Menu
Grow My Business
B2B Payments Platforms: How to Choose the Best Option for Your Marketplace, App, or Ecosystem
If you’re a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, mobile application, or ecosystem looking for a B2B payments platform to complement your business, there are several options out there, each with its pros and cons. So how do you know which one is right for you? We dive deep into specifics below, but first, let’s take a look at B2B payments and the current state of the business payments space.
An Overview of B2B Payments
The global B2B ecommerce market is growing rapidly, and is expected to reach $3 trillion by 2027. This growth has created new opportunities for businesses to connect buyers and sellers through their preferred channels. Having financial services built-in to online transactions is business as usual for B2C – think about the experience on websites like Amazon and eBay. Now, it’s becoming the same way for the B2B sector as expectations around the online purchasing experience shift. Embedded payment options are now becoming an expected part of the online B2B experience, even for B2B purchases that have traditionally been handled offline.
What are B2B payments?
B2B payments are any type of payment that is made from one business to another for goods or services rendered. B2B payments can be a one-time occurrence, or an ongoing, regular payment depending on the agreement between buyer and seller. B2B payments tend to be more complex than B2C payments, as they require more time, approval, and processing that can stretch the payment process out for weeks or even months. Payment delays and late payments are unfortunately common.
Types of B2B payments
Businesses have typically used a handful of different payment types in the past, including: check payments, automated clearing house or ACH, business credit cards, wire transfer, or even cash payments. However, with more and more B2B transactions making the move online, payment platforms have been popping up to make facilitating payments easy, and increasing the number of electronic payments.
What is a B2B payments platform?
A B2B payments platform is any platform that allows for the facilitation of payments between two businesses. These types of platforms help enable companies who are not financial institutions to include financial services or financial products in their digital products. It makes buying faster and easier from a customer experience standpoint, while providing opportunities for businesses to streamline backend processes and generate more revenue.
Benefits of Using a B2B Payments Platform
As buyers and suppliers continue to expect the same speed and ease of digital payments in their B2B transactions as they get with B2C purchases in their personal lives, implementing B2B payment services helps streamline the buying process and increase sales. Other benefits of partnering with a B2B payment provider include:
Improve cash flow
Buyers want to pay later and suppliers want to get paid now. This means many B2B marketplaces, apps, and ecosystems pay suppliers quickly to incentivize them to come back while extending credit to buyers. The result? More risk and costs with less cash available for platforms. And balance sheets get weighed down with debt financing, making them less attractive to investors looking for healthy cash flow predictability.
By embedding a B2B payments platform, buyers and sellers can get what they want, while enabling platforms to avoid the cumbersome requirements of becoming a fintech, and still reaping the benefits of payments within their experience. Additionally, B2B payment companies provide automated reporting that lets you easily see at a glance monies coming into and going out of your business.
Simplify bookkeeping and taxes
A B2B payments platform can help simplify your bookkeeping and taxes by keeping track of your cash inflows and outflows in one spot. Because many B2B payment processors have accounting integrations with popular software such as QuickBooks, it’s easy to stay on top of your bookkeeping while cutting down on manual processes. It also helps reduce errors when making manual inputs for payments such as paper checks.
Save time and resources
By adopting a B2B payments solution, you can save time not just for your business, but also for your customers as well. You don’t have to spend precious time chasing down payments or reconciling payments. You’re also saving money – by not having to process checks or credit card payments with each transaction. Buyers and sellers can handle their entire transaction in one place.
Increase security
Another benefit of adopting a B2B payments platform is that you’re increasing the security of your marketplace, app, or ecosystem. Although no digital payment system is completely immune to security threats, they have a team of data experts and engineers working to keep your information (and your customers’) safe from hackers. There’s also a much clearer trail with digital transactions than traditional payments should the unexpected happen. Additionally, there’s less risk and financial burden when partnering with an embedded finance company, as there’s no need for MAEs to do their own underwriting – the fintech takes care of those details using the platforms’ data. Offering secure payments is just one more way to increase trust in your brand.
Keep organization lean
With an embedded finance partner, there’s no need to hire and develop systems for multiple areas of expertise – like the underlying technology required, regulatory issues, and finance itself. Your partner takes care of the heavy lifting, so you can keep your organization lean and focused on the core business.
Customized experience with an experienced team
Embedded B2B payments platforms have already figured out the workflows to make the integration of the payment experience smooth and easy for MAEs (and can often customize them) so that it will serve the needs of both buyers and suppliers.
What to Look for in a B2B Payments Platform
In order to select the right B2B payment processing platform for your company, consider these key features:
Technology
When partnering with a B2B payments platform, you want to ensure they have the payment infrastructure in place to handle your business. Is there a process in place when it comes to know your customer (KYC) vetting, fraud prevention, and available tech expertise in case of any issues?
Scalability
You ultimately want to grow your business to serve more customers, and any partners you bring on board should be able to meet those growth demands with you. You should be questioning any potential B2B payments platform about whether they have the necessary staff and infrastructure in place to grow with your business as you scale.
Values
Getting involved in any relationship – including business – entails ensuring both parties have similar values. Those that see the most success take a partnership approach – working with you every step of the way, from the discovery call and onboarding process, right through to ensuring a seamless payment process.
Experience in your specific vertical
Many business owners want to know that a B2B payments platform has experience in their specific vertical or a related vertical – whether that’s energy or transportation and logistics, among others. They also want to know that an embedded partner has experience working with large buyers and their workflows, different types of platforms, and their technology. This helps streamline the integration process.
Enough capital
Apps, ecosystems, and marketplaces should ensure that any B2B payments platform they’re looking to partner with has access to the capital required to meet their needs. They should also ask about whether or not there are any minimum or maximum funding amounts – you don’t want to get caught trying to manage a million-dollar invoice yourself when you’d expected your partner’s capital to cover it. Additionally, you should discuss the source of capital, and whether (and when) you’d like to use your own.
Ease of integration
Finally, when looking for a B2B payments solution, ease of integration is often top of mind. Many platforms want a solution that works with their API and other infrastructure already in place. You want the integration process to be as seamless as possible, so that all sides of the payment transaction have access to the terms and conditions they want. Ideally, a partner should be able to customize a workflow based on your API.
The FundThrough Approach
Embedded instant invoice payments get invoices paid in days to unlock cash flow for you and your suppliers while allowing buyers to pay when they want. You can give suppliers fast payments and buyers flexible terms inside your platform with embedded invoice funding by FundThrough.
As the largest AI-powered invoice funding fintech in North America, FundThrough has established infrastructure, workflows, underwriting, and data, as well as experience across industries simplifying complex B2B payment methods typically done offline. With fast, flexible payments, you’ll be able to drive more volume, stickiness, and ultimately growth for your platform.
Benefits
- Get invoices paid in days
- Buyers pay on preferred terms
- Reduce risk; we can use your data to underwrite for you
- Customizable for large buyer workflows and different types of data
- Use your capital or ours
- Increase stickiness and transactions to grow
- Gather data insights for platform improvements and growth opportunities
- Collect a revenue share of all transactions
Embedding a payment solution with FundThrough saves 30 to 45 days of waiting to get paid on average, and gets you and your suppliers paid 97 percent faster.
Embed an easy way to get paid with 3 simple steps
1. Choose funding.
AI technology creates customized funding options for the client to choose from.
2. Provide information.
Clients give us basic information to verify their identity, business and the invoice.
3. Confirm funding.
We get to work and communicate the next steps. Upon approval, clients can receive next-day payment.
Whether it’s a vertical marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers online or an invoicing platform solving challenges facing a particular industry, becoming a leader means getting to market fast – and integrating a B2B payments platform will be an expected part of the experience. FundThrough is here to help, and has plenty of experience working with large buyers across many different industries to simplify complex B2B payment processes typically done offline. We level the playing field by paying invoices ahead of net terms, in days – not months. We also give platforms revenue share to further fuel their growth.
Interested in Embedding FundThrough?
FundThrough’s invoice financing solution can be embedded into platforms of all kinds. While payments are causing pain for many marketplaces, portals, and apps, embedding instant invoice payments offers a solution, while adding more value for buyers, suppliers, and platforms alike. Learn more about our approach to embedded invoice financing.