Guest Analysis: New Research Finds SMBs Increasingly Mobile, But In Need of Omnichannel Payments Support
Greg Constantine
November 19, 2013 – SecureNet recently commissioned research to examine exactly how multichannel-oriented small-to-medium sized merchants are, determine their priorities when considering multichannel expansion, and how well their payments solutions fit into their increasingly omnichannel business models.
What we found is that multichannel is not just a pie-in-the-sky goal for SMBs:
- More than 60 percent of merchants already accept payments in more than one channel
- 16 percent accepted payments in three channels
- Eight percent accepted payments in four or more channels
- Of the merchants surveyed that still operate in a single channel, 50 percent anticipate implementing multichannel commerce in the next five years
Small businesses identified the two most important issues regarding their multi-channel payments environment as: 1) Access to reporting that is easy to understand, and 2) The ability to easily understand how cash flows across channels. Nearly half of the multi-channel merchants with sales under $5 million identified these two issues as important or very important.
While eCommerce development is a top priority, SMBs fully expect mobile to become one of the most important selling channels within five years.
- Forty percent of the merchants surveyed already have a mobile website or app. Interestingly enough, only half of these mobile applications envision payments acceptance through the app. Another 19 percent identified a mobile application as an expansion priority.
- Nearly one-third of respondents indicated a need for mobility as they sell through events near to their stores (such as a sidewalk sale) or remote from their stores (such as home delivery or a fundraising event).
- Just under 20 percent of merchants indicated they have a mobile point of sale – a smart phone-based or tablet-based card acceptance solution at the point of sale.
The mobile forecast is coming up roses for SMBs, except in one regard: payments. To support their increasingly multichannel business models, small business owners cobble together payment solutions and accounting processes with the addition of each new channel because payments processing providers traditionally service only one or two channels. In fact, SecureNet found that 27 percent of the merchants surveyed had three or more suppliers of software solutions to facilitate payments across various channels. This results in unnecessarily complicated reconciliation, siloed and unhelpful reports and ineffective pricing structures on transactions.
Multichannel SMBs are better served by a single omnichannel payments provider, rather than a hodgepodge group of single channel providers. With one omnichannel solution, small-to-medium merchants can accept credit cards anywhere—mobile, online, in-store— with one merchant account for dramatically simplified reporting and reconciliation.
Find the whole research report here to take a deeper look at just how SMBs are going multichannel, and what their priorities and needs are as they grow. Give us a call if you’d like to chat about how a single merchant account across every channel you operate can make your life easier and reduce your transaction costs.
[divide] [spacer height=3]Greg Constantine is EVP of Client Operations at SecureNet.
About the research: The independent researcher surveyed a wide cross-section of merchants, which ranged from small, single location merchants to large chains. The average merchant had four locations, although the median respondent had a single location. The largest respondent had more than 2,500 locations. The merchants represented diverse industries. Business-to-business categories accounted for 14% of the respondents; Retail represented 10% and not-for-profit made up 9% of respondents. Over 97% of the respondents were the owner, the accounting manager, or the manager of operations/IT of their company.