What digital payment trends are in store for 2024?

The digitization of payments has undergone tremendous change since 2020. Are you ready for what’s in store in 2024? We invited a handful of our payments experts to share what trends and changes they’re expecting to see in payments in 2024. 

Increase payment acceptance

Depending on the size of your business, improving your payment acceptance rate by as little as a single percentage point can have a dramatic impact on your company finances. While it’s harder to quantify from a B2B standpoint, 36% of consumers said in a recent survey that digital payment acceptance is a top factor in their purchasing choices. Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to improve your payment acceptance rates, including by: 

• Providing more flexible payment options (more on that below)
• Implementing more fraud protection
• Simplifying the consumer experience

“It can get really nuanced within the corporate payments space, in terms of who is accepting at what scale,” said Macaire O’Brien, product portfolio manager at WEX. “Our ability to work with a client to find opportunities to gain acceptance can be a big boost to their bottom line.”

Expand payment options

Somewhat related is the ability to offer flexible payment options and the ability to easily manage what suppliers get what type of payment. For many in 2024, that could be offering and driving supplier acceptance of virtual cards as a way to reduce costs and fraud. 

Over half of chief financial officers (CFOs) say they are using ePayables with virtual cards more frequently due to digitization, according to a recent study.

“In 2024, making it easier to pre-set these suppliers to be paid via ACH, these suppliers to be paid via check, etc., will be huge,” said Heather Andrews, vice president of corporate payments account development and payment delivery at WEX. “And there’s big value in adding virtual cards and feeding into that. Much less fraud. More streamlined. They can do bill-by-bill reconciliation rather than having one big bill to reconcile, so you don’t have to unravel everything when something needs to be corrected.”

Analyze and forecast more effectively

Finally, with more connected systems and APIs helping to bring back-end payments systems closer than they’ve ever been, payments teams are focused on how they can lean into data and analytics to more effectively track spend in 2024 and forecast for the future. 

Nearly half of all CFOs surveyed by PwC said building predictive models and scenario analyses is their top priority, as these roles try to navigate a world with ever-changing interest rates, inflation rates, and employee retention rates. 

“CFOs are always looking for ways to bring more predictability to an unpredictable environment,” said Jagtar Narula, CFO and top financial executive at WEX. “Technology, AI, and integrations are helping us do just that, so it’s vital that we be on the cutting edge.”

“The availability of API and data is really important to those in the payments industry right now,” O’Brien added. “The power of data is becoming more and more important to CFOs and finance directors. What do they need to help them plan from a credit standpoint or available funds standpoint or rebates? Anything that individuals in these roles care about.”

Automate and integrate

Businesses and industries have been digitally transforming themselves for decades, but much of that work was accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we’re seeing those in the payments industry in a full sprint to automate hands-on processes and connect disconnected payment software through APIs and integration to create a back-end experience that:

• Saves employees time so they can focus on more analytical tasks.
• Reduces fraud through a more seamless experience.
• Enhances efficiency with cleaner, consistent data.
• Creates more payment transparency to optimize forecasting. 

“Automation and digital transformation are key,” said Narula, pointing to a recent Deloitte study that said 53% of all CFOs plan to accelerate digital transformation. 

Integrating systems and building efficient processes provide an opportunity for business leaders. In a recent WEX survey of 700+ business leaders, on average, they estimated annual losses of $2.1 million due to inefficient processes. 

“Those who have APIs and webstreams with our applications and other applications are able to easily streamline and reconcile payments,” Andrews added. “That makes it really easy to manage an enormous number of payments. The more they can do that electronically, the better.”

Extend cash flow through rebates

Increasingly, CFOs and finance directors are seeing the opportunity to not only cut costs in the way they pay suppliers and manage payments, but also to create an additional revenue stream in the form of rebates. Suppliers pay interchange fees for the convenience of accepting card payments. With virtual cards, that means the buyer gets a cut of that interchange fee in the form of a rebate, which will help turn your payments cost center into a revenue-generating opportunity.

“There’s a revenue play when accounts payable teams use virtual cards,” said Molly Steele, client relationship manager at WEX. 

“In 2024, it’s all about expanding rebates and incentives through the use of virtual cards,” said Bryan Greer, senior director of business development for corporate payments at WEX, adding that virtual cards are also a great way to reduce fraud. 

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The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal or tax advice. For legal or tax advice, you should consult your own legal counsel, tax and investment advisers.