65% of Marketplaces Without Payment Capabilities Plan to Add Them

Companies across industries are adopting or enhancing embedded payments as a way to improve the customer experience and create new sources of revenue.

Among the marketplaces and independent software vendors (ISVs) that don’t currently offer payment capabilities, 65% plan to add embedded financial products for payment acceptance within the next 12 months, according to “Platform Business Survey: The Rise of Embedded Payments,” a PYMNTS and Carat from Fiserv collaboration.

In addition, among the marketplaces and ISVs that already offer payment capabilities, three-quarters plan to enhance their embedded financial products within the next year, the report found.

Platforms are adding these solutions because consumers expect payments to be seamlessly integrated into the user experience, Luke Latham, general manager of Australia and New Zealand at Airwallex, told PYMNTS in an interview posted Dec. 1.

“Like all businesses, they want financial services and products that are built into their regular user experience,” Latham said. “They want to be able to create the interconnected and frictionless customer journeys.”

Embedded finance has taken root and accelerated since the pandemic, with consumers growing increasingly adept at operating digital wallets and a variety of other experiences like buy now, pay later (BNPL) and buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), Tom Randklev, global head of product at CellPoint Digital, told PYMNTS during the same panel discussion.

“I think that what you’re really catching is a lot of momentum in this particular space, but it’s because the consumer really wants to be dealt with anytime, anywhere that they want to be able to transact,” Randklev said. “And then, in turn, I think that you’re seeing a lot of success from the [small- to medium-sized business (SMB)] market, and even the larger businesses, being able to satisfy their customers and present this as innovation.”

Digital, embedded transactions are transforming industries as diverse as rental markets and logistics, which have traditionally been offline and are now pivoting toward omnichannel transactions, Hersh Mansukhani, vice president of platforms and embedded payments at Fiserv, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in October.

“You don’t have to become a payments company to offer payments as a product,” Mansukhani said.