How Virtual Cards, Customer Portals & Automation Will Forever Change B2B Payments

1. Virtual credit cards

Virtual credit cards are single-use credit card numbers that allow you to make online purchases without exposing your actual payment info or identity to hackers. AP teams can assign virtual credit card numbers to a specific purchase – minimizing the risk of fraud. The number expires after the first use.

Virtual credit cards are gaining popularity with consumer and B2B buyers who are concerned about data security. Visa, MasterCard, and AMEX now allow customers to use their cards to make B2B virtual payments. Now is the time to prepare your AR systems to meet customer demand for virtual payments.

2. Online payment portals

B2B payments are moving to the cloud. According to a recent survey, 80 percent of B2B e-commerce retailers accept payments via their websites. Meanwhile, 54 percent of organizations plan to move their payment infrastructure to the cloud within the next year.

Cloud payment portals give customers the convenience to pay at any time and from any device. They are also more secure than storing your payment data on-premises. According to a cloud security report , “on-premise IT infrastructure is more likely to be attacked, more often, and through a broader spectrum of attack vectors than cloud-based infrastructures, countering security concerns about the cloud.”

3. Automation

Finance teams are taking advantage of robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline their processes and reduce their costs. RPA isn’t actual robots – it’s software that automates your routine tasks. You can use RPA to automate your financial close, validate that the customer information on your invoices is accurate, and reconcile transactions in your ERP. Research has shown that RPA can reduce the cost of your finance processes by 50-70 percent.

Despite the fact that the B2B payments landscape is changing rapidly, many wholesale distributors still run their AR departments the same way that they did 20 years ago. They rely on old-school technology, paper checks and manual, error-prone processes.

Sticking with dated processes puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to meeting customer expectations and improving their experience so that you can compete with Amazon.

To learn more about the trends shaping the future of wholesale distribution, grab a copy of our ebook.