Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

Amazon Taking a Novel Approach to Cross-Border B2B Payments

Businesses worldwide are struggling to find ways to keep their costs down as the pandemic continues. One way how companies are adapting to the pandemic is through online marketplaces. Such venues allow people to share product or service info and to complete transactions online. The effort will enable businesses to make money from people who might otherwise have little interest in leaving their houses at this time.

Many of these online marketplace transactions are being utilized by business-to-business or B2B entities. B2B companies are looking to handle transactions with other entities that need resources in moments. Online interactions are ideal for B2B companies, as they make it easier for them to interact with others without worrying about the expenses or possible restrictions associated with manual or in-person sales.

These are also ideal for cross-border payments. The online world makes it easier for people from different parts of the world to interact and manage transactions. B2B payments can handle various values and also work alongside whatever currency exchange rates are necessary for work purposes.

But payment processing speeds haven’t been as effective as B2B entities wish they could be. PYMNTS.com found in a recent study that nearly half of B2B businesses are concerned about payment processing speeds. They aren’t satisfied with how these payments are working, and they argue their ability to accept payments is being negatively impacted by the pandemic.

It’s no surprise that many B2B companies are partnering up with Amazon. The prominent online retail giant has been working alongside many smaller businesses to facilitate many of their activities, from selling items online to shipping them out to other places. The work that Amazon has done for B2B companies has helped them move forward and make their efforts more accessible, providing a simple approach to work that everyone can support.

Why Move Online?

The decision of B2B companies to move their work online comes from many points:

It helps companies increase their revenues. A study from tmcnet.com reports that moving to digital sales channels boosts revenue growth by at least 60 percent.
It is easier for these companies to bring in new clients and prospective buyers. Nearly a third of B2B entities can bring in more sales through different companies and clients, expanding their potential to bring in more money later.
Supply chains are easier to manage through B2B efforts. It becomes easier for a company to shift its products and to work for various purposes when there are enough items available for shipping and moving. Deliveries can go faster when managed well.
International or cross-border transactions are especially critical. Going online makes it easier for transactions to work in moments.

Online activities will be critical to success in many forms. Amazon’s work to help people facilitate B2B transactions will help improve how well businesses can handle projects and payment efforts in many forms. It is all about producing positive results for whatever work projects one wishes to manage.

What About Offline Activities?

Amazon is helping businesses focusing on moving supply chains online. Many supply chains for B2B entities are offline because they are often easier for businesses to manage. While they can list their inventories online and also highlight their services of value, it is necessary to watch how well these can be highlighted online. Moving a supply chain online may help reduce the stresses associated with offline activities. People can do business with others online without having to rely on as many in-person activities as one might wish.

The Value of the Marketplace

Online marketplaces are especially critical for B2B companies if they want to interact with more parties. Amazon has simplified the sales process over the years to facilitate transactions with more people in less time. An online marketplace can allow a business to grow in prominence and stay active.

But all marketplaces must meet the unique processing needs people hold. Part of this includes processing payments as soon as possible without having to rely on in-person transactions. The need for online payments is especially critical today, what with there being many restrictions over what in-person activities people can manage.

The Demand For Fast Speeds

Amazon’s immense wealth and infrastructure make it capable of potentially helping manage B2B transactions faster. Amazon will need to respect the needs of the public if it wishes to thrive. About two-thirds of all firms want to follow new technologies that can help them process payments faster. The firms will want to handle these efforts to ensure they can facilitate payments well.

Will Cross-Border Payments Grow In Prominence?

People can expect cross-border payments to become more noticeable as time passes. Online B2B sales are rising, with companies tallying about $1.3 trillion before the end of 2019. More companies are moving forward here, making it easier for them to keep things moving well.

The increased interest in B2B actions and cross-border payments make it where the infrastructure must improve. These include cases surrounding how the infrastructure can handle payments and process them sooner.

Can This Work For Other Entities?

Amazon’s approach to handling businesses has also grown to where it can manage more than traditional B2B companies. It can also manage small businesses that might operate in one or two locations. It could also work for public sector entities that can help facilitate many payments.

All entities will need to manage faster payments that aren’t tough to manage. These companies must watch for how well different payment solutions can work and to see they can handle whatever transactions they wish to complete for any intention. Having a sense of control over what works will be necessary for many forms of work.

Partnering with Amazon will still be a necessity considering how well cross-border payments and B2B activities work. Amazon has been helping businesses interact with each other and to process transactions and financial data. But Amazon’s success will depend on how well the platform can simplify the transaction process and get people to handle their funds sooner.

Top Market-Changing Fintech Predictions [2023 Update]

Financial technology or fintech is one of the most intriguing fields to explore, as it entails producing new ways for financial services to work for people. It is often tough to predict where the fintech industry will go, but there are a few moves that can be projected. Here’s a look at some of the things you can expect to see soon.

Payment Changes

The first fintech prediction of note involves how people pay for things. Digital payment services are going to become increasingly essential.

The pandemic has forced many people to explore mobile payment options. The concept of contactless payments has become a necessity to follow, as it is something people are often comfortable with managing. They like the convenience of such payments, and they know it reduces the overall contact points they will have while in a spot.

Expect mobile payments to become more common in the future. The limits for these payments may also rise, as more businesses and governments will support such payment solutions. The current limit for mobile payments in the United Kingdom is at £40, for example. That total could be twice as high soon.

Singular App Support

Fintech has evolved to where people need many apps for different financial activities. Expect super-apps to develop soon.

A super-app is a program made available through financial institutions that help people manage their bank accounts and payment efforts in one place. Such apps should streamline efforts for managing financial data on the go.

Super-apps have been utilized by many consumers in Asia as of late. Expect regulations to change to allow such super-apps to be available in the United States and elsewhere. The convenience of these apps will be a worthwhile endeavor, plus they can produce an extra bit of competition among service providers aiming to make their points more visible.

BNPL Becomes Active

The Buy Now Pay Later or BNPL standard is useful for many online shopping activities. People can use BNPL solutions to pay for various items at rates that are convenient to them. BNPL efforts are essential for online purchases, as they reduce the risk associated with purchasing items. Some retailers may also appreciate the interest charges that come with some transactions. The potential for BNPL to be a viable choice for sales needs will be worth watching, especially since so many people see how useful this solution can be for their needs.

Outsourcing Grows

Fintech providers will start outsourcing their work to many tech platforms that have been utilized for a while and are already convenient for many needs. Companies will outsource to proven security processing and payment technologies. Part of this involves reducing the cost of keeping transactions moving, but it will also involve simplifying development efforts.

Outsourcing is already becoming popular, but most consumers aren’t fully aware of it yet. About half of all post-trade activities in the fintech industry move to other entities. That value will likely rise as more businesses start to notice the benefits of this work.

ESG Funds to Stay Popular

Environmental, Social, and Governance funds are expected to stay popular. ESG funds are ETFs that focus on companies focusing on producing positive influences on society. These can include reducing climate risk, increasing diversity rates in the workplace, and many other factors of value.

Asset managers will promote ESG funds more often, and there will be additional tech services available for managing these funds. Gathering information on investors who support these ESG funds may also assist people in finding interesting investment solutions.

Office Work Will Change In Many Forms

People will start to return to their offices in 2023, but every firm will have different ideas for how they will get back to physical interactions. But the ways how these offices will respond to the new working world will vary.

Smaller hedge funds will focus on physical interaction, especially when managing some sensitive details. More massive fintech entities will be fine with virtual interactions, especially since there are so many people involved in the work. Virtual actions can also increase the number of parties a team can serve at a time, providing more control and efficiency over what a business can manage.

Tokenization Rises

Tokenization is a concept where blockchain tokens represent real-world items. These tokens may represent shares in different investments. Tokenization will expand in the fintech world in 2023 and beyond, especially since it provides a democratic approach where more people can access the tokens they desire for different needs. It will be exciting to watch how tokenization changes and what items will have tokens.

AI Chatbots Rise

Customer service will be a priority for fintech developers. They’ll need to produce programs that are easy for people to use, but they’ll also need to create things that respond to whatever queries or concerns people hold. AI chatbots will be part of what fintech developers can do in the future.

AI chatbots are programs that can read customer queries and guide them to proper answers and responses through a database. Chatbots may answer some of the more common concerns or questions people hold about what’s open.

Chatbots should not be utilized as full substitutes for interactions with other customer service members. Chatbots should be complementary features that can address commonplace needs. The real customer service team members should still be on hand to answer some of the more detailed questions people may hold. Having enough control over the situation will be essential for a business that wishes to interact with its customers.

A Final Note

All these fintech points are interesting for how they suggest changes in the market. Financial technology is always evolving, and anything could happen in the field. New trends will keep changing and moving forward, providing a better experience for everyone to follow.

The best way for people to follow these fintech changes is to do sensible research into what works. Fintech can work when people understand what is open and how different activities can work for everyone’s needs.

Top Fintech Predictions For 2021

Skyscend uses AI to Revolutionize Invoice Management

Skyscend has recently launched the revolutionary SaaS (Software as a Service) offering in the form of Skyscend Pay. The given SaaS-based invoice management system aims at leveraging the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for removing friction that exists in invoice processing. The utilization of this high-end technology allows for smart functionalities that tend to be “context-aware.”

Heera Garia –CTO at Skyscend, in an announcement said that, digital transformation is spanning all aspects of modern businesses in every industry vertical out there. At Skyscend, the innovators aim at making use of cutting-edge technology like Artificial Intelligence, mobile-first approach, and blockchain technology for solving specific procurement needs in invoice management.

AI-Powered Invoice Management System

Skyscend Pay is available with a core platform that is known to offer detailed access to information, analytics, and functionalities. Using the advanced invoice management system by Skyscend, the users can go forward with analyzing and managing invoices, talking with customers or vendors, and observing analytics all in a single place. The offering is also available with simple invoice-centric uploads. The solution makes use of the revolutionary Artificial Intelligence technology for importing invoices rather than having the requirement of entering data manually by hand or relying on rule-based OCR or Optical Character Recognition.

In addition to this, the company also reveals that Skyscend Pay will be offering the innovative feature of dynamic discounting. With this feature, the vendors will be allowed to receive the respective funds expediently while providing savings to the end customers. The users can go forward with creating specific terms. However, the given feature can be used for applying one percent of discount for the Net 45 pay term, 2 percent for the Net 30 pay term, and 3 percent for instant payments.

The company also revealed that Skyscend Pay is totally connected with the help of well-utilized ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software as well as procurement networks. At the same time, the product can be customized when it comes to handling unique requirements.

The company Skyscend was set up in the year 2016. The main goal of the company is to offer expense management services across the spectrum of “Source-to-pay.”

Leveraging the Digital Transformation

The advent of high-end digital technologies was not able to bring about major advanced in the field of business procurement mechanisms. The original problems that existed in the same continued to remain as there was the absence of a dedicated SaaS or Software-as-a-Service solution catering to the specific requirements.

AI or Artificial Intelligence has been witnessing significant advancements in the recent era. Quite recently, it has been used in a wide range of applications. As such, Artificial Intelligence can also be observed in the business procurement scenario. Skyscend has stepped forward in the direction of integrating Artificial Intelligence in the respective procurement application. As such, the company finally aims at addressing specific problems that are prevalent with the existing invoicing solutions or applications.

Benefits of Skyscend Pay

Some of the top benefits of Skyscend Pay to look out for are:

Quick & Easy Uploading of Invoices: Instead of relying on slow, outdated, and inefficient methods of conventional data entry or fragile and rule-based OCR system, the revolutionary AI-based technology by Skyscend Pay aims at employing cutting-edge mechanisms for intelligently importing invoices. The Artificial Intelligence technology contextually parses existing invoices. As such, even totally novel formats could be understood easily.

Effective Correction & Reconciliation of Errors: While dealing with invoices, errors are way too common. In most instances, dealing with errors is known to consume time while involving major conversations between the buyers & suppliers. Even the occurrence of the simplest errors can mostly result in elongated email threads for ensuring that there are no misunderstandings between the parties involved. The Supplier Side Error Correction feature by Skyscend Pay helps in resolving the problem.

Fully Integrated with Famous Procurement Networks and ERPs: It is quite difficult to come across the right software solution for meeting the individual needs. At the same time, it is even more difficult to get the given software solution for playing nice with the remaining software stack. With the revolutionary AI-powered Pay software solution by Skyscend, the users can get access to top-notch procurement networks and advanced ERP solutions.

Fully Customizable for Addressing Unique Requirements: Skyscend Pay helps in adapting to fulfilling the respective needs of the organization. For instance, the configuration of whether invoice validation is done by the Supplier feature of Skyscend Pay or the AP department of the Buyer. The users can also consider making use of the web-hooks for triggering customized workflows on the series of events.

A Centralized Portal with In-Depth Access to Data, Analytics, and Features: Skyscend Pay helps in consolidating data from discreet sources into an easy-to-use, single interface. The advanced functionalities like viewing & managing invoices, communicating with clients or suppliers, and viewing curated analytics –all of these can be implemented without switching any tab.

Dynamic Discounting: The given feature helps the suppliers in getting the necessary capital that is required instantly. At the same time, it also helps in offering the much depreciated savings to the respective buyers. While the particular terms tend to be completely configurable by the users, the feature of Dynamic Discounting can be leveraged for optimum use.

About Skyscend

Skyscend is a leading procurement product & service organization led by highly experienced team in the industry. The company goes forward with the goal of helping clients in achieving procurement excellence. Since its inception in the year 2016, the company is committed to spend delivery and management services across the spectrum of source-to-pay.

E-Commerce Trends for 2021

Today, businesses of all sizes are moving to an online structure. Brick-and-mortar stores that weren’t online before are quickly adapting as the pandemic continues and consumers avoid physical stores as much as possible.

With the onslaught of e-commerce businesses coming onto the scene, it’s important to know the trends that will change for 2021 so you can make sure your business is on target too.

Voice Search

Today, people are always on-the-go or multi-tasking and they’ve grown quite fond of technology, like Alexa or Siri, where they can speak their questions or demands. That trend is falling over into the e-commerce world, where consumers want to be able to speak what they want to search for rather than typing it in. Whether you add voice search capabilities or even let buyers make purchases using their voice is up to you, but know that it’s an up and coming trend.

Personalized Shopping

Customers today want personalized options. They want their shopping experience to be as seamless as possible. When they log onto your site, they want to see the products they want in the sizes they want.

Customers also love personalized recommendations. “Since you bought this, we’d thought you’d like this” is a great way to upsell and keep loyal customers. They know that you’re watching out for them and care what they think. This goes a long way in the e-commerce world.

Getting Active on Social Media

Today social media accounts aren’t an option – they are a requirement. Consumers want to hear from retailers whether it’s about current promotions, their featured products, or just behind-the-scenes posts that make companies seem ‘real.’

Creating Brand Value

If 2020 was anything, it was a year of turmoil for many. Consumers love it when brands get behind certain movements and aren’t afraid to show it. If you are behind a specific movement or care about certain issues in the world, consumers want to hear about it. Promote your brand value and you may find that you grow your audience just for doing so.

More Payment Options

Consumers today want many more payment options than just credit cards. They want to use their mobile wallets, PayPal balances, and want layaway options for big purchases. Companies like Afterpay are growing by leaps and bounds, especially during the holiday season so families can have a happy holiday season despite not having the immediate funds to pay for items.

E-commerce continues to grow and 2021 promises to be a big year for businesses of all sizes. If your business isn’t online yet, it’s time to start. Companies need to be online to get a larger audience, interact with their customers, and showcase their brand’s values.

It’s time to embrace technology and give consumers what they want. We live in a world of instant gratification today and running an e-commerce business is a great way to give customers what they want when they want it.