As digitization makes business-to-business (B2B) payments more like retail payments, buyer and seller experiences improve. For one thing, digitization brings operational efficiency. The capabilities and toolsets that come with digitization enable businesses to grow without growing their support base.
There’s also the user experience: Harmonizing processes takes the pain out of payments for both parties.
“Let’s focus on running our business, strategic initiatives and growing things, versus chasing fires, payment errors, routing, reconciliation errors, etc.,” Dave Owen, vice president and head of retail solutions at FIS, told PYMNTS.
Morphing Into an Omnichannel Experience
Mobile-first design is also making inroads in the B2B sector. Business buyers may do most of their work on laptops and desktops, but they also want the convenience of shopping on their phones.
“There will be some attributes and feature sets that are a little richer in a business environment than a retail environment, possibly,” Owen said of the B2B mobile experience. “But at the same time, for the end user, it’s starting to be simplified and looking more and more like the same type of transaction.”
This indicates that companies are moving from being merely interested in digitization to investing in it. Historically, companies felt the need wasn’t big enough to justify the investment, but that changed with the pandemic and the need to work from home. Gen Z buyers are also changing the dynamic and adopting new workflows.
“I’m really seeing that companies are starting to fast-forward and invest in this area,” Owen noted.
Continuing to Optimize and Find Efficiencies
Once people take the first step, they want to continue to find efficiencies, Owen said. For example, now that people have logged into their phones with their face or thumb, they’re more interested in using biometric solutions in the payment space.
Payment rails, too, have evolved. Real-time payments, which used to be a premium offering, are becoming table stakes. Next up: crypto capabilities and blockchain technologies.
“I think we’ll continue to see folks getting there, either early adopters continuing to evolve or folks that are just coming to the table, catching up as quickly as they can and then continuing to have work to do to stay on top,” Owen said.
He expects to see a continued shift toward mobile-ready designs, simplified payment processes and real-time payments. There will also be increased interest in fraud mitigation.
“As we become more accessible, more financially inclusive and broader spread, you also open up channels that can be [exploited] by fraudsters,” Owen said. “So, you have to make sure you’re putting controls in place there, and I think you’ll see a lot of investment focus on combating fraud as we move forward in this journey as well.”
