Companies Gain Advantage by Upgrading B2B Payment Options

When companies bring their vendors and partners many of the same benefits that consumers enjoy by streamlining payment processes, they can gain significant advantages over their competitors.

They can do so by upgrading their B2B payment offerings with embedded finance options, as reported in the “Embedded Finance Tracker,” a PYMNTS and Galileo collaboration.

Get the report: Embedded Finance Tracker

The study found that businesses’ payments needs are shifting due to recent trends and that embedded finance can help companies stay on top in a digital-first world.

Offering Cost-Friendly Payment Options

“Digital B2B payments are rapidly transforming businesses in many ways,” Galileo CEO Derek White said in a Feb. 8 statement announcing the company’s partnership with B2B payments firm Global Rewards.

Read more: Global Rewards Taps into FinTech Galileo’s Platform

The pandemic prompted businesses from nearly every vertical to reconsider the way they conduct operations. Many companies looked to digital solutions to innovate their B2B payments, seeking ways to streamline internal processes as well as offer cost-friendly payment options to suppliers and other key business partners.

Amid these developments, embedded finance garnered keen interest. Embedded finance allows businesses to offer sophisticated payment and banking services directly to their customers and suppliers, removing many of the historic frictions associated with B2B payments, especially as these transactions are typically made in real time.

Embedded finance experiences, which enable payments to be integrated into previously nonfinancial processes or platforms, have become increasingly popular on the consumer side. This is happening as digital is swiftly becoming consumers’ preferred channel, as they head online for everything from banking to shopping to telehealth appointments.

PYMNTS’ data shows that the popularity of online and mobile banking is continuing to rise, with 35% of those surveyed stating they make transactions online using mobile apps from their financial institutions (FIs) at least weekly.

Improving Supplier Relationships

Now, consumers’ changing preferences are leading to B2B innovation. Their growing adoption of digital tools is prompting business leaders to reexamine their B2B payment processes and how they can make the jump from manual to virtual methods.

Embedded finance could be key to this B2B innovation. Implementing embedded finance could enable businesses to offer their suppliers streamlined, frictionless access to digital payments without the need to send them to third-party portals or platforms as well as financing or extended warranty options, making the B2B payment process more efficient and less costly for both parties.

Embedded finance is especially attractive for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), given the opportunities for decreased costs, increased liquidity and improved supplier relationships.

As embedded finance solutions become more popular with consumers, B2B demand for these offerings will undoubtedly grow. Finding the right partner can help businesses easily bring embedded finance into their B2B and internal payment processes to stay ahead of the curve.