Acceptance: Western Union Launches Small Business Payments
- Western Union launches Small Business Payments, an online acceptance solution for small and medium US companies (less than 2,000 payments per months). This suite encompasses a full range of services including processing, automated billing management, recurring payments, CRM and reporting. It is proposed through several channels (face-to-face, Web, mobile and SMS).
- The network insists on the issues of loyalty as well as customer knowledge and enables merchants to customise their online payment form (for potential homogeneous integration in their own website).
- Registration is conducted online; Western Union has not yet disclosed any information regarding the amount of monthly subscription fees. This solution may be targeting the 27 million small US business listed by the Department of Commerce Census Bureau.
- Considering the high development and maintenance cost of e-payment platforms, small companies unable to afford these investments sometimes resort to alternative solutions (cheques, transfers, phone services, etc.). Platforms like PayPal somehow made it easier for them as they do not have to store user data. This asserts the significant part played by e-PSPs in integrating the online means of payments-related data they handle. More and more payment players are trying to get involved at this level of the value chain to provide merchants with enhanced service offerings.
- The funds transfers specialist proposes small business to improve their cash flow and interaction with customers/payers via an online platform listing all transfers. Several competitors have committed to this sector: American Express, for instance, proposes AcceptPay (card acceptance, e-cheques, funds transfers and CRM features).
- Western Union’s focusing on small business is not new either: the player has already proposed a dedicated mobile platform (international mobile transactions) and has recently acquired the alternative payment solution eBillme. As conversion rates are improved by making various payment solutions available, Western Union allows for merchants’ enhancement of these options using an affordable “all-in-one” suite. If they do not have a website, a Small Business Payments page dedicated to payments can be set up to allow card acceptance and funds transfers.