The Data Point: 82% of SMBs Interested in All-in-One Platforms to Receive Payments

Small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) keep pulling through the pandemic heroically and taking digital steps to improve many aspects of their operation, but the back office remains an issue.

Surveying 500 SMBs in the consumer goods, manufacturing, eCommerce, retail, wholesale trade or transportation, logistics and shipping industries with annual revenues between $500,000 and $50 million, PYMNTS found strong appetite for full-featured payments platforms.

From “The Future of Business Payables Innovation: How New B2B Payment Options Can Transform the SMB Back Office,” a collaboration with Plastiq, PYMNTS looks at three data points showing what’s driving demand for all-in-one payment platforms among SMBs, including their willingness to pay to use such platforms.

• Eighty-two percent of SMBs would be interested in an all-in-one platform to receive payments.

As SMBs look for back-office improvements, getting paid faster ranks high. PYMNTS research found that 72% of executives said “their SMB customers would be highly interested” in an all-in-one platform solution to make B2B payments, while 82% said their SMB customers would be interested in using such a solution to receive payments.

That places speed among the top benefits to automating and platforming payables for SMBs.

• Fifty-two percent of SMBs said managing their cash flows would be easier with an all-in-one platform.

When asking SMB executives and those whose clients are often other SMBs, managing cash flow comes up as a chief reason for choosing platform payments.

Nearly 59% of SMB respondents said the platform approach would save time, but in some ways more importantly, 52% said they believe cash flow management is or would be easier using an all-in-one payments platform that handles accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) duties.

“Executives responsible for AP/AR operations believe that embedded finance solutions would provide much greater value as tools to simplify receivables tracking,” the study stated.

• Sixty-seven percent of SMBs would be willing to pay to use an all-in-one payment solution.

SMB executives perceive the value of a single source for online payment processing whether sending or receiving funds, and a high number are willing to pay for that capability.

Per the study, 67% of SMBs “are ready for an all-in-one payment platform, and most … would be willing to pay to use an all-in-one payment solution if the cost was approximately 1% of the payment amount, and 73% would use such a solution if the rewards, time saved and tax deductions offset the cost of the platform.”

Get the study: How New B2B Payment Options Can Transform the SMB Back Office