Instra And BlueSnap Ace Domain Name Trading

Instra, based in Melbourne, Australia, provides an extensive domain name service to a global market. The company’s portfolio covers the gamut, from the dot.coms and the dot.DEs (Denmark) to high-risk sites such as gaming and triple-X adult websites, which other companies don’t want to touch.

Instra’s reach is extensive, supplying and promoting generic and country code top-level domain names in 250 countries to individuals, corporations and resellers. Think GoDaddy where GoDaddy might also be a customer in the domain resell market.

The business of cross-border domain name trading can be beset with compliance issues and confusing billing systems. But the partnership between Instra and BlueSnap, a global payments company specializing in online payment processing, has handled the challenge with aplomb. Desleigh Jameson, CEO of Instra, discussed the successful partnership with Karen Webster.

Instra’s Early Priorities

Compliance is an issue when a company is trading online and across borders, but a bigger priority for Instra was how to manage the myriad currencies that it receives on a daily basis from global transactions and how to settle funds. If funds are placed in the wrong place, the company has to pay extra fees to convert the funds. Another priority was compliance, as the company had to be sure that it was trading appropriately. Finally, providing flexibility for customers was key to scaling up.

High Transaction Rate, Low Transactional Value

Transactions on Instra’s clients’ websites can be anywhere from $10 to $5,000, but most are around the $50 mark, according to Jameson, which implies a high transaction rate with low transactional value.

Instra buys its products from all over the world and transacts in many different currencies. Because of the characteristics of the business, Instra needed the ability to route to local acquirers in order to increase conversion. Jameson told Webster, “There is a bunch of different currencies coming back to us, but we don’t want all this currency and then have to convert the following week in order to pay overheads.”

Compliance

When the company was acquired by a U.K. company, it faced new compliance regulations, specifically OPEC sanctions. Trading online, the company had to be sensitive to cross-border trading requirements. According to Jameson, “In New Zealand and Australia, we are subject to a really light version of compliance, but our banks don’t talk about it ever, it’s just not on the radar.” Instra had to change to ensure it didn’t accidentally trade across a border it didn’t intend to and with someone whom it would rather not trade.

BlueSnap ensured that Instra never had a bad transaction because it managed the complexities of cross-border trading, such as shipping for physical goods or download capability for digital services, complying with tax regulations in different parts of the world, and ensuring that the checkout process was optimized for local payments methods, currencies and languages. Thanks to BlueSnap, Instra avoids calamitous transactions in an environment where, according to Jameson, “it is so easy for people to mask where they are coming from and who they are.”

Simplifying Payments for Resellers

Instra wanted to find a way to work with resellers. According to Jameson, “We wanted a platform or website that could easily adapt so that if a company wanted to start selling domain names the next day, Instra could scan a website for the customer overnight and plug them into a whole audience.” But the company needed an invoicing system that made sense and was simple.

BlueSnap helped Instra to develop a clear and easy billing system. Because each customer of Instra is using the same system, the same infrastructure and the same security, there is nothing to be fixed, and the client needs to focus only on its customers’ credentials.

The simplicity of the system, Jameson told Webster, meant that BlueSnap was able to provide a contract within a day that Instra put in front of a new client whose website they were just about to roll out. Clients were wowed because they did not have to wait for a 20-page document detailing the infrastructure and security specifications.

Metrics

Instra measures the success of the partnership by the innovation and ideas spawned as a result of an effective tech team. Jameson cites tech team efforts to reduce payment failure issues and new ways to recognize outdated expiries on cards as tangible evidence of the partnership’s success.

Instra and BlueSnap’s partnership has come up with a new way to work with customers, particularly the resellers of domain names. The success is attributable to prioritizing potential roadblocks, simplifying the work required by clients and providing flexibility for consumers.