Every export payment method is a negotiation about one question: who holds value while the goods move. Understanding that trade-off turns payment terms from a source of anxiety into something you can price.
Advance payment — safest for you, hardest to win
The buyer pays before shipment. You carry no collection risk. The problem is commercial, not financial: a first-time buyer is being asked to send money to a company they have never dealt with, in a country whose legal recourse they do not know. Expect resistance on anything but small trial orders, and expect to lose deals to competitors offering terms.
Letter of credit — the bank stands between you
An irrevocable LC substitutes your buyer's creditworthiness with a bank's. Handled properly it is the strongest instrument in international trade. Three details matter more than the rest: it must be irrevocable, you should understand which bank confirms it, and you must read the document requirements before you ship — because that is where LCs fail.
The discrepancy problem
Most LC payment delays are not fraud or insolvency. They are discrepancies: a document that does not match the LC text. A description worded differently from the LC, a shipment a day past the latest date, a missing endorsement, an inspection certificate signed by the wrong party. Banks check documents against the credit, not against reality. Read the LC line by line the day it arrives, and if any requirement is one you cannot meet, request an amendment before production — not after loading.
Cash against documents
Your bank releases the shipping documents to the buyer only against payment. Cheaper and faster than an LC. The exposure is real though: the goods have already travelled. If the buyer refuses, you are choosing between a discount and paying return freight from a distant port. Reasonable with a buyer you have shipped to before, risky with a stranger.
Open account
You ship and invoice, payment follows in thirty, sixty or ninety days. This is what large importers expect and what wins repeat business — but you are financing the buyer and carrying full collection risk. Only extend open account terms to a buyer whose payment behaviour you have observed, and consider credit insurance once volumes matter.
Price the terms into the quote
Payment terms have a cost, so quote them. A price for advance payment and a slightly higher price for a documentary term is a normal, professional structure that also gives you something to concede in negotiation other than margin. When a buyer pushes for open account on a first order, offering a documentary alternative at the same price is often accepted.
Progressive terms build relationships
The practical path with a new buyer: advance payment or an LC on the first order, documentary terms once shipments have gone smoothly, open account with a proven, growing customer. Say this out loud during negotiation. Framed as a roadmap rather than distrust, most serious buyers accept it — and a buyer who demands open account on order one, without financials, is telling you something.
Currency and validity
A payment term interacts with currency risk. A ninety-day open account priced in a currency you do not hold your costs in is two risks stacked. Keep quote validity short, state it on the quotation, and revisit pricing when rates move rather than honouring a number you calculated last quarter.
Structure beats hope
Buyers who intend to pay are not offended by structure. Documented terms, clear Incoterms, an invoice that matches the LC and shipment dates you can actually meet — that is what gets paid on time. On Mall Of Türkiye, quotations capture payment terms and Incoterms as fields rather than free text, so the terms you agreed are the terms on record when the shipment moves.