The pandemic has caused a windfall for online sales, and experts say the trend will stick. The United States eCommerce sector alone rose 39 percent compared to the same period one year ago. Global business-to-business (B2B) payments slipped between January and June, however, and it appears that convenience, or a lack thereof, is the crux of the issue. Businesses, like consumers, want seamless and secure cross-border payment methods. While making these global B2B payments has always been a challenge, working from home has exacerbated these processes’ difficulties.
The August Global B2B Payments Playbook® examines the latest B2B payment developments, including why the increased use of banking as a service (BaaS) is making waves in the B2B space.
Around The Global B2B Payments Landscape
A study of chief financial officers found 79 percent of respondents said the impacts of t
he pandemic have caused them to accelerate their technology transformations. The pandemic, the executives said, made small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) adopt digital services to update their payments ecosystems and improve cash flow. A second survey of North American SMBs by Mastercard revealed 76 percent of those polled said the pandemic pressed them to expand their digital services and 82 percent said they changed how their business receives and sends payments. Brick-and-mortar retailers, which were not as focused on digital channels prior to the pandemic, were forced to adopt digital tools.
Swift, a provider of secure financial messaging services, has introduced a service to allow banks to check a beneficiary’s account prepayment information. The Belgium-based member-owned cooperative said the payment pre-validation service is key to fueling instant and friction-free transactions across the globe. The feature is intended to ensure customers can send payments confidently and securely. While many international payments are seamless, inaccurate recipient data has been identified as one of major re
asons for cross-border payment failure.
The abundance of B2B marketplaces embracing online payments and the migration from paper checks could be why consumers and merchants are getting more comfortable with automated clearing house (ACH) payments. The U.S. financial network transfers money from one bank account to another without using checks, credit cards, wire transfers or cash. While checks are still prevalent in the U.S., the adoption of electronic payment tools are a step in the right direction.
For more on these and other stories, read the Trackers News & Trends section.
Lyft On Driving Satisfaction With Fast Payments For Workers
The gig economy boomed as the pandemic’s impact made gig platforms increasingly attractive to both workers and users in 2020. The gig economy growth brought challenges to light, however, with irregular work schedules and late payments serving as special hardships for gig workers. One of the keys to keeping ridesharing platform Lyft’s gig workforce happy was its movement from weekly payroll to payment upon completion of a shift. In this month’s Feature Story, Kaushik Subramanian, vice president of payments at Lyft, discusses how a survey enabled the company to create products tailored to fit its drivers’ lifestyles and ensure their access to their earnings whenever and wherever they need them.
To get the full story, download the Tracker.
How The Banking-As-A-Service Model Could Change The Future Of B2B Payments
Consumers have enjoyed the benefits of the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) model for years, which a
llows them to access financial services from nonbank entities using application programming interfaces (APIs). A pronounced digital shift in the B2B financial services sector has recently occurred as well, and firms in the space are beginning to seek out swift digital payments and services at the point of need. This month’s Deep Dive examines how the consumer banking world’s adoption of BaaS solutions is beginning to make waves in the B2B space. It also explains why firms must examine the benefits of similarly flexible approaches to making digital payments and leveraging the rich data that often accompanies them.
Read the full Deep Dive in the Tracker.
About The Tracker
The PYMNTS’ Global B2B Payments Playbook, done in collaboration with Worldpay B2B Payments, is an exploration in accelerating the B2B payments space, and how smart digitization is now moving business payments with speed, and at scale.