Payment Pulse – Ep. 17

Payment Pulse: The Power of Social Proof: Learn how influencer endorsements, online reviews, and peer behavior shape our buying habits.

Status Spending and Luxury Psychology: Understand why consumers use high-end payment methods to signal prestige and how brands capitalize on the “Keeping up with the Joneses” mentality.

FOMO and Impulse Purchases: Explore the role of limited-time offers and BNPL services in reducing purchase friction and triggering rapid spending.

Digital Trends on Social Media: See how platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are revolutionizing product discovery and checkout experiences.

Cultural Influences on Spending: Discover how global payment preferences vary and why adapting to local norms is key for businesses expanding into new markets.

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Episode Transcript

Claudia: Welcome to the Payment Pulse podcast by Xplor Pay. We are here to simplify payments. I’m Claudia and I’m joined today with Michelle, and combined we have over 16 years of marketing experience and payments at two different companies together, two different payment companies. Excited to talk to you today, Michelle!

Today, we’re gonna talk about why faster payments are the next strategic advantage for SaaS platforms. How are you doing today, Michelle?

Michelle: I am doing great and I am super excited about this topic today!

Claudia: Me too. Hopefully we’ll bring a little sunshine to this rainy day here in North Carolina. Alright, so what are we talking about when we say faster payments?

Michelle: Sure. To be clear, we are not talking about the consumer experience such as speed at checkout or sending and receiving instant payments on peer-to-peer apps like Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, and PayPal. In this particular context, we’re talking about the amount of time it takes for small businesses to receive payments.

For those who are unfamiliar, when you make a payment to a business, whether you’re at a store or online, the banks process these electronic payments in batches. Sometimes it’s once or several times a day, and based on this system, it’s typical that the settlement of those funds take about one to three business days, which is not exactly a instant payout.

Additionally, since banks are closed on weekends and holidays, payments on those days are usually delayed until the next business day, which contributes to even more waiting time for small businesses in receiving payments from their customers.

So, when we talk about faster payments in the B2B space, we’re talking about SMBs receiving funds outside traditional processing times, meaning in the evenings or on the weekends.
Claudia: Awesome. Thanks for clarifying that. And I think the thing to remember and why this is so important for small businesses is there’s a lot to consider. When I was doing some of my research on the topic, I found a crazy stat that 82% of small businesses fail because of cash flow issues. 82% of the small businesses fail, which is astounding to me.

For businesses, this is really about survival. Delayed funds mean that they can’t make payroll or they have late vendor payments, and they just have an overall strain in their cash flow, which then then they can’t do the things that they want to do. Whereas on the flip side, if they have an increased cash flow, this unlocks new growth opportunities.

Think about them being able to reinvest in their business, hiring new talent, or kicking off a new marketing campaign that then brings in new sales, things that they couldn’t otherwise do if they weren’t getting their payments in a timely fashion and the ability to move quickly.

It helps them also to avoid expensive alternatives like outside loans. And then the biggest thing is just giving them the peace of mind. Not knowing if their funds are going to clear tonight or in two days or on Monday. Giving them that peace of mind that they know that they can rely on their funds and they know exactly when they’re coming in and what’s coming in when is huge for these small businesses that rely on this cash flow on a regular basis.

We also work a lot with SaaS companies here at Xplor Pay, so we want to dive a little bit deeper into why SaaS companies should even care about making faster funding available for their customers. Michelle, you want to dive in there?

Michelle: Yeah, sure. By offering a faster payments option within their software, SaaS providers have the opportunity to differentiate themselves within their industry, while aligning their offering with modern expectations. If you and I can already send and receive instant payments from our friends and family, business owners are going to want to expect the same for their business as well.

It also deepens customer loyalty and stickiness. It is really hard to leave a platform when it delivers funds faster than their competitors. And then you start seeing the benefits that you mentioned Claudia, such as increased cash flow and improved operational efficiencies.

Last but not least, and probably very important to SaaS providers, they can also unlock revenue share opportunities by offering a feature like faster payments. For example, you could turn this into a premium feature that users are willing to pay extra for. It could be a tiered pricing model where users would pay an additional $1 to $5 for faster access to their funds. This creates a natural upsell opportunity that can increase user success and platform adoption, and when customers grow, their SaaS providers grow as well.

Claudia: And we all love that. Definitely improving growth for our customers and their customers is huge. It’s really exciting to talk a little bit more about this; I think the one key note that we’ll leave you guys with is just remembering that faster payments are becoming non-optional. It’s inevitable.
This is what we expect in our day-to-day when we’re going through peer-to-peer payments like you talked about, Michelle, and why should it be any different for small businesses?

I hope you enjoyed our quick conversation today. Hope you’ll like and subscribe and stay tuned. We may have some big news coming around the corner, around instant payouts very soon. If you’re interested in learning more, make sure you visit xplorpay.com and fill out our Get Started form. Thanks for talking, Michelle.

Michelle: Thanks, cheers.