For an increasing number of top retailers, offering a distinct corporate buyer program has become a key strategy to unlock the massive B2B market. From Business Advantage from Best Buy to the Ace Business Accounts program, these offerings are more than loyalty programs, but rather a front door to exclusive offers, services, financing and other tools that business buyers need in their daily work.
These offerings of course do create brand loyalty and have also been shown to increase AOV by 100% or more in our top retail accounts and even boost share of wallet over time. But they are also becoming the front lines for meeting the expanding expectations for all organizational buyers.
Buyers want more payment choice and more control
As highlighted in the survey we conducted with Murphy Research, business buyers say that “trust” is the most important factor in choosing a supplier (90% say it’s extremely or very important). But functional needs are nearly as important, with the option to pay with their preferred method (80%), custom invoicing (74%), and integration into their ERP (69%) leading factors as well.
At the same time, the availability of trade credit aka a Pay by Invoice program is the top factor to increasing purchasing, and 86% of US business buyers actually research invoicing options before purchasing. There is a bright line between payment choice, convenience, control – and both choosing a supplier, and spending more with them.
”72% of B2B buyers are more loyal to a business that offers their preferred payment method”
So, while corporate buyer programs help merchants get closer to their business customers, it’s clear that offering trade credit with custom invoicing via a managed Pay by Invoice program isn’t just a nice to have, it’s a necessary step to attracting and growing your corporate customer base.
That’s why over the past several months you’ve seen us reintroduce our managed B2B payments and invoicing solution as Pay by Invoice in the retail sector, as we’ve launched new programs at Albertsons and Northern Tool + Equipment. And we were also excited to share at the Ace Hardware Fall Convention that we’ll be powering the Ace for Business Trade Credit program, while our friends from Walmart Business have announced the first phase of their Pay By Invoice offering with TreviPay.
Sellers want co-branded payment and invoicing experiences
Just as high-profile providers like Klarna, Affirm and PayPal have established their brands at the consumer check out alongside cards, we see a similar trend emerging in B2B when it comes to net terms. Building on our white label programs for top retailers like Best Buy and Staples, our branded Pay by Invoice offering supports all sales channels, works globally in 30+ countries, and leverages our experience across the entire order-to-cash process, from AI-enhanced underwriting, to invoicing, collection and even funding.
When retailers offer this service as a co-branded experience (e.g. Walmart Business customers see that brand, as well as “Pay By Invoice with TreviPay”) on their cards, in the eCommerce/online experience, and at other touchpoints, they gain a new lever for building trust and reputation through familiarity. Buyers see the retailer’s brand, along with the service provider they have chosen to extend the brand’s values. Yet, unlike credit cards, loyalty accumulates with the merchant, rather than the card issuer.
More practically, clear branding helps buyers understand who to contact for support (“contact our partner, TreviPay”), streamline the payment process and reduce other delays. When launching new programs, it also allows retailers to lean on TreviPay’s brand and reputation built from 40+ years of experience in global payments and invoicing.
Each touchpoint, from the checkout to the invoice, to email and other marketing touches become part of a branded payments experience, even while the retailer offloads much of the operational complexity of running a global B2B payments program when teaming with a partner. Enter TreviPay to take on the role of partner.
What’s next?
Pay by Invoice is a key evolution in the way we package and market our managed B2B payments platform. As more retailers opt to provide a co-branded Pay by Invoice service to their business customers, we see a tremendous opportunity to raise awareness of the value of net terms financing and smart invoicing for sellers, buyers and our partners like HSBC and Mastercard.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes we know that finance and operations leaders are constantly seeking more efficiency and automation across the entire O2C process, by applying not only more predictive analytics and automated workflows but also hoping to see tangible impacts from investments in GenAI.
Our Zero Touch A/R vision and roadmap bring these worlds together and envisions an end-to-end transformation of both the B2B buying journey and the AR function itself, enabled by new and proven AI approaches, deep integrations with adjacent systems of record, and real-time data. I’ll be sharing how pragmatic application of “AI everywhere” enables real Zero Touch experiences, with meaningful impact on sales, CX, and loyalty, at our Crossroads Live NYC payments salon.
And for retailers who want to grow their B2B by offering TreviPay’s Pay by Invoice solution to their corporate customers, we’d love to talk.
