How Whillet Can Bring Embedded Finance to Your Business

Embedded finance is the latest development in digital financial services that customers are increasingly demanding. Essentially, BaaS providers allow non-banking companies to provide some form of financial service to their customers. This can be in the form of payment processing and managing a single payment account to a more advanced offering with credit, lending and even bank accounts.

One thing helping to secure the future of embedded finance is the cross-industry capabilities it delivers. Customers around the world, whether they’re business customers or individual consumers, like simple, secure transactions and financial management options and that is something good BaaS providers do well. Another benefit of using a fintech, BaaS specialist is that they handle the regulation and digital security, making it an easy option for non-banking businesses to integrate embedded finance into their operations and give their customers what they want.

More Customers Demand Integrated Experiences

Official data show that online spending rose sharply in 2020. According to the US Department of Commerce, consumers spent $791.7 billion online in 2020 representing a 32.4% rise from 2019 and the highest increase in over 20 years. Meanwhile, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show online sales penetration as a proportion of total retail sales reached almost 40% in January 2021, up from 20.2% a year earlier and 19.3% in January 2019. This activity has helped provide a boost to digital development with customers quickly building trust for online services.

To that end, research by McKinsey shows that more customers are increasingly showing a preference for using integrated digital systems. This includes paying ‘in-store’ during online shopping sprees, without being redirected to a third-party platform, and often using the offer of credit options, such as buy now and pay later. 

It’s not just the B2C world that is experiencing this; demand from B2B, B2B2B and B2B2C for embedded finance is also on the rise. Indeed, research suggests that an increasing proportion of B2B buyers — 74% in 2021 — are conducting more research online which supports growing interest from B2B sellers to create a more consumer-like environment for that market. As many B2B buyers are also online consumers, it makes sense that businesses increasingly want in on the seamless integrated finance action with an easy to access and use account management system. With the right BaaS financial options, business customers can easily manage their payments and orders all in one place – your website – while planning for future orders and growth, too.

Companies that use the right BaaS systems to provide embedded finance services to their customers will likely find that those clients who use it are more satisfied with the broader service they’re receiving. That’s something that helps build trust and importantly, lead to increased customer loyalty as well as attract new customers too.

Does Your Business Need to Offer Integrated BaaS?

While a growing proportion of customers across different spaces are more interested in being able to make purchases and do business on one platform, an important question to ask is whether this will be a cost-effective investment that will drive sustainable growth for your business.

As a company owner or CEO, there are a number of details you should consider to ensure making the decision to add embedded financial services to your footprint is right for you.

Of course, the first thing is to fully understand what you could provide your customers if you were to add BaaS to your digital offerings. Other important details include:

• Understanding that the addition of banking would be in line with the wider customer experience you already provide or plan to provide. If it’s just an innovative sales hook, the costs might outweigh the rewards. 
• Determining whether your customer base and growth projections will be enough to reach the volumes required to encourage take-up and retention, particularly considering competitors already providing financial services.
• Whether your technical base and development plans are suitable for the integration of BaaS and if not, will the required investment be a financially sound decision?  

If your digital make-up is well-placed to support the addition of embedded financial services and your customers are increasingly demanding more from your business, then moving forward with BaaS could be the right decision. However, even if you’re not quite there yet, it doesn’t hurt to find out more about this growing sector and to be ready to reassess your position in the future.

How Whillet Can Help

At Whillet, we understand what our customers want and do everything we can to deliver BaaS to suit each clients’ needs. We know that sometimes an integrated finance system that helps companies process payments on their website, in their branding is enough – at least to start with. However, we offer so much more than that and as your needs grow, the services we provide can adapt with them.

We have everything you need to offer financial services to your customers without having to invest in all the elements fintechs must develop and adhere to. Whillet is equipped to help you provide a wide range of financial services to your customers including:

·       Personal bank accounts

·       E-Money wallets

·       Bonus reward options

·       Cross-sales

However, when you use our expertise and resources, including our 24/7 tech support and regulatory knowhow, the options your customers will see will be under your brand and importantly, follow your rules.

We’re ready for the future of fintech, e-commerce and embedded finance and can help you deliver all this and more for your customers.