Improving the cross-border B2B payment experience can directly boost customer experience and be an important factor in driving business growth, according to the latest research from Flywire Corporation, a payments enablement and software company.
Flywire’s survey details the business advantages of providing a digital, localized and seamless payment experience for a B2B vendor’s international customers. Significantly, those responsible for paying international invoices are eager for innovation, with 94% of those surveyed saying their organisation would embrace a change that eases the cross-border payments process.
In its new report – “The secret weapon for attracting and retaining international customers”, Flywire reveals the results of an independent survey it commissioned of more than 460 B2B payers across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The data uncovers how the B2B payment experience impacts customer experience, and why organisations looking to go global should consider their Accounts receivable (A/R) process as a key driver of business acceleration.
Key Insights
Business payers surveyed noted that dealing with foreign exchange (FX) market complexity holds back their company’s growth, introduces delays and causes problems in paying invoices to key partners. For example:
- 82% of those surveyed have waited to pay a vendor because of FX complexity.
- 88% of respondents said dealing with bills in another currency has sometimes delayed payment to vendors.
- 84% said when there are no local options to pay, the process takes much longer.
- Some of the top problems payers experience when making cross-border payments include managing FX (66%) getting refunds (64%) accessing local customer support (57%).
When asked what would help international customers better meet the challenges of paying their invoices, security was top of mind across all regions, with 88% saying they worry about security or fraud when making cross-border payments. Additionally, 48% said better visibility into FX fees and being able to track payments would help them meet challenges, and 55% said they wanted an automated way to make cross-border payments.
Survey respondents showed clear preferences for vendors that pay attention to payment processes. 95% of those surveyed said they pay quickly when a vendor makes the payment process easy. International customers surveyed also said they’re more likely to do business with a company that supports local payment methods (89%) payment in local currency (87%) and easier cross-border payment processes (94%)
At the same time, difficulty paying vendors can create business risks, with 82% of survey respondents saying this difficulty impacted their ability to grow, strained relationships with colleagues (60%) and made it harder to do their jobs (74%). 70% of companies buying from international vendors even stopped doing business with them because of a poor cross-border B2B payment experience.
See the full report
