As consumers shifted toward doing more online and less in-store in the last year, brands and retailers found themselves reevaluating the role of the treasury in ensuring that eCommerce expansion efforts provide value to the company rather than amplifying risk.
The risks that treasurers must manage range from foreign exchange (FX) volatility impacting the v
alues of predicted revenues in multiple currencies, to false declines for legitimate purchases at checkout due to limited data on the range of valid behavior.
Powering Smart Treasury Playbook: Treasurer’s 2021 Roadmap to Innovation, a PYMNTS and Citi collaboration, uncovers the core challenges facing today’s treasurers and how targeted payments innovation can support scalable eCommerce success.
The modern treasury is doing more for retailers and brands than ever before. The digital shift among consumers has brought eCommerce strategy to center stage for many businesses new to digital sales. That puts the impetus on treasurers to not only serve as financial guardians but also as guides as new digital strategies are created and tested. Treasurers at the same time must also manage financial projections, such as revenues and FX risk, while helping C-suite decision-makers craft new paths to market.
Treasurers can not only help stakeholders decide how to conce
ptualize new eCommerce strategy but provide key directives on how to determine which payments strategy is the most efficient and profitable. Planning the route to market is a collaborative C-suite effort, yet treasury teams should be allotted a vote in the development of rollout timing.
Helping brands and retailers get ready to launch or expand requires treasurers to have the right tools — from real-time data on FX risk to intuitive fraud prevention tools — at their fingertips. Treasurers must have the full range of transaction and customer data; if treasurers have access to incomplete data sets, their recommendations will be based on a partial view of an organization’s potential cash flow, creating a to-market strategy that may be flawed.
To delve deeper into how the treasury can serve as a catalyst for long-term eCommerce growth, download the playbook.