Concerns About Complications Are Top Barriers to All-in-One Payments Solutions

An all-in-one payments platform is beneficial to businesses, but many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have reservations about adopting the technology, according to “The Future of Business Payables Innovation,” a PYMNTS and Plastiq collaboration based on a survey of 500 SMBs.

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An all-in-one payments platform automates how businesses make and receive payments and manage their cash flows.

Such a solution takes shape as an embedded finance offering within platforms and marketplaces, and enables multiple ways to pay any supplier via any payment method regardless of how the supplier wants to accept payment.

An all-in-one payments platform is beneficial to businesses because it digitizes the back office, even as customers and suppliers might remain stuck in paper-based processes, and it enables business purchases via credit cards, even to suppliers that do not accept card payments.

Despite these benefits, there are several understandings about such platforms that are preventing businesses from being interested in them.

Among the SMBs that are not interested in using an all-in-one payment solution to make payments in the next three years, the top three reasons are that they believe it complicates payments processes, it’s too complicated to implement into finance operations and it costs too much. Those reasons are cited by 57%, 57% and 55% of SMBs, respectively.

Among the SMBs that are not interested in using an all-in-one payment solution to receive payments in the next three years, the top three reasons are that they believe it complicates payment processes, it’s too complicated to implement into finance operations and it raises concerns about data protection. Those reasons are cited by 58%, 57% and 50% of SMBs, respectively.

A lack of understanding of new technologies’ benefits can often impede their adoption. Still, this does not mean that most SMBs will resist an all-in-one payment platform once they understand how it works.