Amex and UNIPaaS Team on Small Business Invoice Payments

Payment-as-a-Service provider UNIPaaS has launched a small-business-focused invoice payments partnership with American Express.

The collaboration, announced by the London-based UNIPaaS Tuesday (Sept. 3), will let small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), give customers the option of paying invoices with American Express (Amex) Cards through the UNIPaaS platform.

“Customer behavior shows that when payment options like American Express are offered, a significant share of customers choose this payment method, thereby increasing the speed and efficiency of business invoice payments,” the company said in a news release.‍

The release noted that UNIPaaS has processed millions of card transactions along with other payment methods for a range of B2B clients, optimizing its solutions for the needs of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms in industries such as HealthTech, accounting, education and mobility.

“This new partnership enables users of these SaaS platforms to easily accept American Express payments, catering to the many customers that prefer to pay with Amex,” the release added. “This integration simplifies the payment process, improves cash flow management, and enhances overall payment convenience and efficiency.”

PYMNTS spoke last month with Brett Sussman, American Express vice president of marketing, business blueprint and small business, about the challenges SMBs face in integrating digital payment options.

“Small business owners are using a variety of solutions,” he said. They may have seven-plus business apps in their back office, and they’re looking for a simpler and more efficient solution.”

While research by Amex and PYMNTS Intelligence found that a majority of SMBs want to consolidate their financial solutions into a single platform, many still rely on manual, analog-era cash management tools and processes.

“If you look back all the way to 2010, 67% of small business payments were made on cash or check or wire,” Sussman said. “You fast forward to 2022 and that number is 33% of payments. So really, the digitization of payments has taken off. But I would argue there is plenty of progress that still needs to be made,”

In other recent SMB news, PYMNTS wrote last week that these businesses are widely using instant payments across a variety of sectors. And for many SMBs, this has become their chief method of sending payments.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence into four sectors — healthcare, hospitality, restaurant and transportation — shows that at least two-thirds of SMBs now send instant payments. In fact, roughly a quarter of these businesses point to an instant method as their most-used when sending payments.