Today In Data: VC For V-Cards, Auto Financing And Omnireadiness

Today in PYMNTS data, the digital food delivery industry is growing every day, firms are using venture capital funding to expand B2B virtual card solutions, mobile apps are helping ease financing issues in auto purchasing and consumers have spoken: Omnichannel readiness features are not all created equal, but free shipping is a winner.

Here are the numbers:

$30 billion | Value of the digital food delivery industry, according to a 2017 study by Morgan Stanley. The industry comprises 6 percent of the market, and more than 90 percent of public restaurant companies covered by Morgan Stanley have embraced it. That could lead market share to leap to 11 percent by 2022.

$4 million | Amount of venture capital (VC) funding obtained by B2B virtual card provider Teampay. The company created a tool using virtual cards (v-cards) for each employee, a solution that enables enhanced spend management to address friction associated with multiple employees using one or a few company cards. The funding round was led by Crosscut Ventures.

80 percent | Percentage of U.S. auto purchases that are only possible with the help of auto loans. Consumers who want to buy a car generally need to finance it these days, and, since private sellers can’t offer them and most buyers need them, a lot of traffic is forced toward dealerships that then act as middlemen. The Blinker app aims to solve the problem by making financing an option in transactions between private buyers and sellers.

52 percent | Portion of consumers who rank free shipping as the most important omnireadiness feature, according to PYMNTS December 2017 issue of the Omni Usage Index. Amazon Prime Shipping is by far the most important perk for the average Amazon member, keeping shoppers fiercely loyal to the platform. In fact, 82 percent of users said they would cancel if free two-day shipping were discontinued, according to research released by behavioral marketing platform SmarterHQ.

37.9 | Average consumer satisfaction score for apparel and accessory merchants on a scale of zero to 100, according to the February 2018 edition of PYMNTS Omni Usage Index. The index surveyed 3,000 merchants as they shopped small- and large-format apparel and accessory stores, asking them how they felt about omnichannel features — seamless purchasing options in-store, computer websites, mobile websites and mobile apps — offered by various retailers. According to the data, 33 percent of consumers had not made an online purchase in the last three months, and only 56 percent of shoppers visiting large-format stores were aware of a retailer’s mobile app offerings.