Quick takes: Things that caught our eye this week

Highlights from this week range from a study on SMB perspectives on integrated payments and embedded finance to a new voice AI productivity tool designed to eliminate keyboards to a free guide to help online retailers prepare for the coming holidays, and changes at Amazon affecting thousands of SMBs.

TSG, PSE study SMB views on integrated payments, embedded finance

TSG, a globally recognized analytics and consulting firm that supports the payments ecosystem, and PSE, a London-based consultancy service that specializes in payments, collaborated on a survey to understand how small to midsize businesses engage with SaaS platforms and what they want in a software and payments offering.

They study, U.S. & European Integrated Payments and Embedded Banking Tools: The SMB Perspective asked a variety of detailed questions about respondents’ attitudes and aspirations related to payments acceptance and embedded finance. It provides the payments community with insight into this critical landscape to make informed decisions about SaaS platform partnerships and offerings, the companies stated in introducing their report.

Among the findings are that 12 percent of SMB respondents have taken an integrated payments offer, 35 percent have received an integrated payments offer and 70 percent are interested in taking an integrated payments offer in the future. Also, illustrating cultural differences, 39 percent of U.S. merchants cited online self-service as a table-stakes method of exchanging information with their PSP when signing up, while only 15 percent of European merchants shared the same experience.

Click here for an excerpt.

Wispr wants you to ditch your keyboard

San Francisco-based tech company Wispr secured $12 million in new funding in conjunction with the launch of Wispr Flow, a new voice AI productivity tool that aims to replace keyboards with voice.

With the goal of reducing time spent in front of a screen and changing the way people communicate, Wispr Flow allows users to speak and see their words come to life— integrating AI commands, auto-edits, is three times faster than typing and supports over 100 languages, the company stated.

The investment was led by Matt Kraning, CTO of Cortex at Palo Alto Networks with participation from existing investors NEA and 8VC, along with Tim Junio (CEO of Expanse) and Alumni Ventures. Wispr’s total funding to date is $26 million 

Onramp offers guide to help merchants prepare for holidays

Onramp Funds, a funding provider for ecommerce businesses, introduced its 2024 Holiday Guide to help online merchants prepare for the holiday rush and ensure they have the necessary financing in place. The free guide offers a strategic timeline from now through December, covering key aspects such as building inventory, marketing strategies and shipping logistics. It includes essential to-do lists and checklists to assist merchants throughout the busy season.

According to Onramp CEO Eric S. Youngstrom, the guide serves as a comprehensive roadmap for ecommerce businesses to succeed during the critical holiday period, which brings both returning and new customers. The guide also emphasizes how holiday sales can set the foundation for success in the upcoming year. Key topics include marketing techniques to drive sales, choosing the right financing options and fulfillment tips to avoid inventory risks such as stockouts and surpluses. A mathematical formula is provided to help merchants calculate the appropriate inventory cushion. Notably, Shopify reported that stockouts cost retailers $350 billion annually, leading to lost revenue and customer attrition. Additionally, the guide highlights important deadlines, such as Amazon FBA sellers needing to submit inventory to Fulfillment Centers by October 19 to be Prime badge-ready by Black Friday. For a free download of Onramp’s 2024 Holiday Guide, visit their website.

Amazon boots small merchants off of Vendor Central

We recently heard from Stephen Gary, president of Acclerazon, a boutique Amazon consulting firm that helps pet businesses with marketing on their Amazon sales pages. What he had to say applies to retail businesses in far more markets than pet businesses. Some of those affected could be in your merchant portfolio.

"Recently Amazon notified thousands of brands using their Vendor Central platform that their vendor accounts will be closed in just two months," Gary wrote. "This was a strategic move by Amazon, to 'restructure' internal resources, effectively cutting off small businesses and brands from this program.

"Moving forward, only enterprise companies will be able to sell on Vendor Central. This is a surprise that is not a surprise, as Amazon has a reputation of making big changes on very tight timelines.

"These businesses are now forced to transition from Vendor Central, where Amazon buys the products upfront and delivers it to customers, to Seller Central, where Amazon is simply the website to buy the product, but the seller takes care of fulfillment and shipping. This is causing a lot of hardship for small sellers."

You could have a role in helping small merchants navigate this disruption, possibly discovering new sales channels and ways they can most effectively integrate payment acceptance, fulfillment and shipping to serve their customers.

Whether you want to upgrade your POS offerings, find a payment gateway partner, bone up on fintech regs or PCI requirements, find an upcoming trade show, read about faster payments, or discover the latest innovations in merchant acquiring, The Green Sheet is the resource for you. Since 1983, we've helped empower and connect payments professionals, starting with the merchant level salespeople who bring tailored payment acceptance and digital commerce tools, along with a host of other business services to merchants across the globe. The Green Sheet Inc. is also a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact information, links and other details may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.