A review of B2B Payments Roadshow – London, June 2024
In the early days, I didn’t realise that my journey through the payments world would be such an adventure. When I set Vendorcom up in 2003, I set out on what I thought might be a challenging, but fairly direct, trip from A to B through the implementation of Chip & PIN in the UK. Since then, I’ve discovered the almost endless possibilities and unbounded potential as the journey reveals a series of twists and turns, new encounters, forks in the road and crossroads where crucial decisions must be made.
Unless you’re in the dullest corner of the business world, today always brings options, possibilities, and adventure. The truth is, we’ll often find ourselves at a crossroads. This is never more true than in the merchant payments ecosystem. Whether you sit in a bank, a payment network, processor, merchant – or even as a buyer/payer in the ecosystem, your ability to navigate the path ahead is the greatest challenge you will face.
A couple of years ago, I recognised that, whilst consumer buyers get all the attention when it comes to innovation, legislation, regulation and investment, the business buyer type is crucial for many merchant sectors and is deserving of a better deal. Working with TreviPay, one of the leaders in B2B payments processing, I initiated a series of B2B Briefings, Forums and Working Groups in Vendorcom and am learning every day that huge opportunities lie ahead both for the incumbents in B2B payments and those who want to offer their C2B expertise to the business buyer in the merchant domain.
Two months ago, I spoke at a London roadshow organised by TreviPay, and hosted by HSBC, which was a precursor to the aptly named Crossroads Conference, being held in the US October 2-4.
The panel for the London Roadshow was moderated by Allen Bonde, CMO at TreviPay who was joined by Pearlin Tee, Director of Digital Solutions at HSBC; Ed Rice, Director, eCommerce Business Transformation, Planning and Growth at Lenovo; and Özlem Özüner, Commercial Director B2B E-Commerce, at Allianz Trade.
When asked to set the scene, the panel talked about the need to identify clearly where buyers and sellers congregate, connect and interact. They emphasised the need to understand where demand was coming from – and learn from the overhyped ‘trends and innovations’ that have tarnished the C2B fintech-driven bubble. AI was also identified as likely to have a key role but would need to be focused on specific areas like payment routing, risk analysis and cost optimisation.
The panel also highlighted some key areas for innovation. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was seen as an opportunity that extended far beyond the C2B buyer relationship but needed to translate to the C2B interface and rapid decisioning to B2B interactions. Greater flexibility in B2B payments options would be valuable and this could be realised through a greater recognition of the shift from desktop to mobile in the B2B checkout experience.
Allen Bonde from TreviPay focused the panel’s attention on the needs of the merchant – predictability, loyalty, higher order value and payment choice. The key theme that emerged was that it is time to be more B2C about B2B!
As the merchant on the panel, Ed Rice from Lenovo was vocal about the need to stay focused on the core payment offer – simple, secure, cost-effective and recognise that aspects such as enhancing loyalty and personalisation are the ‘cherry on the top’.
One of the very real challenges facing merchants is the fragmentation of the solutions provider community with the customer potentially getting confused about who they are paying. Consolidation and simplification were seen as significant opportunities. As change emerges, however, it is not the role of the merchant to ‘educate’ their customers; it must be an intuitive transaction.
Following the panel, three short presentations explored key aspects of what will bring success in B2B payments in the coming years.
Alongside insightful presentations from Mastercard and Flagship Advisory Partners, I presented my thoughts based on my observations of the leading UK, European and global merchant members of Vendorcom who are homing in on both improving the offer to the already identified business buyer and uncovering the hidden business buyer masquerading as a consumer. I highlighted the benefits of defining the latitude and longitude of the payments ecosystem to enable us to both map and explore the opportunities that lie ahead. I argued that identifying the B2B buyer as a distinct buyer type in the inbound, accounts receivable, payment flow – not just in the accounts payable flow – will be particularly important in bridging the B2B and C2B landscape. I believe most merchant businesses can unlock significant growth potential by paying more attention to their business customers.
James Lee, Director, Account Management, B2B Payments Automation and Embedded Finance at Mastercard emphasised the need to appreciate the core needs of both the buy side and sell side, the roles and interests of the different actors in the transaction and the complexity of the range of processes that apply in B2B payment processing.
Rom Mascetti, Principal, Flagship Advisory Partners brought insights from extensive consulting experience across the payments ecosystem. Rom outlined the core rationale for deploying AI: delivering a frictionless experience for buyers – whether businesses or consumers – and sellers and delivering that experience in a secure and cost-effective manner.
The roadshow event clearly marked B2B as one of those largely undiscovered lands that the payments adventurers have not yet fully explored. Sure, it’s not new; it has been getting along just fine without all the bells and whistles of the C2B territory that the payments tech world has been exploiting – in every sense of the word – for the past 15 years. There are stakeholders who have occupied the territory since the beginning of time – banks, credit institutions, invoicing specialists… but the road between the B2B and C2B territories has now converged at a major interchange and, as the panel discussed in London, it’s time to understand the who, the what, the where of business in the B2B world and learn how to truly partner for the benefit of both the merchant and their business buyer.
There are undoubtedly opportunities to get more ‘C2B’ in how we address B2B and those of us who have ventured in from the C2B payments world have much to offer – but have much to learn too. In future blogs over the next couple of months, as we head into Crossroads, I will explore these and hear from the stakeholders who already occupy this territory and from those who would seek to develop the potential opportunities through partnership to bring innovation, choice, competition and growth to merchants whose business buyers are their core customers.
I’m looking forward to TreviPay Crossroads in Kansas City in October. Just like the London roadshow, this event has a strong line-up of speakers and panelists. It will provide all the pointers to help us navigate the road that lies ahead. Join me if you can.
Check out the event and register today to be a part of this very exciting conference.
Vendorcom helps all merchant payments stakeholders to navigate today’s ecosystem and prepare to confidently explore the uncharted territory that lies ahead. www.vendorcom.com
TreviPay Crossroads, the first global B2B payments conference, will run from 2-4th October at the Loews Kansas City Hotel. https://crossroads.trevipay.com/kansas-city/
