The B2B payments space continues to spin out new cases on a regular basis, many of which involve x border in some way, shape or form. The shift into B2B e-commerce from the traditional methods (many still paper-based, but e-procurement also involves electronic commerce through EDI) to marketplaces and direct seller sites is expected to grow substantially in the next several years. We pointed this out in a recent report, describing preferences being driven by demographic change and technology advances.
This posting in Payments Source highlights a new service from Payoneer, a 2005 startup unicorn based in NYC that focuses on cross-border solutions. To this point the company’s focus has been on the receiver side of these payments, most particularly targeted towards gig economy workers who want faster and easier access to their payouts. Payoneer is now adding what seems to be a bit of a nuanced feature that allows e-commerce sellers to get paid directly through a receiver account, in effect expanding their reach beyond marketplace aggregators,
‘The payments are made from one Payoneer account to another and the receiver obtains a debit card to use as needed to make payments, get money from an ATM or keep the money in a Payoneer account in U.S. dollars to withdraw to a local bank in local currency, McNicoll added…..Payoneer’s entry into B2B payments also signals most payments technology companies continue to expand services to stay competitive.’
The piece goes on to discuss the rapid changes occurring in cross-border, with many new entrants in just the past several years, each targeting certain niches. These entrants of course include the major 4-party card networks, who have push to card and account products and global reach. Cross border also has new network models based on distributed ledger, which we have also chronicled. It’s certainly not boring B2B stuff any more.
‘For its part, Payoneer has known where this is all headed. Two years ago, the company worked with UPS Capital to power its online B2B payments service for delivery of transactions licensed by escrow in minutes — a process that could normally take up to two weeks to complete through a letter of credit….”The new payer product reaches a much wider audience than our traditional e-commerce product, which is mostly about receiving payments from Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces,” Payoneer’s McNicoll said, adding B2B is a natural evolution given Payoneer’s four million users.’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
