A straightforward financial offering just doesn't cut it anymore in the small business banking and payments space.
SMBs are increasingly looking toward financial institutions like acquiring banks and merchant acquirers to provide them with digital tools for online commerce and operations—everything from transactions, accounting, payroll and service scheduling to website design, marketing and analytics. According to a McKinsey survey of 1,200+ small businesses in the US, less than 50% of SMBs get their commercial enablement tools through their primary bank, but the majority said they’d prefer to get these solutions from a single provider.
Explore online commerce for SMBs with an eCommerce website builder.
The future of financial offerings
Many SMBs are choosing to launch and run their business with all-in-one fintech platforms in lieu of traditional acquiring banks and merchant acquirers, as they provide omnichannel commerce, operational tools and financial services in a combined offering. Not only does this streamline the business formation process but it centralizes the SMB’s operations to one platform, allowing them to focus on growing their business and driving revenue off the bat.
In response, forward-thinking acquiring banks and merchant acquirers are expanding their offerings to embrace online commerce. And it doesn’t just keep them afloat—it can bring a major lift in revenue as well. According to The Value of FI Merchant Services, an eReport by TSG, FIs generate an average of 94% more revenue from merchant services customers than non-merchant services customers. And research by Boston Consulting Group finds that eCommerce is predicted to capture 41% of global retail sales by 2027, signifying a large opportunity for businesses that provide digital commerce services.
Acquiring banks and merchant acquirers that want to succeed in the SMB space will need to think beyond the usual service offering and expand into an offering of complete online business solutions.
Boosting small business with online commerce
In the typical small business formation flow, merchants create their financial plan and look for the right financial institution to open an account with, followed by the right platform to build their online presence. Acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can seize this opportunity by bundling web creation and online commerce services with their current offering, capturing brick-and-mortar SMBs just before they open their doors online. This saves SMBs time researching and choosing eCommerce tools, and it keeps banks from missing out on prime patronage. It also differentiates the acquirer from others, which tend to stick to traditional financial offerings like accounts and credit cards.
Most importantly, acquiring banks and merchant acquirers that provide small merchants with the technologies they need to create a complete professional online presence can contribute directly to their customers’ business growth. With the right combination of eCommerce, digital marketing and SEO tools, SMBs can increase sales and boost revenue. For example, Wix users with eCommerce business websites saw a 24% increase in monthly revenue across online and instore channels after using Wix’s Google Search Console integration. This can translate directly into an increase in GPV for the merchant services provider.
There are many online commerce solutions acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can consider offering to their SMB customers today, according to SMB industry needs. These range from:
Retail eCommerce for online stores
Online bookings
Events for service businesses
Recurring online payments
General invoicing with an invoice generator.
One example of a fundamental capability with great potential impact on SMB revenue is to enable retail merchants to set up shop online. In addition to direct selling, merchants can also increase abandoned cart recovery rate by sending automated popups, personalized emails and more. Offering scheduling capabilities can also result in a significant boost to business, allowing merchants’ customers to seamlessly take bookings for services like fitness classes, home improvement, consulting and any other professional services.
Increasing your customer retention and adoption
Offering embedded online commerce solutions can also help acquiring banks and merchant acquirers boost loyalty and even increase adoption of merchant services amongst existing SMB customers. Adding this crucial service to an offering shows an understanding of merchant needs. And once the merchant has launched their business presence online, they’re much more likely to continue the relationship with the institution. For the acquiring bank, the merchant is more likely to purchase or use additional products including merchant services. Even more so if the acquiring bank provides website management services. This creates an extra channel for acquiring banks to upsell on business management solutions, generating new revenue streams.
Take for example Moneris, Canada’s largest merchant acquirer and online payment provider, backed by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Bank of Montreal (BMO). Moneris was looking to provide a total business solution for their merchant customers that included both in store payment acceptance (POS) and online payment acceptance. They partnered with Wix to give customers powerful eCommerce website development abilities that are embedded directly into Moneris’s platform, dubbed “Moneris Online”. In only the first period, the company saw a 71% lift in net new web builder sales compared to the previous offering.
As part of the tailored Wix partnership, Moneris customers receive a fully-enabled online shop with Moneris connected as the payment processor, fueling online transactions. Moneris is able to leverage both the complementary offering and the brand partnership with Wix to drive adoption, retain SMB customers and attract new ones.
Working with a B2B partner to offer online commerce
By partnering with the right web tech company, acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can add embedded online commerce directly into the SMB customer experience.
Through Wix’s B2B channel partnerships, for example, acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can offer Wix’s web creation platform and online business solutions directly to merchants, providing them with omnichannel commerce. The Wix platform is custom-integrated into the acquiring bank/merchant acquirer’s marketing and product funnels by expert solution engineers to create a seamless customer journey and onboarding experience. Acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can promote and distribute Wix’s web creation platform and tools as a co-branded offering, while remaining the sole merchant services gateway. And with the option to provide Wix’s drag-and-drop website builder directly to customers or to offer professional designer services, acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can choose the best model or combination of models for their needs.
The right B2B partnership can enable acquiring banks and merchant acquirers to give customers access to a trusted cloud-based platform, without needing to develop and sell in-house solutions. Building solutions from the ground up is expensive and time-consuming, and keeping up maintenance and innovation can be equally as capital-intensive. Partnering can mean saving on major tech and HR spend, with peace of mind in the product’s capabilities.
A B2B partner should have a powerful technical platform infrastructure with a strong reputation to match. Wix for example has been honing its 100s of digital solutions for small businesses for nearly 20 years, and currently serves hundreds of millions of users across the globe. Plus, Wix is engineered to enable websites to keep on scaling with business growth, providing all sites with built-in enterprise-grade security, top-notch reliability and comprehensive SEO tools.
Going forward, it's table stakes for acquiring banks and merchant acquirers to expand their SMB offering and begin providing the tools to drive omnichannel commerce and payment acceptance. Embedded online commerce is the next logical step. Not only does it support SMB customer growth, but it helps acquiring banks and merchant acquirers keep up in a competitive landscape with the potential to increase revenue, retention and adoption.
Fortunately, web creation platforms like Wix offer trusted partnerships, allowing acquiring banks and merchant acquirers to directly provide ready-made solutions tailored for their SMB customers’ industries.
Through channel partnerships, acquiring banks and merchant acquirers can find a win-win opportunity: supporting small business while driving overall revenue.
Learn how a channel partnership with Wix can drive growth for your business and your SMB customers.