When you ship many small lots, the rules for small shipments matter.

1. The shipping bill carries your export declaration - When you ship from an EDI port, your export declaration form is treated as submitted as part of the shipping bill, so there is no separate goods form to file.
2. Your AD bank credits you and updates EDPMS - Once your bank is satisfied the receipt is genuine, it credits your account and closes or updates the matching entry in EDPMS. Your bank closes it, not you, though for small shipments it can do so on your declaration.
3. Small shipments close on your declaration - Where a shipping bill is up to Rs10 lakh, your bank can close the entry on your own declaration that the payment has been realised, and you can send declarations quarterly for bulk closure. The Rs10 lakh test is per shipping bill, so many small shipments qualify one by one. SBI, for one, charges customers without export credit Rs50 to handle a small-value export bill, or Rs20 each when more than 10 come together.
4. Collect the FIRA and raise the eBRC - Keep the FIRA from your bank as proof of the inward remittance. The eBRC is the bank realisation certificate you raise yourself on the DGFT portal from the remittance data your bank reports, and it is separate from EDPMS. For exports by post, DGFT requires the eBRC, the postal receipt and a Customs-attested invoice in place of the usual sea or air documents.
5. Meet the nine-month deadline - Under the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, you must realise the money within nine months of the shipment date, or 12 months if you invoice or settle in INR. Your bank may extend the realisation period on a reasoned request.

Direct handicraft buyers, such as importers who pay an advance and a balance by wire, are where we fit. Marketplace payouts come from the marketplace, and we do not replace them. We help small businesses receive the two wire payments a made-to-order run involves, through our receiving accounts in USD, EUR, GBP and CAD.

• Advance to start the order - A buyer abroad can send a part or full advance into a local USD, EUR, GBP or CAD account, or by bank transfer over SWIFT in AED or another currency, so you can buy raw material with the money in your Indian bank account as quickly as the next business day, depending on the payment method.
• Balance after shipment - The balance due once the goods have gone is collected in the same currencies and settled to the same account.

For each withdrawal we issue an eFIRA, the electronic foreign inward remittance advice, which you can download within 24 hours, plus a payment advice that helps your AD bank begin closing the EDPMS entry where applicable. Your bank, not us, closes it. We do not handle letters of credit or documentary collections, so for those you use your bank.

Xflow Payments India Pvt. Ltd. holds final Payment Aggregator Cross Border (PA-CB) authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the licence's fully approved stage, as of February 2026.

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