Three Ongoing Considerations in Corporate Payments

From the broadening of B2B ecommerce, to the rise of mobile payments, to the impact that millennials have on technology in payments, the landscape is constantly shifting.

In this, we would like to highlight some of the top considerations in the corporate payments industry that should be on the radar for businesses around the world.

The Internet of Things Gives Rise to the Commerce of Things

Smart homes, smart cities, smart watches, and a $9 trillion marketplace that’s there for the taking. The “Internet of Things (IOT)” has been a hot topic for the last few years, and with 212 billion connected things expected by 2020 (IDC), this growth will transform the B2B world.

From vending machines that can order for themselves to machines that can proactively contact service before something goes wrong. From easing the check-in process and room entry to the simplification of in-person payments, the internet of things, and in turn, the commerce of things will become even a bigger conversation piece among corporate payments, travel, and more.

For more information on the rise of the Internet of Things and the related rise of the Commerce of Things, see the article featured in the Yale Economic Review, “The Internet of Things will Revolutionize the Payments Industry.”

B2B Will Continue to Adopt B2C Best Practices

From healthcare to travel to corporate payments, transactions are more mobile, more internet based, and more consumer-focused. The technology is there, and companies are making the move to simplify the path to purchase—creating an omnichannel B2B experience that allows decision makers to start online and move offline if needed, or complete a transaction completely online, or operate completely in-person or over the phone.

For more information, see recent articles on Corporate Payments Insights, B2C Tech Trends Energize the B2B Market, and Changing the Game: The B2B Ecommerce Manifesto.

Virtual Cards Will Continue to Grow Across Industries and Countries

In both emerging and established markets, more and more transactions are crossing borders. Widely established in the travel industry, the continued virtualization and technological drive will create more use cases for virtual cards in healthcare, fleet management, insurance, education, and media.

An article featured on PaymentsSource disclosed the semiannual 2014 Purchasing Card Benchmark Survey highlighting how important virtual cards/electronic accounts payable (EAP) are, and the increasing amount of company use:

“Average monthly EAP spending of surveyed companies reached $1.9 million in 2013, more than two-and-a-half times the average monthly spend of $747,522 just a few years earlier. Among EAP-using organizations, EAP spending now accounts for 55% of all card purchases, up from just 26 percent in 2009.”

For more information, read Virtual Cards Can Revolutionize Corporate Spending on Payments Source, the PYMNTS.com Interview with WEX’s Jim Pratt, and a recent Corporate Payments Insights article on The Future of Accounts Payable Goes Beyond Efficiency.