What is supplier enablement? Common myths, benefits, and how virtual payments work

Supplier enablement is the process of electronically connecting your suppliers to your payment and procurement workflows so you can exchange payments and information more efficiently. For many organizations, supplier enablement is a key part of modernizing accounts payable through virtual payments and automation.

When you first explore it, achieving true supplier enablement can initially seem overwhelming. Beyond ensuring integration of internal processes with those of your suppliers — an effort that may seem complex, time-consuming, and costly — you’ll also need to adapt to evolving workflows. On top of that, thorough training for all key stakeholders, from purchasing to accounts payable, is essential for success.

Electronically connecting a supplier to your company’s supply chain and integrating with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) would have to save both time and money to make it worth your while, and the switch just seems too inconvenient. Right? Not necessarily!

Pioneering virtual payments

Supplier enablement is much simpler and more straightforward than it sounds with the tools WEX developed for large and small businesses. And it is more cost-effective for both you and your suppliers. As leaders in virtual payments technology, WEX knows how to integrate supplier enablement programs across industries and businesses of all types and sizes.

Won’t upfront costs be expensive to adopt virtual payments?

The first worry is that integrating a new way of managing accounts payable will incur high upfront costs. However, since our supplier enablement works with your technology to get your suppliers onboarded, you don’t need new hardware or software; WEX works with what you have.

“We’ve spent the last 20 years growing our network of acceptance, building an extensive supplier engagement program, and creating new ways to maximize virtual card spend,” explains Eric Frankovic, president of corporate payments at WEX.  “Our success is tied directly to yours, and we are committed to helping you grow your supplier-enabled network and maximizing your spending volume.”

Isn’t the process complicated?

With decades of virtual payments experience, WEX has honed its onboarding process into a well-oiled machine. Key to this process is working with customers to identify and target your key suppliers; these may be suppliers with whom you spend the most money. Still, there are other factors to consider such as how central they are to your business or whether they are already accepting virtual payments. So while our process has been robustly tested, those in your organization who have a stake in supplier enablement must be committed to making the process successful.

The WEX virtual payments campaign system

WEX creates a campaign team to work with you on all the stages of supplier enablement. Your dedicated team works with your key stakeholders and with the suppliers you target together.

Opportunity analysis prior to supplier onboarding

WEX aims to match your most important suppliers first. There is a spending analysis that takes place, looking at your spending with your suppliers, what factors are important in that supplier relationship, and any other aspects that make suppliers important to your business goals. From that data, WEX can help you to prioritize the suppliers to target first in the enablement process.

Virtual payments campaign preparation

Each of WEX’s supplier enablement programs has a campaign manager dedicated to guiding you through the onboarding process. After analyzing your priority suppliers, WEX works with you to articulate your buyer strategy and priorities – and then target the agreed suppliers.

Post-campaign and future enrollments to virtual payments

WEX performs all campaign analysis and reports that back to you in order to apply any lessons to future campaigns. WEX stays with you for any future enrollment campaigns – either with new suppliers, or critical suppliers in your business as it evolves – and your suppliers become more vested in virtual payments.

Why would my suppliers bother to adopt virtual payments?

Many suppliers immediately recognize the value of virtual payments. In fact, many enroll on their own because they already understand the benefits of virtual card adoption. Backed by more than 20 years of virtual payments experience and a network of more than 1.5 million suppliers, WEX has the expertise and scale to help suppliers transition with confidence. For those who need additional guidance, WEX follows a structured outreach process to educate suppliers on the benefits and encourage adoption.

Suppliers save time and reduce payment costs

You have cultivated important relationships with your suppliers; the last thing you want is to disrupt a relationship that is working perfectly well. However, with traditional payments, your suppliers have a built-in wait for payment – as well as costs associated with executing that payment. Suppose it’s a check payment: That payment needs to be reconciled with the purchase order, printed, signed, and mailed – not to mention bank fees for processing those checks. This is also the case with ACH payments.

Fraud prevention is enhanced with virtual payments

The opportunities for fraud with both check and ACH payments are much higher than with virtual card payments. Because the virtual card number is generated for one payment and is also only valid in a short time window, the chances of fraud are very low compared to traditional payment options.

Closer business relationships result from virtual payments adoption

Both you and your suppliers benefit from a closer business relationship once you make the switch to virtual payments.  With a smoother ordering and payment process, your mutual business success is part of both your organizations.

Won’t the payments cost more if I adopt virtual payments?

The savings in-house for both you and your suppliers can be significant. The administration of check payments alone can be a massive resource for businesses, large and small. From administering check runs to arranging for those payments to be mailed, there are many manual steps — for you and your suppliers – to the current process. With those manual steps eliminated comes dollars saved.

Additionally, the cost per transaction is much lower with virtual payments than it is with check or ACH payments. In addition to enhanced security measures, a significant benefit of WEX virtual payments and WEX’s supplier enablement program is the rebates that accrue from using WEX’s system. The supplier incurs a discount fee for every transaction.

Should your business invest in supplier enablement?

Supplier enablement is no longer an emerging trend. As more B2B payments move to virtual payment methods and accounts payable automation continues to grow, organizations are looking for ways to improve efficiency, reduce fraud, strengthen supplier relationships, and lower payment costs.

For more than two decades, WEX has helped businesses implement supplier enablement and virtual payments. Whether you’re just getting started or expanding an existing program, supplier enablement can help your organization modernize accounts payable while creating a better payment experience for your suppliers.

For more insights and updates on corporate payments, check out:

• Virtual card rebates
• 2026 payment trends
• Accounts payables: Terms you need to know

Learn more about how WEX payment solutions can be tailored to your business, so you can accelerate and streamline operations while creating lasting growth and success for your organization.

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

Copyright ©2026 WEX Inc. All rights reserved. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.