Adflex Unveils Payment Links To Help Supply Chain Merchants

Adflex has unveiled a new initiative aimed at boosting supply chain merchants’ ability to accept card payments from buyers as eCommerce booms amid the coronavirus crisis.

Patrick Bermingham, CEO of the B2B payments specialist, said in a Monday (Dec. 7) blog post that its new Payment Links service will “enable supply chain merchants to simplify and accelerate payment acceptance from corporate buyers.”

Connected to Adflex’s payment platform, suppliers can “send a payment link via email or SMS,” enabling buyers, in turn, “to settle invoices quickly and securely from any geography, encouraging timely reconciliation and reducing cash flow problems caused by late payments,” Bermingham wrote.

Buyers who follow the link are then “directed to Adflex’s secure, hosted payment page through which they can pay for orders and outstanding invoices by debit, credit or commercial purchasing card,” the Adflex CEO noted.

“Business demand for remote payment options rose quickly over lockdown, as more firms reshaped their operations to enable a dispersed workforce,” Bermingham wrote. “This level of payments efficiency has long been available to B2C eCommerce merchants but due to the more complicated nature of business payments, development and adoption in the B2B arena has lagged. With Payment Links Adflex has redressed the balance.”

The new Payments Links service also lowers the PCI compliance burden for merchants, with the “card entry … passed to the cardholder” while “details can be tokenized,” according to the Adflex CEO.

“Established trading partners” benefit from an even more streamlined compliance process, with Adflex “authorised to securely store Cards on File (CoF).”

“Together these features save time and money for both parties by simplifying the ongoing job of managing their transaction processes,” Bermingham wrote.

In addition, the Payment Links service can be integrated “into a merchant’s existing system using Adflex’s enterprise card payment API,” or, alternatively, “links can be generated through an online payment portal in seconds.”