Streamlining digital payments for wholesale and B2B commerce
Brands are investing in streamlining their wholesale and B2B ecommerce processes. Solutions like Elastic Suite help these brands achieve a more collaborative and efficient profitable sales process and build better working relationships with their retail partners. By streamlining marketing, sales, accounting and customer service into one end-to-end solution, brands are able to focus on the retailer experience. This is shift in focus is driving the change in B2B commerce from transactional to transformational.
Achieving truly streamlined commerce means embracing a holistic approach that meets the needs of both buyers and sellers. Adding integrated online payments is an important facet of streamlining wholesale commerce.
“We needed a single platform that could handle our robust pricing structure and allow for multiple incoming order types from our retail partners. Adding an integrated payment portal to our wholesale purchasing process created a much more efficient, self-service option for our buyers.”
Simms Fishing Products, a leading global manufacturer of fishing equipment, accessories and apparel, is at the forefront of streamlining wholesale commerce for both their sales reps and retail partners. To better serve their diverse network of independent fly fishing shops, sporting goods stores and online retailers, the brand decided to reinvigorate their B2B sales process with digital merchandising and integrated online payment technologies.
Transitioning from paper-based to digital payments is becoming increasingly important to businesses of all sizes. Although some barriers remain, 90% of companies are committed to converting to digital B2B payments with 32% already having made the transition with a majority of their payments. 79% of businesses say the largest barrier to using digital payments is the lack of customer or vendor adoption.
Benefits of streamlining payments for wholesale buyers & sellers
Benefits for Brands:
efficiency & cash flow
When transitioning to digital payments, brands and manufacturers will find benefits similar to their retail partners. A study from the American Financial Professionals research reveals that the top five benefits for suppliers are:
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- Straight-through processing
- Cost savings
- Improved cash forecasting
- Speed to settlement
- Improved buyer relations
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Economic benefits for brands
Average fewer business days that brands collect payment for pre-season orders when using online payment portal.
Strategic benefits for brands
Increased sales
Brands see an increase in sales volume and frequency from buyers that prefer digital payments.
Customer acquisition
Attract and retain customers who require digital payments as part of their purchase processes.
Back-office efficiency
Accounting departments simply have fewer steps when transitioning to digital payments.
Guaranteed payments
Accepting digital payments from PCI (payment card industry) compliant vendors means cashflow is guaranteed by the card processor.
Competitive advantage
Stand out from competitors by accepting digital payments and providing additional benefits for buyers.
Compliance & reporting
Better access to aggregated accounting data leads more efficient compliance and tax reporting at the wholesale and company-wide level.
Reduced collections
Brands can save time with fewer credit applications, past due or delinquent accounts and can guarantee on-time payments.
“Elastic’s Online Payment Portal has reduced our accounts receivable staffing requirements by approximately 25% while improving service with 24/7 access. Buyers no longer need to call or email us to make a credit card payment, get a copy of an invoice, or resolve payment issues. It’s also lowered our lockbox processing fees while significantly reducing settlement time as the payment information is fully integrated with our ERP.”
Integration benefits
It is not a hard process for brands to streamline payment capabilities for buyers, especially when integrated with Elastic Suite’s Online Payment Portal (OPP). As with all other features of the platform, the OPP is part of a seamless integration with a brand’s existing ERP (like NetSuite or SAP), AR, and business processes. Once adopted, both buyers and sellers can realize the bottom-line benefits of using online electronic payments.
Brands that use Elastic’s Online Payment Portal
“This shift is being driven by retailers. We’re simplifying the processes by eliminating the need for multiple platforms to place orders and reorders. The creation of a centralized platform helps extend and strengthen the relationship between brands and retailers.”
Benefits for retail buyers:
transparency & automation
There are significant benefits for buyers who switch to digital payments. Integrated buyer-initiated payments can streamline each level of the transaction process. Benefits for buyers include:
Streamlined processing
• Cost savings
• Improved cash forecasting
• Speed of settlement
• Improved supplier relations
Economic benefits for retail buyers
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Average savings on accounts payable costs when retail buyers switch to digital payment methods
Source: AFP 2020 Virtual Experience Survey
Functional benefits for retail buyers
Time to market
Digital payments settle faster resulting in reduced time to market. For inventory management, this means that products get to end consumers much sooner.
Did you know?
The length of time for buyers from proof of purchase to receiving goods is reduced by an average of 71% when using digital payments.
Source: RPMG Research 2017 Purchasing Card Benchmark Survey
24-7-365
Buyers have constant and secure access to digital payments without the restrictions of office or banking hours. Independent retail buyers can focus on their customers, rather than trips to the bank.
AP automation
If accounts payable teams are automating their processes, digital payments help create back-office efficiency that both brands and retailers are working towards.
“With an integrated sales and payment platform we are working to provide our retail partners with better visibility into orders. This improvement is also helping to significantly reduce manual processes and increase automation, creating more efficient and streamlined workflows on both sides of the transaction.”
Marcie Gleason, Director of Sales Operations, Simms
Strategic benefits for
retail buyers
Payables visibility
Greater visibility provides real-time order status and can help buyers strategically place mid-season reorders and plan for prebook orders.
Enhanced data
Enhanced payment data, such as exportable line-item invoices, are available with digital payments, for better management and analysis of payables.
Strategic sourcing & buying
By pairing payment information with sell-through data and order history and reps and retailers can work together to create deeper and more strategic assortments.
Pricing & payment terms
Tracking digital payments provides more streamlined transparency for retailers to negotiate for strong pricing and contracting terms.
Compliance & reporting
Accurate and up-to-date payment information creates streamlined efficiencies beyond wholesale ecommerce, but for finance departments and greater business transparency.
If you want to experience how Elastic’s OPP can streamline your business:
If you want to learn best practices for accepting digital payments:
If you’re a partner brand and want to share your OPP story: