Today in B2B: Splitit Broadens BNPL Partnership with BlueSnap; Customization Will Fuel Online Marketplaces

Today in B2B payments, almost two-thirds of B2B companies offer fully digital eCommerce, while virtual cards help with financial inclusion and expense management. Plus, Finexio partners with Banc of California to help middle-market and enterprise customers.

65% of B2B Companies Offer Fully Digital eCommerce Capabilities

Sixty-five percent of B2B companies now offer eCommerce sales capabilities that let customers pay online, up from 53% a year ago, according to “The Treasurer’s Guide to AR Payment Optimization,” a PYMNTS and CheckAlt collaboration.

Companies are coming to expect a seamless, digital-first payment experience regardless of use case, including from their distributors. At the same time, many wholesale distributors still rely on checks — paper or otherwise — to conduct most of their B2B payments. Although paper check use has been steadily declining for the last few years, it still represents a key method many companies use to send and receive their money.

BNPL Firm Splitit Expands Partnership With B2B Payments Platform BlueSnap

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Splitit has announced it is expanding its partnership with payment orchestration platform BlueSnap, making BlueSnap Splitit’s preferred processing partner to provide new visibility and distribution for Splitit through BlueSnap’s network of mid-market and enterprise customers.

BlueSnap’s gateway and payment processing will support the processing of Splitit installment payments in each country and region where BlueSnap operates, according to a news release. BlueSnap has also become Splitit’s preferred partner for processing installments for all joint and direct merchants.

AP Platform Finexio Teams up With Banc of California

Accounts payable (AP) Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform Finexio announced that it has formed a partnership with California business bank Banc of California that will see the bank offer its Banc PremierePay product — which is powered by Finexio — to help its middle-market and enterprise customers reduce AP costs and inefficiencies.

Finexio’s platform is embedded into the bank’s treasury management and commercial lending offerings, expanding the benefits and service capabilities offered to clients in sectors such as hospitality, healthcare, legal, entertainment, manufacturing and construction.

The partnership comes months after Banc of California said it was considering reinvesting in Finexio after contributing $1 million to the company’s $8 million growth round in August 2021.

Customization Is the Future and the Growth Driver for Online Marketplaces

Marketplaces have proven their value over and over again by bringing consumers a wider variety of offers at better prices than they can find almost anywhere else.  In the next stage of development, they will build on those capabilities by adding customization that will present each customer with the best possible offer for them.

“Tomorrow, I think, what the consumer on the marketplace will want is, ‘Show me what matters to me. Show me what I am more likely to be interested in,’” Eric Heurtaux, chief financial officer at enterprise marketplace subscription-as-a-service platform Mirakl, told PYMNTS. Mirakl expanded its suite of solutions to include customization by acquiring eCommerce personalization vendor Target2Sell in April.

In addition to pursuing that next stage of development, another challenge for marketplaces to navigate arises when they are facilitating business-to-business transactions. In these cases, they need to ensure there’s no channel conflict between sellers on the marketplace and brands’ own networks.

Virtual Cards Aid Expense Management, Financial Inclusion

From travel and insurance expenses to software subscriptions and supplier payments, commercial virtual card use has boomed in recent years. The global value of transactions is expected to hit close to $7 trillion by 2026, up from about $2 trillion in 2021, according to data from Visa.

Consumers are also increasingly using virtual cards, whether it’s to solve traditional pain points around cross-border payments or to enable instant and smooth access to credit or buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions.

For emerging markets like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), virtual cards offer huge opportunities to drive greater financial inclusion in developing regions.