While they’re well understood and accepted in the B2C world, there is a lot of hesitancy and misunderstanding around using credit cards for supplier payments in B2B. Compliance concerns and fears over costly fees prevent merchants from offering this payment option, despite the fact that credit cards can be a powerful tool to help smaller clients manage their cash flow – and in turn, repeat their business with you.
SurePayd quiets the noise, letting companies offer credit card payments with ease, confidence and control – potentially unlocking thousands in savings every month.
Here’s how merchants can use SurePayd to make credit card payments work to their benefit:
To Pass On, Or Not?
In Australia it’s common to pass on the credit card fees to the end consumer – shoppers rarely bat an eyelid. But the relationship between supplier and client is more open to negotiation. And the notorious cost of credit card transaction fees chewing away at the bottom line is a major reason why suppliers don’t offer the payment method.
One multinational company was leaking thousands every month covering the credit card fees for its clients – a hefty price to pay. But after implementing the SurePayd accounts receivable platform, the company was able to start recovering 75% of the cost, saving over $24,000 per month in one move.
Plus, by opening up an opportunity for the sales team to recover the credit card fees (rather than simply record them as bank fees) SurePayd transforms any deficit into cost of sales, reducing the compliance burden.
Options & Complete Flexibility
Meeting customer needs is the foundation of every strong customer relationship – offering as many payment options as possible is part of this. SurePayd’s features go beyond this to give you control and flexibility over almost every aspect of the payment.
The fee collection settings can be locked in across the business, or can be tweaked for specific customers or time periods. You can decide to collect all of the fee, some of the fee, or no fee at all, and cater for any fee structure all within the SurePayd platform.
As one company on the platform explains: “We decided not to collect the fee from a strategically important customer. They use credit cards, and we were posed to rescind that offer for them but then COVID-19 hit and they were very much affected [by travel restrictions]. You know, we didn’t want to lump this on top of everything they were already struggling with so we negotiated with them to hold off until travel was back up and running again.”
“It’s good to have the flexibility to react to market situations and conditions, or change your approach for that one big customer around how much you’re going to recover or not.”
What about AMEX?
It’s the most divisive credit card option; customers love AMEX for the benefits, merchants are wary of the high fees.
Before AMEX was enabled on SurePayd we collected lots of feedback. Customers want to be able to accrue the points, they want to be able to offset their travel budget – in fact, it was often referenced as a crucial tool within their business. They are happy to wear the transaction cost to do it.
Our advice to companies is: don’t be afraid of passing on the AMEX fee if it means gaining or retaining a client. The control features not only allow you to change settings for different fee structures and transaction amounts, but also by card type.
If the goal is to be a business who builds strong relationships with all clients, accounts receivable is where the tone is set. Give them the full range of options, and explore the benefits that payment flexibility will earn you both.
