While optimizing B2B payments is often about combating friction at the moment of transaction, the truth is, the B2B payment experience often happens way before any money is ever actually moved.
As more seller organizations embrace the B2B eCommerce model, they're quickly coming to realize that for buyers, the B2B payment experience begins right at the moment of onboarding. Due to the complexities of the B2B buying experience, this means there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong right from the very start.
Markus Hansson, chief product officer at Sweden-based Payer, recently spoke with PYMNTS about how the process of onboarding a new B2B customer must be optimized to ensure that a successful payment occurs — and that customers return. With new digital business models rapidly evolving, sell-side organizations must prioritize a seamless experience for their clients at the very first moment of interaction.
Onboarding Optimization
There are many ways that onboarding a new B2B customer can be a headache for suppliers that sell goods and services online. But onboarding isn't just about obtaining bank account or payment details of a potential buyer.
One of the most challenging components surrounds security, Hansson explained, pointing to the need to actually verify that not only is a potential buyer safe to do business with, but that the representative for that buyer is authorized to make a purchase.
Credit checks are also instrumental to making a sale. Credit scoring a new customer provides visibility into the probability that the buyer will actually pay an invoice upon receipt of goods or services. The credit check is also vital to providing custom payment terms to that client, with B2B sellers in need of solutions that can support shorter or longer payment terms, or prepaid solutions, based on a risk profile.
All of these processes must be as seamless and efficient as possible, because they not only set up a customer for an optimized payment experience, but they also contribute to the overall user experience in a B2B eCommerce setting. In the world of B2B, a positive user experience is essential to promoting repeat and recurring customers, and is one area that Hansson identified as a major strong point for this market.
"One thing that B2B companies are very good at is relations," he said. "That's one thing where B2C selling merchants can learn from B2B selling merchants. They're very good at retention and keeping the customer relationship."
As more B2B sellers dip their toes into the world of eCommerce for the first time, preserving that customer relationship involves a positive user experience from the first moment a potential buyer visits an online shop, all the way through to payment and beyond.
Emerging Business Models
Not all B2B sellers are cautiously stepping into the B2B eCommerce model for the first time. There are indeed more advanced organizations working with Payer, said Hansson, that are leading the way to developing and embracing emerging B2B eCommerce business models.
Some of the models that are gaining traction the fastest include the recurring revenue and subscription models. Traditionally, Hansson offered as an example, a seller might offer up a truck for sale. Increasingly, however, sellers are exploring the option of allowing buyers to rent the truck for only a few hours rather than purchasing it outright.
Those shifts will have a profound impact on the way B2B payments are handled, and will also have a significant influence on the way that B2B merchants onboard new customers for recurring or partial payments.
Looking out even further into the future, Hansson identified other emerging models in the B2B arena in which Internet of Things (IoT) devices and robots automatically pay each other for products and services. Yet Hansson noted that these models are only emerging among the most advanced players in the B2B eCommerce space.
"That's very far ahead from now, since a lot of companies are still having issues with just having an eCommerce side of their operations," he noted.
Indeed, many businesses are simply stepping into the B2B eCommerce market for the first time, and thus will have to think carefully about how a B2B payments strategy works in harmony with other workflows of sales, from customer onboarding and beyond. Adoption will continue to grow as businesses accelerate their digitization journeys — but, as Hansson noted, some businesses may be standing in their own way.
"You need to be prepared throughout the entire organization for this digital transition," he said. "You need to have the sales-driven organization along the way. You need to have the CFO and treasury department on this journey throughout the transition.
"That's one of the major hassles we have seen in this space especially with large corporations, where the organization itself could be blocking part of the transition to digital processes in eCommerce," Hansson added.
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November 19, 2020 at 08:02PM
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