Global B2B Payment Market and Trends 2021

The report “Global B2B Payment Market 2021” offers a comprehensive overview of the new developments and trends in the business-to-business payment market worldwide. Among other findings, the publication reveals that despite B2B players’ resistance to rapid digital transformation, the process has begun and is likely to accelerate in the near future.

COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need of B2B players to adopt digital payments

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, B2B companies had realized the importance of digitalization, especially when it comes to payments. Nevertheless, the enterprises operating business-to-business, and usually those of larger sizes, are quite resistant to change. But as COVID-19 emphasized the inevitability of transforming B2B payments into digital, the process of shifting accelerated. For example, in just one year, the share of B2B companies that make over 90% of their payments electronically rose by twelve percentage points, reaching about one-fourth of the total B2B payments value in 2020, according to this report. Moreover, usage of B2B instant payments was also expected to grow in the next two years; this transition, however, was expected to happen at a rather slower pace.

B2B companies stick to traditional payment methods, but also become more open to alternatives

Currently, B2B companies prefer traditional payments such as bank wire transfers, which is still many companies’ go-to choice. These are followed by bank debit and cheques. When it comes to B2B E-Commerce specifically, credit card was the first choice of B2B enterprises in 2020, together with terms (30-60-90), and mobile wallets. Nevertheless, companies also have become more open to alternative payment methods, which, according to a global survey cited in the publication, comes with some challenges, such as a struggle to identify a solution that fits the industry, security concerns, and a lack of technological solutions.

Report Coverage

• This report covers the B2B payment market including recent developments and industry trends. Information both about total B2B payment (all channels) and B2B E-Commerce payment specifically was included.
• In addition to global developments, selected regional and country insights from four regions are provided, including Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and Middle East.

Report Structure

• The report opens with a global chapter. It contains information on global B2B payment developments. These include data on the current size and projections for the B2B payments market. Furthermore, market trends such as digital transformation and technological disruption are covered on qualitative (text) charts. In addition, the results of recent surveys of B2B buyers were cited in order to reveal business customers’ expectations with regard to payments.
• Regional chapters follow, ranked by B2B payments market size potential: Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, and Middle East. Selected quantitative information for the major markets in these regions, including the USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia and the UAE was provided to exemplify the global trends in general B2B payments and business-to-business E-Commerce payments. The type and scope of information included per country and region varied due to data availability and is intended to illustrate the overall market developments rather than cover the specific geographies.