PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Fiserv and Clover Serve Up New Tools for Small Businesses

Fiserv

Fiserv has introduced a new suite of tools for small businesses.

The offering, rolled out via the payments and financial services technology solutions company’s Clover point-of-sale and business management service, was designed with restaurants, retailers and service-based businesses in mind, per a Thursday (Oct. 31) press release.

“Factors like rising costs, labor shortages, and the ongoing quest to attract and retain customers have led to a host of challenges for small businesses,” Fiserv said in the release.

“As technology infiltrates the market to address these issues, small business owners are diverting their attention from their core mission of running their businesses efficiently to managing an assortment of complex systems.”

The new solutions include new hardware, such as Clover Compact and Flex Pocket, that further build on the Clover hardware suite, providing business owners with greater freedom in how they accept payments.

It also offers businesses integrated capabilities, like employee management, payroll, customer loyalty programs and gift cards, built into vertical software to streamline operations, along with financial solutions, like cash discounting, cash advance and instant and same-day transfers.

“Small business owners are engines of growth, creators of jobs, builders of communities, and drivers of innovation,” Fiserv Head of Merchant Solutions Jennifer LaClair said in the release. “An enhanced suite of industry-specific solutions allows small business owners across industries to transform challenges into opportunities and streamline processes so they can focus on what matters most — elevating their business.”

Fiserv last week released third-quarter earnings which, as PYMNTS wrote, showed growth in the company’s core point-of-sale solutions, as well as the long-term potential for embedded finance amid new and recently formed partnerships.

“It is increasingly clear that our position at the intersection of merchant and financial solutions is a strategic advantage … [as] businesses and financial institutions are increasingly interconnected” in terms of moving money, CEO Frank Bisignano said on an earnings call.

Bisignano provided examples of that connectivity and embedded options with the announcement last week that Fiserv is the embedded finance application through which DoorDash will offer its delivery contractors what the CEO termed “a full range of financial services.”

“Within a single app, they can get instant access to wages and rewards, as well as deposit accounts, debit cards, and more. Our real-time ledger capability from Finxact manages the transactions and was the key reason why Fiserv was chosen,” he said, adding that “a Fiserv banking client rounded out the solution as a requisite sponsor.”

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PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024