2020 was a defining year for economies and businesses worldwide. The sudden onset of a global pandemic forced industries to pivot from physical to digital workplaces. Demand for touchless and virtual commerce exposed vulnerabilities and opportunities across the payments landscape.
The payments ecosystem played a pivotal role in deploying advanced B2C and B2B commerce technologies as the gap between the two sectors narrowed. With continuing demand for next-gen B2B payment solutions, business owners must meet customer expectations for instant access to financial services and simple, fast, and easy payments in 2021 and beyond.
Accelerated Shift to Digital and Contactless Payment Models
The pandemic marked a tipping point in the evolution to a cashless society, as individuals and businesses adapted to sending and receiving money through credit cards, contactless portals, and mobile devices. Digital currencies, which had steadily gained ground as financial brands contemplated creating their own cryptocurrencies, became mainstream.
Within this climate, merchants found it necessary to expand in-store, mobile, and online payment options to enable customers to transact in their preferred payment methods and currencies. Touchless options included digital currency platforms and contactless methods that support waving and tapping payment cards and mobile and digital wallets at the point of sale.
Increased Demand for Frictionless Payments
In the digital age, customers expect a streamlined payment experience with fewer steps needed at checkout. Next-generation payment solutions offer convenient checkout options, including:
- Mobile payments
- One-click payments
- Recurring payments for subscriptions
- Contactless cards
- Digital wallets within a unified, integrated technology suite.
Merchants can improve customer retention and settlement speed with secure, reliable solutions such as same-day ACH payments.
Business owners can reduce shopping cart abandonment rates by implementing available payment options, tools, and resources, including:
- Buy Now Pay Later services
- Banking as a Service (BaaS)
- Seamless experiences through APIs, IoT, open banking, and omnichannel platforms
Large Focus on Cloud-Based Payment Technology
As businesses become more adept at digital technologies, cloud technology provides seamless integration via third-party portals. Cloud-based service providers include payment gateways, digital wallets, online fund transfer (ACH), and online payments. In addition to providing higher levels of security, flexibility, automation, and accelerated cash flow, cloud-based solutions can improve operational efficiencies and help to mitigate late payments.
By storing and managing data on remote servers rather than locally, cloud technology enhances transparency by providing users with a secure, single-access view across an enterprise. Advanced capabilities such as cloud computing, e-invoicing, and automation facilitate real-time security monitoring and single-click payments.
Adoption of Real-Time Payments
As merchants strive to meet customer demands, they leverage real-time payments (RTP) to send and receive money in seconds. Introduced by the Automated Clearing House in 2017, RTP is easy to integrate and available 24/7. RTP can help lower the costs of domestic and cross-border payments while increasing revenue opportunities. Businesses have found data-rich RTP transactions useful for monitoring fraud, risk management, information security, and operations.
RTP improves the customer experience by enabling individual transactions to carry more data while being securely transmitted and authorized. ‘Push’ transactions simplify reconciliation, record keeping, and money management for participating organizations while reducing the risk of fraud.
Reinvent to Stay Relevant and Competitive
The global pandemic unleashed a technology revolution, permanently altering the payments landscape. Several payment methods made their way from B2C to B2B commerce:
- Contactless payments
- Mobile apps
- Banking as a Service
- Cloud-based subscription services
- Buy Now, Extended Repayments, and Pay Later options at checkout
B2B businesses must reinvent themselves to stay relevant and competitive. OmniFund, a trusted software provider, can help merchants update infrastructures with tools and support to grow. OmniFund expertise, solutions, and Payments as a Platform® can ease the transition to digital commerce by creating a seamless experience for merchants and their customers while minimizing overhead and risk.
Contact OmniFund
The payments industry is always changing, but OmniFund’s mission has remained the same for more than 20 years. As your trusted partner, we provide tools, expertise, and continuous innovation. Solve complex problems and be ready for tomorrow with OmniFund’s secure, simple, scalable processing technology. Discover the OmniFund difference today.
