NEW REPORT: Getting SMBs Off The Software Sidelines

Sometimes, even the best businesses, big and small, need a little help from software. Whether its finding and keeping loyal customers or keeping the books and sending invoices, digital tools are giving businesses new ways to solve their biggest problems, whether its accounting, customer service or anything else.

The latest PYMNTS.com Developer Tracker, powered by Vantiv, looks at companies around the space using software development to help build their businesses.

Around the Developer World – Power to the Customer?

These days, the power of individual consumers is higher than it’s ever been. And it seems that businesses from retail to payment processing are taking notice, rolling out new solutions that cater to customer wants and needs over the past month.

For one, big names like Nike and Gillette, along with smaller companies like Warby Parker and Everlane, are increasingly investing in direct-to-consumer. This includes partnerships with large eCommerce suppliers like Amazon and in-house subscription services.

And, in Taiwan, consumers are motivating a release from one of the biggest names in the payments space. Visa is planning to offer a mobile platform, designed specifically for use in the country, which would operate via quick response (QR) codes that are better suited for smartphones most commonly used in the country.

To read the latest notable headlines from around the space, download the Tracker.

Developing Software Specifically for the Smallest Businesses

Entrepreneurs and startup founders may be experts at providing top-notch products or services, but when it comes to bookkeeping or sending invoices, many business owners are out of their element — or just out of time. They may not have the resources to hire an accounting department and either can’t afford, or don’t feel sophisticated enough, to use most accounting software, which is often designed for larger enterprises.

That’s why Kirk Simpson, CEO and founder of small business software developer Wave, explained to PYMNTS in a recent interview that this company worked to build an accounting and invoicing solution specifically designed for microbusinesses. He said that the company looks to attract fledgling entrepreneurs, in part, by providing free accounting and invoicing software along with paid card processing and payroll solutions.

“Most of these businesses are sitting on the sidelines when it comes to this kind of software, using spreadsheets and Word documents and shoeboxes full of paper receipts,” Simpson said. “I saw an opportunity to come at it from our customers’ perspectives in terms of how to build a brand, how to talk to them in a way they can understand and how to build a tool that is, quite frankly, simple enough that people like me would want to use it.”

To download the July edition of the PYMNTS.com Developer Tracker, powered by Vantiv, click the button below…

About the Tracker

The PYMNTS.com Developer Tracker, powered by Vantiv, provides the payments ecosystem with a view into how software developers are using new technologies to create innovative business opportunities and enable merchants to optimize the ways in which they engage with shoppers today. The developer community within the tracker is separated into three categories: Shopping and Payments, Operations and Marketing.