PYMNTS and Mastercard surveyed 400 U.S. and Canadian businesses to better understand how they view and use virtual cards. While larger businesses increasingly use the cards to make and accept payments, mid-sized businesses are lagging in their adoption of the technology — to their detriment.
PYMNTS and Mastercard collaborated to survey 409 businesses in the U.S. and Canada, each with at least 10 employees and more than $10 million in revenue. The resulting report that was recently released, “Accelerating the Time to Realized Revenue,” indicates that mid-market firms are hesitant to adopt virtual card technology that could benefit their bottom line.
“Concerns over infrastructural incompatibility and a lack of in-house know-how are preventing them from investing in the virtual cards that help their businesses reach their full competitive potential,” the report reads.
The relatively low adoption of virtual card products for B2B payments by mid-market firms partly was chalked up to their current technologies’ inability to process such payments effectively, and fears regarding transaction costs. The survey noted that mid-market firms were 21% less likely than enterprise-scale businesses to make or accept virtual card payments, and therefore less likely to realize the associated benefits
At present, according to the report, 31% of American and Canadian businesses currently use virtual cards to either make or accept payments. Of those, the stated benefits of virtual card included:
- 64% of respondents cited faster receipt of payment as a chief benefit of virtual cards
- 50% of those who use virtual cards said they enhanced transaction security
- 57% said they improved transaction detail
- 43% noted improved cash management as a result of virtual card usage
Increased access to credit and debit cards lower processing costs were described as offsetting some increased transaction costs.
Learn more at PYMNTS.com.
