Today in B2B: Holiday Rush Gets Started in Spring Due to Supply Chain Snags; Digital Payments Bring Trading Partners Together

Today in B2B payments, the fashion industry prepares for the holiday shopping season, while digital payments make the ties between trading partners stronger. Plus, Rapyd launches local payment tool Virtual Accounts, and Papaya and Applied Innovation streamline bill payment through a partnership.

Apparel Industry CFOs Use Tech, Intuition to Complete Holiday Purchases 8 Months Early

Anticipating the next movement of the customer and building up relationships with the big brands is important for any retailer. That’s especially true when your business is selling footwear, apparel, accessories and home products from consumer brands. Joseph Falcão, chief financial officer (CFO) at Orva, told PYMNTS that the company has already bought goods for the next holiday season — the lead times are that long.

Digital Payments Strengthen Collaborative Ties Between Trading Partners

Trading partners that use digital payments report increases in overall customer satisfaction, more flexibility in the payment options they offer and increased book-balancing efficiency, according to “Reimagining Business Payments,” a PYMNTS and Billtrust collaboration. Digital lockboxes can receive payments and quickly match remittance information while sending the information almost simultaneously to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The result is a high match rate of invoice payments and more easily balanced books, which can each help improve customer satisfaction.

Rapyd Debuts Virtual Accounts, a Local Payment Tool

FinTech-as-a-Service platform Rapyd has launched Virtual Accounts, a product designed to let businesses expand globally while still supporting local payments. The product lets businesses anywhere in the world accept local bank transfers in more than 25 currencies, including from the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Papaya, Applied Innovation Team up for Faster Bill Pay

Bill payment platform Papaya has launched a partnership with Applied Innovation, a software company that makes solutions for the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry. The collaboration lets Applied Innovation integrate Papaya’s “bill understanding technology” into its business customers’ payments portals. This will let consumers make payments in seconds by scanning bills with their cellphones.