As things stand, B2B payments are a buyers market. That is, with all the current B2B payment options available the buyer is the one who benefits – the merchant must wait from days to weeks for a payment to arrive in their account while the buyer enjoys more time with the cash in theirs. It’s therefore no surprise that less than half of corporate buyers are interested in instant payments – which further explains why disruption has been so much slower compared to what’s gone on in the B2C and peer-to-peer (P2P) sectors.
But things have started to change. With P2P payment tech progressing in leaps and bounds over the last few years – and with a massive pressure on fintech to innovate fast to meet the new needs (pandemic-born) of SMEs, the bar has been set. B2B payments should be like P2P payments: instant, real-time, global, ubiquitous, safe and, of course ideally, free.
What’s the current situation? B2B credit card payments still take days (not even hours, but days!) to clear, same with SEPA payments. Traditional B2B payments are burdened by laborious processes that rely on manual systems that belong to a time before digital signatures. These include (with thanks to 2Checkout):
- Instant credit granted to the customer after they undergo a financial evaluation.
- Trade credit that is equal to goods or services.
- Cash on delivery, where the customer pays cash for goods or services to seller upon delivery.
- Checks printed on paper and mailed to merchant.
- Wire transfer, where money is transferred from one bank account to another, usually through a third-party facilitator.
- ACH transfer from one bank account to another.
- Purchase order placed by buyer, followed by invoice delivery, and payment collection.
- Credit card payment made using a personal or company credit card.
And all of these things take T.I.M.E. What do small businesses, especially, desperately need? The ability to make and take payments effortlessly, instantly in a system that is updated in realtime and feels just like using a (really smart) personal bank account. This knowledge is what drives us.
With wamo contactless B2B payments will “work just like peer-to-peer payments. Just as simple. Just as disruptive. Like it should be.” our CEO, Yanki Onen.
With wamo contactless, businesses can make B2B payments instantly, safely and for free. All that’s required is that both parties have a wamo contactless account and once they do all that’s needed is the beneficiaries details in order to make instant payments directly into a bank account or a QR code either sent or shown to the other party which makes an instant payment on scanning. That. Is. It. No waiting, no manual processes. No sleepless nights wondering what that space is in the ether that mysteriously holds money and charges you for the pleasure until such a time as it is ready to descend into your account.
