Thursday, September 19, 2024
Can you elaborate on the main findings of your latest research on the cross-border B2B payment experience? What business advantages did you uncover for providing a digital, localized, seamless payment experience? Our B2B customers say that solving for their domestic and international receivables helps them build lasting loyalty with their global customer base. So for our latest research, conducted by an independent firm, we wanted to further examine the relationship between B2B organizations – or vendors – and their international business customers.
Our research with 460+ international businesses across three countries each in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa validates our belief that payments are an extension of a company's brand.
What we found is a strong link between good payment experiences and good customer experiences. Organizations are more likely to do business with vendors that make it easy for them to pay their bills.
On the flip side of that, they will actually stop doing business with a company that does not make it easy. Our survey found that 70 percent of companies buying from international vendors have stopped doing business with them due to a cross-border B2B payment experience.
The survey indicates that 94 percent of international payers are eager for innovations in the cross-border payments process. What are some key changes or innovations that these organizations are looking for?
International customers, in particular, are looking for vendors that provide options to pay in local currency using preferred payment methods. Eighty-nine percent said they are more likely to do business with a company that supports local payment methods, and 87 percent of them are more likely to do business with a company that supports payment in the corresponding local currency.
Providing them with an easy way to pay makes their work easier – and of course, the reverse is true. Seventy-two percent said time is wasted because of difficulty paying vendors, which impacts internal relationships, and even holds back their own company's growth.
You mentioned that payments are an extension of a company's brand. Can you explain how a seamless payment experience contributes to building customer loyalty and drives business growth?
The numbers I talked about above really speak volumes: customers will do business with someone else if you make it too difficult to pay. They face very clear and addressable problems in making payments, including managing FX, getting refunds, fee transparency and accessing customer support in their local language and time zone.
Your research highlights several pain points in cross-border payments, such as FX market complexity and security concerns. How can these challenges be addressed?
When it comes to cross-border payments, hidden bank fees and volatile exchange rates present significant challenges to businesses and their customers. Taking the guesswork out of that process and making the transaction feel as close to a domestic transaction as possible is a good way to start.
However, you do not want to take on the complexity involved in processing payments – for example, trying to manage different partners and banking relationships in every country you decide to grow into, various legal, regulatory and industry standards that ensure high security, and more.
With 70 percent of companies having stopped doing business with international vendors due to poor payment experiences, what best practices do you recommend to vendors to create better outcomes?
It's important to consider the payment experience as part of the overall customer experience, as it can be one of the first touch-points customers have with a vendor. We found through our research that payment ease is a loyalty driver and a key component for ensuring customer satisfaction.
For this reason, vendors should aim to make it as easy as possible for their customers to pay and offer a variety of flexible payment options, whether that's offering the option to pay fully online, the option to pay in their local currency, full visibility into fees and payment tracking, or a secure transaction experience.
What role does security play in cross-border payments, and how can security be enhanced to protect against fraud and other risks?
According to our survey, one of the biggest concerns for customers is the issue of security. In fact, 88 percent of international customers worry about security and fraud when making a cross-border payment, and 55 percent say better security would help them meet business challenges when it comes to making payments. This highlights the need for organizations to choose a vendor that upholds the highest levels of security and compliance standards.
How does integration with major ERP systems benefit businesses in terms of payment process digitization and automation?
The ERP system is the heart of the business, pumping data through it to integrate and automate processes and present trusted information to the people who make it run. Finance team members are power users and stewards of the systems, priming and pushing them for ever higher levels of efficiency, accuracy and business insights.
The accounts receivable and payments functionality ERP systems provide is mission-critical, but from some of our research, we've learned that the ERPs can't do everything finance teams need for cross-border payments. Due to this, finance teams often turn to vendors to augment their capabilities with payments and software platforms.
Some of the benefits of integration payments and software systems with ERPs can be payment reconciliation and invoicing in local currencies, reducing DSO, local language invoicing, local payment support, and managing refunds and chargebacks.
Looking ahead, what are Flywire's plans for further innovating and improving the cross-border B2B payment landscape?
At Flywire, our focus is to continue to innovate to meet our clients' demands, going beyond establishing excellence in cross-border payments and adding a focus in improving invoicing and domestic payments processes as well. Furthermore, we will continue to extend our services to support sub-industries in B2B like insurance, manufacturing, SaaS and more, enhancing the payments experience in industries that have a historically challenging process. 
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