Last week, news broke that EY auditors refused to sign off on Wirecard’s accounts for 2019, citing a missing sum of €1.9 billion that documents purported to be held in two bank accounts in the Philippines. CEO Markus Braun claimed that the company was the victim of “the victim in a substantial case of fraud,” and COO Jan Marsalek was suspended, later to be terminated. Braun then resigned from the company on Friday.

Braun turned himself over to Munich police on Monday evening after a warrant for his arrest was issued. He is suspected of recording false transactions to artificially inflate Wirecard’s sales, increasing its value in the eyes of customers and investors. Philippine authorities are also investigating the whereabouts of Marsalek as part of a broader probe into the company.

On Thursday, the company said in a statement that it would apply to the Munich district court to open insolvency proceedings as a result of its “impending insolvency and over-indebtedness.”

The company’s shares were suspended from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange before the announcement was released.

Wirecard was long regarded as a star in the German fintech scene – a DAX 30 company which was once valued at €24 billion. That value has plummeted through the floor as the week of revelations continued, though it saw a brief 27% uptick on Tuesday following the news of Braun’s arrest.

Trading on Thursday saw Wirecard’s value drop by a further 76% once news of its insolvency broke.

Not only will it make you more efficient once life returns to normal, but it will also help to save you money which can be used to reinvest in staff and other areas of your business. These are some of the reasons why COVID-19 is the perfect opportunity to reorganise your finances and the ways in which you can do so. 

Work with specialist accountants

When dealing with finances, specialists can offer targeted advice that offers greater results. But particularly during these uncertain times, gaining professional advice and guidance is key, so now is a great time to work with accountants or financial specialists who really understand the nuances of your industry. 

“Once you have your plan in place, you need to make sure that it is financially viable, to make sure that you are realising a profit,” says OS Accounting, a chartered accountancy firm that specialises in working with SMEs. “Any banking or financing house will expect to see realistic and well-considered financial budgets and forecasts and translating an idea into facts and figures needs experience."

Make it easier for customers to pay

No sale is complete without your customers paying you for your service or product. But with an increased need for contactless payments in light of the pandemic, it’s vital that businesses adopt and embrace cash-free payment options. 

From PayPal to Amazon Pay and Apple Pay, there are various options to choose from that will make it easier for your customers to pay you to keep your business taking an income. 

With an increased need for contactless payments in light of the pandemic, it’s vital that businesses adopt and embrace cash-free payment options. 

Go digital

It’s much easier to keep track of all of your financial documents if the business is digitised. While lockdown forces us all to adopt more downtime, there’s time to make the switch to a more digital way of working. 

Not only does it make accessing these documents easier when working remotely, but it also provides a safer form of storage as leaving hard copies in filing cabinets makes it easy for data to be stolen. There are many online tools and software options that will help you digitise your business, particularly where finances are concerned. However, make sure that all of your documents are backed up with a cloud-based service so that you can be sure they are secure. 

Do the things you’ve been putting off

Now is the time to make use of more time and do the things you’ve intended to do for months but haven’t had the time. Use the lockdown to take stock of how your business is operating and make the necessary changes – this might include separating personal and business finances more efficiently by opening a separate bank account or tracking and auditing your expenses.

Whatever financial tasks that have been sitting on your to-do list for a while can now be ticked off to make the best use of your downtime. 

Have regular finance meetings

COVID-19 offers a chance for a fresh start in numerous ways, but particularly where processes and systems are concerned, so get into new habits that will help streamline your business processes for the future. One way to do this is to hold regular weekly finance meetings so you can regularly keep track of income, outgoings and expenses. 

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Money is tight for some SMEs and may be fluctuating more than usual during the pandemic, so it’s a great time to gain an understanding of where your money is going. By having this knowledge, you’ll be able to avoid the liabilities that can bring many businesses down in order to keep it running productively and profitably. 

Final thoughts

Businesses across a host of industries have found themselves in unchartered territory since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but it has hit SMEs harder in many cases. By making use of this time to reorganise the financial aspects of your business, you can hit the ground running once life returns to normal and ensure that your business continues to turn a profit throughout.

We want brand experiences to be fast, personalised and seamless. Digitally native brands like Uber and Netflix have raised the bar for simplicity and convenience in every transaction, and the rise of challenger banks like Monzo and N26 is a clear example of how innovation in financial services is following these trends. Chris Ford, senior director at Blackhawk Network, explains to Finance Monthly how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated these trends.

Research from social media management platform, Hootsuite, found that in the first quarter of this year, 42% of online shopping was paid for with digital or mobile wallets. But, whilst payment behaviours were already changing, this has likely been exacerbated with consumers forced to dramatically change their daily lives by staying at home and adhering to lockdown regulations. Historically, chaos has fueled innovation and from what we’ve seen it may very well be true in this case. We are about to go through a new revolution in how we pay. Those that adapt quickly will win, whilst those that don’t will struggle to survive.

COVID-19: the Renaissance of emerging payments

Right from the early weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, businesses have started to become cashless to avoid unnecessary physical contact. Contactless payments have been encouraged by many retailers and we’ve seen the limit increase to £45 as a result. As the lockdown measures were put in place, the need for alternative ways to support people throughout the crisis has also increased the adoption of alternative payment methods such as e-code vouchers and gift cards. Even the UK government reacted by setting up the supply of supermarket vouchers for families that rely on free school meals.

Contactless payments have been encouraged by many retailers and we’ve seen the limit increase to £45 as a result.

The grocery industry, which has experienced the COVID-19 impact like few other sectors, has had to adapt quickly to changing shopping habits. From forming physical barriers for staff, to working with every aspect of their supply chain to maintain stock levels, innovation has been essential. This innovation has also extended to payments with a new category being born: the volunteer gift card. With vulnerable people not able to leave their homes to shop, these gift cards have let them send money to friends, families or neighbours who are taking on the grocery run.

The financial services industry has also developed new services to support customers who are self-isolating. For example, NatWest has created companion cards that allow others to pay for your shopping without having to give over your main account card. Additionally, those that can’t physically get to the shops to buy presents have turned to gift cards as a thoughtful way to keep in touch.

Innovation beyond the chaos

COVID-19 has pressured business leaders to accelerate the innovation that was already on the way. 50% of the UK population is already cashless according to Access to Cash Review published in March, and COVID-19 is seen as a way to make more of us move towards being cash-free. With lockdown restrictions not going away anytime soon, we will have a longer period of time to adopt these new behaviours and they are likely to hang around long enough to make them stick.

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Before COVID-19, the demand for gift cards was already at a record high, with the total value of the global gift card market expected to reach $506 billion by 2025. With more organisations adapting to the new normal, the development and uptake of alternative payment methods will continue to increase and e-codes help to lead the revolution.

Apparently, it takes 66 days to form a new habit. Lockdown measures have already exceeded this timeframe in the UK, meaning that new payment habits are likely to be here to stay. Brands need to make sure they respond quickly to these new behaviours to keep meeting and exceeding customer’s expectations.

Our new norm as individuals was always going to change when it came to payments.  COVID-19 has accelerated that shift in behaviour and it’s a delight to see so many companies rising to the challenge.

After weeks of being put under stringent lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people will be bracing for difficult days (or even weeks) ahead even as these measures are gradually lifted.

Even then, people need to make ends meet in one way or another. And while it is difficult to know how and when this crisis will actually end, it is important now more than ever to make good financial decisions.

Let's take a look at a few important tips for how you can keep yourself from going under in these difficult times:

1. Keep a Level Head

The coronavirus, which causes the deadly disease known as COVID-19, has permeated local and international news since it was first detected in China. Now, it has become a crisis that governments are desperately trying to contain.

If you have been following the news lately, chances are you have been on a spending spree for essentials. With quarantine measures in place, many are now finding it hard to stock up on the essentials like toilet paper.

It is easy to be confused with all the information out there regarding the pandemic. If you let your guard down and make unnecessary purchases as a result, you can do yourself a lot of harm.

Whatever happens, it's best to remain calm and follow government advisories. At this point, the best you can do is to prevent the spread of the virus and get updates from trusted news sources. This will help you gain clarity as you figure out what to do with your current resources.

Whatever happens, it's best to remain calm and follow government advisories.

2. Call Up Your Credit Card Company

Having a credit card is convenient, but when you are in the middle of a serious health crisis, you have to do what you can to get by.

Luckily, consumers in the US can breathe a sigh of relief as major credit card providers have agreed to waive payments for March and possibly beyond. All you have to do is to contact the number on the back of your card and ask your bank about how you can get relief.

It’s important to note that providers such as American Express and Capital One have allowed cardholders to skip payments without interest. Other banks such as U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo have also announced that they are offering to waive fees and provide other forms of hardship assistance. Again, you will need to contact your bank and see what they are offering.

3. Use Your Savings

This is a reasonable time to dip into your savings account.

Whether it's a time deposit account, notice accounts or a fixed rate savings account, it would be practical to use this money as a buffer to get you through the entire quarantine period. At any rate, ensure that you can withdraw the amount you need without any penalties.

4. Spend Less by Scaling Down or Discounting

So long as this crisis lasts, it is important to keep your spending to a minimum. This may mean scaling down on non-essential expenses such as streaming subscriptions and luxuries bought online. These are sacrifices you may need to make to keep yourself financially afloat in the next few weeks or until the crisis passes.

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Another way you can slow down the depletion of your hard cash reserves is to make full use of gift cards, loyalty points, and discount vouchers. These will really come in handy if you are going out shopping for groceries.

And considering that this is a national health emergency, you should consider making use of cards that help you pay less for prescription medicine. Check out prescription discount card details for where and how to find the best deals.

5. Leverage Mortgage and Rent Holidays

One good thing right now is that mortgage providers are offering different types of mortgage relief interventions for homeowners who can defer making payments through a 90-day period.

If you are in a difficult situation, it is best to contact your lender and see if you can strike up a forbearance agreement.

If you're renting an apartment, make sure to talk with your landlord to discuss new payment terms and see if you can avoid paying late penalties. Local governments are prohibiting evictions from taking place. This could give significant relief if you have been displaced as a result of the pandemic.

In such extraordinary times, you need to keep your finances from dwindling. This might take simple sacrifices or leveraging government aid efforts. In either case, your financial survival will depend at least partly on the measures you take.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses worldwide has been nothing but staggering, and not in a good way. No industry in the global economy is left untouched and a recession is imminent now. This means that money transfer companies are going to suffer through some major downtime. The question is whether they will be able to get through it and how they will have to change.

On the other hand, the pandemic has caused a major increase in the demand for fintech solutions. This means that money transfer companies with a wide range of additional services might get an opportunity to increase their customer base.

How Do Money Transfer Companies Make Money?

To understand the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact in the money transfer industry one needs to understand how that industry operates. Online money transfer platforms and brokers have been growing rapidly in number and popularity over the last few years. The reason for this is the increased rate of globalisation.

However, the growth of such businesses is also one of the reasons that make this rate of globalisation possible. These services made international money transfers affordable. This means that cross-border financial transactions became available for small businesses and investors.

Not so long ago, bank wire transfers and a few money transfer corporations (Western Union and MoneyGram) were the only options for transferring money abroad. The problem with them is that both charged high rates. They also use a high markup on foreign currency exchange rates.

Online money transfer platforms and brokers have been growing rapidly in number and popularity over the last few years.

Overall, a single transfer to or from abroad could cost up to, and sometimes even over, 10% of the amount. Small businesses with their tiny revenue couldn’t afford such transactions. Therefore, they were denied the opportunities offered by using cheaper services and materials delivered from abroad.

The situation is like this because those fees and markups are what banks use to make money. However, online money transfer companies are completely different. They do not transfer money physically across borders. Instead, the customer deposits the amount they need to the company’s account in their country. Then, the company transfers an equal amount to the recipient from its account in their country.

This approach allows businesses to minimise transfer costs. And money transfer companies that operate in such a manner make their profit from the volume of transfers they process. Therefore, it’s more beneficial for them to keep their fees as low as possible to attract more customers.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Money Transfer Companies’ Customers

Unfortunately, due to the crisis caused by the pandemic, money transfer companies have fallen on some bad times. Even #1 companies like TransferWise struggle because of the reduced flow of transfers. These companies largely depend on small businesses, which are failing at an alarming rate.

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It’s not a surprise because even big international corporations are struggling today. For example, the reduction in international travel, has already caused the near-collapse of Virgin Atlantic. With huge companies like this failing to survive, the majority of small businesses have no chance whatsoever.

The other major group of customers for money transfer companies is small property investors. Cheap transfers made it possible even for people without huge fortunes to purchase properties abroad. This rapidly developed into a major industry as easy international transportation made the tourism industry boom. However, with travel restrictions and lockdowns in many countries, the hospitality sector has been hit greatly. The reduction in buyer capability will also affect the real estate market all over the world.

COVID-19 Pandemic Repercussions for Small Businesses

Small businesses have been hit the hardest by this situation. Their main problem is the lack of free funds to tide them over through the lockdown. There are some lending programs from governments that should help these types of enterprises. However, those are hardly sufficient. They are also not available worldwide.

Because of the enforced hiatus, small businesses have reduced the volume of their international transfers. The situation should change for the better when the world gears back after lockdowns are lifted. However, this would be a slow process.

In the interim, money transfer companies will suffer the same fate as small businesses. Those among them that do not have the funds to get through the downturn will perish.

Future of the Real Estate Industry Post Coronavirus

The real estate market worldwide is pretty much frozen at the moment. It’s starting to reanimate in some places, but this process is even slower than the small business restoration.

The good news is that the housing market in many countries has been on the rise in recent years. On the other hand, the pandemic has severely decreased people’s ability to actually buy properties. This means that the current slowdown of the market will be followed by a bigger dip. The real estate industry will recover in time, but this won’t happen fast.

The good news is that the housing market in many countries has been on the rise in recent years.

Meanwhile, investors are sure to reduce their transfers. Again, money transfer companies will lose a major contributor to their cash flow, but offering assistance and hedging tools to the existing investors today can help tide them over.

Will Money Transfer Companies Recover after the Pandemic?

The situation for money transfer companies and brokers is grim today. However, there is no doubt that it will improve. Moreover, this industry should recover faster than some others. That’s because this type of service has been in great demand even before the pandemic. But after this world-shaking event, it will be even more needed.

As mentioned before, even big corporations now struggle to stay afloat. Therefore, they will be looking for every way to cut costs and boost their efficiency. International deals and cheap money transfers are both essential for succeeding in this.

Admittedly, governments are doing what they can to support businesses and therefore reduce the negative impact of the pandemic. However, their success is limited, and it’s only a few countries that can make any big difference for small businesses.

Therefore, money transfer companies will have to wait for a while until their customer traffic is restored. The ones that can make it will definitely grow rapidly. Also, businesses that expand to online banking on top of offering international transfers have a better chance. Those are already in high demand as the world is going digital even faster than before.

All in all, for all that it seems bad now, the situation for the money transfer industry is very promising.

Little do they realise that a lot can be done to encourage clients to pay faster, in some cases even before the due date. Being diligent and following the invoicing tips mentioned in this post, businesses can get paid faster and maintain smooth cash flow. 

1. Send Timely Invoices

For businesses that don’t have formalised accounting departments, sending invoices in a timely manner might be a tough concept to grasp. But the fact of the matter is, the quicker you send your invoice the quicker it’s going to get paid. 

Ideally, you should be invoicing your clients as soon as the products/services have been delivered. Here are the reasons why you should do this:

• Setting expectations: You want to project a professional image of your business and sending invoices immediately shows you take money matters very seriously. This will build expectations with clients accordingly, and they’ll be inclined to pay you faster.
• Value of products/services: Another reason why you want to send invoices immediately is that the value of your services/products is still fresh in the client’s mind. 

Most business owners delay sending invoices because it’s usually a cumbersome process. But with a specialised invoicing software, it really isn't. Once you have the software set up to generate the kind of invoice you want, it’s only a matter of putting in data and pressing a couple of buttons, and you’ll have a professional invoice ready. 

2. Set Clear Due Dates

Don’t leave it up to the client to decide the due date of your invoice! Having clearly mentioned due dates for invoice payment will communicate that you want the cash by a certain time.

There’s some technical terminology for this. For example, writing “net 30” means that the invoice must be paid 30 days from the invoice date.

Novice business owners don’t even need to use this terminology. They can simply write “Payment due on DD/MM/YYYY” for absolute clarity. With this the client won’t have the excuse of not understanding the terminology as well.

It’s also recommended to write full month names to avoid ambiguity, such as “February 3, 2020”.

Don’t leave it up to the client to decide the due date of your invoice!

3. Avoid Extended Due Dates for Payments

It’s good to be flexible when it comes to payments. You don’t want to give your clients a two-day window to make payments. But you don’t want to give them too much time as well. 

Do not give your clients the freedom to pay late, as they’ll naturally gravitate towards this option. A balance must be struck here, with a payment term that’s short but relaxed enough that the client doesn’t feel flustered by it. 

4. Impose Late Payment Penalties

This may sound a bit harsh to some business owners, who often have cordial relations with their clients. But hey, this is the lifeline of your business we’re talking about.

Imposing some kind of penalty on late payments can be a great motivator for clients to pay on time. For example, you could add a certain amount of interest on the payment if it’s paid after the due date. 

In fact, having these terms means that the client will often make the payment much before the due date, out of caution. 

Don’t forget to communicate these late payment terms to your clients beforehand. 

You don’t want to appear brash about late payment penalties, so here’s the correct way to do it:

• Clearly include a section on late payment in your invoice.
• Communicate and agree on the late payment fees with your clients in advance (beginning of project).

Having a clearly stated policy on penalising lateness means that clients are far more likely to send payments early.

5. Incentivise Fast Payments

The goal of effective and efficient invoicing is to optimize the cash flow of a business. To get payments as fast as possible, you may want to incentivise clients who choose to pay you on time. 

For example, you could offer a small discount to clients who pay ahead of the due date. You could also offer them a gift card of some sort - you get the idea.

6. Break Down Larger Invoices

You may be working with businesses that just don’t like to pay large invoices, for a multitude of reasons. 

In this case, you can try breaking down invoices into several instalments. Instead of sending them an invoice for a large sum of money after 60 days, send them invoices after every 15 days, with smaller amounts. 

This will work well for both you and your client because:

• You’ll get regular cash inflow.
• The client will find it easy to process smaller invoices.

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7. Send Friendly Reminders

Have you heard how email follow ups can dramatically improve the reply rates of email campaigns? The same goes for invoicing as well. Your client may have received the invoice but simply forgot to pay it. 

This is why sending friendly reminders as the due date approaches is a good idea. You don’t have to demand that the client pay in these reminders, but rather make them aware of the fact that the due date is fast approaching. 

Some business owners even use these email reminders to open opportunities regarding upselling products or services to the client. Be creative!

8. Treat Your Customers Well

This is the most basic tip we can give, but also something that’s important. Delivering quality products or services to your clients is a great motivator for them to pay you on time.

Enabled by the state, China’s technology companies have been able to influence consumer technology adoption in a much more homogenous way than in the West. Its digital payment system, powered by Alipay and WeChat Pay, is almost universal as a result. Even small roadside stalls routinely use digital wallets. A visitor to China soon realises that, back here in the West, we are still incredibly analogue.

What’s more, Alipay is beginning to move beyond its Chinese borders. With a projected 250m active users by March 2020, the Indian population is actively engaging with Paytm (part-owned by Alipay), despite an often fractious relationship between the two nations.

China has managed to be nimble with its digital payments innovation and adoption despite or maybe because of its intervention. In the West, democracies take a long time to agree governance and regulation. Individual companies are making forays but there’s still a lack of cohesion. There’s also huge barriers thanks to a lack of trust - just look at the scepticism over Facebook’s digital currency, Libra, many of whose key partners have abandoned the scheme.

The West is going to need to find a way of building its own cashless framework soon. If it can’t, consumers will gravitate to whatever is available. It's not about where the technology is developed, it’s about making people’s lives easier. If a technology or business provides a way to reduce friction in someone’s life, then consumers will adopt that technology. Also, payment systems are as much about the trust and ecosystem in which they operate as they are about the technology. Increasingly, the rest of the world is starting to see that 1.2 billion people can’t be wrong.

China has managed to be nimble with its digital payments innovation and adoption despite or maybe because of its intervention.

The imperative to develop an answer to Alipay and WeChat Pay goes beyond national pride – the rapid growth of a universal, digital, cashless payment alternative has the potential to supplant national currencies themselves. Even the US has acknowledged this - with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell calling Facebook’s work on Libra a ‘wake-up’ call to the importance of digital currency.

A little history: in terms of the threat to the dollar, the traditional currency system has been previously pegged to the gold reserves. In the Nixon and Reagan eras, they removed the dollar peg to the gold reserves. As a result, now it is not pegged to anything. The relationship between the dollar and gold was disconnected.

When that happened the dollar rose in status - it became the reserve currency for every country in the world. Even China has an estimated $2 trillion held as a reserve, because of its universal recognition around the world and the fact that banking systems are controlled by the West. This, in turn, gives the US a lot of benefits - as long as people hold the dollar, the currency is stable. In a cashless society where the currency is digital, those reserves held around the world will be less meaningful as digital reinvents the global monetary system.

While Alipay is certainly powerful in its domestic market, it has not quite reached the status of a currency, although critically it is tied to the existing Chinese currency infrastructure. It follows that technology has the potential to disrupt the idea of national currency.

I am not predicting that this disruption is just around the corner but it’s clear that as more consumers experience more forms of digital payments, they will increasingly migrate to digital currencies. The West needs a cashless payment mechanism and we can’t assume that we can hold customers back until we’re ready. It is the law of numbers. It is about the ecosystem these numbers create. You attract people by making the experience as frictionless and connected as possible. Then these people will bring more people.

However, approximately a quarter of the global population (1.7 billion adults) do not have or have ever owned a bank account, based on figures by the most recent research from the World Bank Group.

Predictably, the results show that a large amount of the unbanked population originates in countries such as Nigeria, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Mexico; the developing part of the world. But perhaps unexpectedly, one of the main factors for a significant number of unbanked people in these regions is not always their income level.

Below James Booth, VP, Head of Payment Partnerships EMEA at PPRO, explains further for Finance Monthly.

About half of unbanked adults come from the poorest 40% of households within their economy. Minimal education and high unemployment is only a fraction of the explanation. Account costs regarding set-up and maintenance, as well as the lack of physical accessibility to banks, are major obstacles in many communities.

In Europe, countries like Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have a 100% banked population. But, like any aspect of culture, the population of banked consumers can differ significantly from country to country. Take the Czech Republic, for example, with an 81% banked population and Hungary at 75%.

How is shopping online possible without a bank account?

In 2020, commerce is customer-centric. At a time when any device can become a point of sale, consumers expect a seamless, integrated shopping experience. The shopping habits of consumers – including the unbanked ones – must be taken into account when optimising their experience. A big part of that experience is the way people prefer to pay for their purchase. For example, the number of contactless payments made in the UK surged by 31% in a year to reach 7.4bn in 2018, meaning that the UK remains one of the highest users of debit and credit-based payment methods. However, this is not the case for the rest of the world.

Bank transfers, e-wallets, cash-based payments, and other local payment methods have previously been called alternative payment methods. But they are no longer the alternative; they are the norm for most of the world. According to a Worldpay report, 75% of all e-commerce purchases will be paid for via local payment methods by 2021.

Bank transfers, e-wallets, cash-based payments, and other local payment methods have previously been called alternative payment methods. But they are no longer the alternative; they are the norm for most of the world.

Oxxo, for example, is a cash-based payment method widely used in Mexico to purchase goods online. The shopper gets a transaction voucher from the merchant and then goes to an Oxxo convenience store with their voucher to pay the balance in cash. Then the merchant releases the goods for delivery. Cash-based payment methods are a low-tech solution for the unbanked who shop online. At the opposite end of the spectrum are high-tech payment methods, which continue to grow in popularity alongside increasing rates of internet and smartphone penetration.

57% (4.388 billion) of the world now has access to the internet and a further 67% (5.112 billion) have access to mobile devices, up 100 million (2%) in the past year, according to the latest Global Digital 2019 reports. In Africa alone, there are 444 million mobile users, which enables people, even in the most remote locations, to shop online via e-wallets. These e-wallets are linked to the user’s mobile phone account, which they can top up with cash and use to buy goods and services online.

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A growing customer base

Tapping into a new market isn’t the most straightforward task. Nevertheless, it is one that needs to be faced head-on by any business that wants to prosper and grow. Building a positive, smooth experience for customers can be complex, but there is a solution. Third-party payment experts and aggregators can deliver regional knowledge and financial and technical connections on an international scale, partnering with merchants (or their payment service providers) for an easier path to expansion.

The reality of the global population becoming fully banked is still some way off, and we can expect the payments market to become increasingly fragmented. Unbanked adults may still be a relatively small minority, but the gap between the banked and unbanked population is widening. And businesses that adapt to this market have a substantial advantage over those that don’t.

The transaction between Worldline and Ingenico, alongside Atos which is owned by Worldline, comes to together to create Europe’s largest payments company, and the fourth largest in the world.

Reports indicate the overall implied equity value of the buyout deal is EUR 7.8 billion (£6.6 billion), a 16% premium on the existing market capitalisation of Ingenico of around EUR 6.7 billion. The deal also serves to boost earnings per share in either firm and save the new firm around EUR 250 million by 2024.

Still awaiting regulatory approval, the transaction has not come as a surprise in the payments sector, and it should be expected to be finalised by the third quarter of 2020, by which Worldline shareholders will own a 65% majority stake in the new firm, and Ingenico shareholders would take away 35%.

Current Chairman and CEO of Worldline Gilles Grapinet will become solely the new company’s CEO, as Ingenico’s current Chairman Bernard Bourigeaud becomes the new entity’s non-executive chairman.

Here, we’ll look at the components you should include in your marketing plan and how your method of accepting payment can impact your business.

Let’s get started:

Developing a Marketing plan

Effective marketing requires time, money, and preparation. To stay on a budget and schedule when marketing your business, you need to have a marketing plan. A marketing plan involves the steps you’ll take to market your business to potential customers.

Your Business plan needs to include the basic essential elements of your marketing strategy.

Essential Sections of a Marketing Plan

Most marketing plans include these components. As usual, only use what works best for your business.

Market Research

Research is a key component of a marketing plan. You can start by checking with your local library offering market reports. You can even access some library cards online.

Study the size of the market in the industry, customer buying habits, market growth or decline, and other current trends.

Target Market

A detailed market description can help identify your potential buyers. Consider the market size, unique traits, demographics, and demand trends.

Competitive Advantage

Describe what puts your products or services ahead of other products. It could be a lower price, a better product, or excellent customer service. Having eco-friendly certification, or “made in the USA” label, can mean a lot to customers.

Sales Plan

How will you sell your product or service to your customers? List the sales methods you plan to use, for instance, retail, wholesale, or online. Let your customers know each step to take when they decide to buy.

Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy will determine whether you’ll reach your sales goal or not. Ask yourself, “how do I find and attract potential buyers?”

Look at the entire market and then come up with specific tactics to use, such as events, email, direct mail, content strategy, social media, couponing, street teams, seminars, webinars, partnerships, and any activity that can help reach potential customers.

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Budget

How much do you want to spend on your marketing plan? Here try to be as accurate as possible. You’ll need to track your costs when executing your plan.

Measure and Update Your Plan

Be sure to check how marketing costs compare with generated revenue. You’ll want to ensure you’re getting a good return on investment.

Some tactics, such as word-of-mouth, are hard to measure. So get creative and get advice from other people. The key thing here is to be consistent in measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Selecting Payment Methods

Do you know the kind of payments you accept can affect your marketing and sales? Be sure to choose secure, cost-effective forms of payments. Such payments offer a positive experience for your customers. No matter what payment methods you accept, you’ll require a business bank account.

No matter what payment methods you accept,

you’ll require a business bank account.

Credit Cards

To accept debit and credit cards, you’ll need either an account with a third-party payment processing company or a merchant services with your bank.

In addition to the cost of setting the required equipment, you’ll be charged a processing fee for each debit or credit card transaction.

Accepting debit and credit cards can expose you to fraud risk, but most providers offer a certain degree of protection for your business.

Checks

To accept checks, you need to have a business bank account.

To avoid fraudulent or bad checks, you need to develop a policy for accepting checks. For instance, you can decide to only accept checks from in-state banks. Or require checks to include only the validity of given checks by taking a photo of them using mobile banking apps (some banks allow instant check clearance using mobile apps) making the transaction much more fluid.

Checks can not only be used to receive payments from customers, but they are a nifty financial tool for making business payments. The best thing is that you can buy your checks online, thus saving money when reordering business checks. You just need to google online and choose a vendor that matches your needs.

Cash

Some small businesses only accept cash because it’s easy, fast, and inexpensive.

However, this option increases the accounting time and security risk. Be sure to develop a secure way to hold your cash, like a safe and register.

Online Payments

If you run an online business, you have the option of using an online payment service to accept payment through your website.

Typically, online payment services accept debit and credit cards. You’ll be charged a small fee to accept payment online.

Below Christine Bailey, Chief Marketing Officer at international payment solutions company Valitor, explains for Finance Monthly the complexities of valuation and exactly how retailers can determine the value of their stores.

One look around our high streets or news website and you are met with empty stores and articles proclaiming the death of the high street. However, things are starting to change. So it’s time to reevaluate high street stores and put a new price on them.

Price wars with eCommerce 

The reality that has existed for some time is that with higher overheads and a smaller inventory, bricks and mortar stores are at too big a disadvantage to compete with eCommerce on price and choice. Smartphones in hand, consumers are quickly comparing online and in-store prices and buying whatever is cheapest and most convenient. Things only get worse with large scale events such as Black Friday. In fact, nine in ten Heads of Commerce believe these sale events have devalued products in the minds of consumers, to the extent that they’re less likely to shop during non-discounted periods.

In order for brands and retailers to effectively revalue their stores, we need to understand what physical stores can offer and online cannot. Firstly, bricks and mortar have a clear lead with personalising the customer experience. By blending their online and offline setups together, omni-channel retailers can dramatically improve the customer experience

By blending their online and offline setups together, omni-channel retailers can dramatically improve the customer experience.

Offering more than quick sales

For instance, physical stores can benefit an omnichannel retailer via its unique strengths, including in-person support, simple returns, and the ease of payments. In fact, recent research found that almost one in five (19%) retail executives think the top hidden strength of the high street is its people. Assets like in-person support then should not be overlooked. Together, these strengths contribute to a robust in-store customer experience, which may not translate into a sale being made at the store itself, but can support online sales, or reinforce the brand.

Taking this further, there are other elements that omni-channel retailers also need to take advantage of. Embracing an experiential approach and putting customers at the centre of a physical brand experience is key to revaluing physical stores. Through shifting their focus from selling products to the people purchasing them, brands can connect with consumers on another level and start building long term relationships.

One great example and leader in this area is Nespresso. By focusing on consumer needs, Nespresso’s stores showcase its products in an immersive way, creating a multisensory experience. Staff add to this with expert knowledge and can take customers from the physical point of sale all the way to a personalised subscription plan which is then facilitated via its app. So although purchases are made via the app, the physical store has a major driver in securing the sale in the first place and providing an experience centre to push new products and flavours.

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Nespresso’s customers now no longer see its stores as just a place to make purchases. Instead, they have become destinations that they want to go, all of which helps build a positive connection with the brand and support the development of a long term relationship. This type of store usage can be replicated quickly and easily by other brands too. What is crucial is having a physical presence that aligned to customer needs.

In the future we may see innovative technologies such as VR and AR also being used, shifting shoppers’ experiences from simply browsing, to immersing themselves in a brand’s offering. But, retailers need to understand it before they invest in it. Crucially, brands also need to identify whether their customers are actually interested in it and see benefit in using it, prioritising their wants and needs.

In this high-pressure era of retail, stores should not be valued purely on revenue anymore. Instead, they should be viewed as a way to complete true end-to-end experiences from first engagement through to the next purchase. Ultimately, this will increase customer retention and the value of each transaction too. While revenue is an ever-important consideration, the ways customers make purchases has changed. This does not mean the value of stores has disappeared. Instead, brands and retailers need to look at how a physical stores advantage can be used to improve the omni-channel experience.

For $5.3 billion, Visa has agreed to acquire the Silicon Valley start-up Plaid, a firm that is already backed by huge tech investors such as Mary Meeker and Andreessen Horowitz as well as Goldman Sachs. It was valued in 2018 at $2.65bn and is now already worth twice as much.

For visa, this transactions means a deeper push into the ever-growing fintech sector, particularly after is bought a minority stake in Klarna in 2017.

Plaid is a software provider that enables other fintechs and payments services to access customer bank accounts and details, enabling smoother handling of information for financial planning apps, money transfer apps and so forth.

Al Kelly, chief executive and chairman of Visa, said: “This acquisition is the natural evolution of Visa's 60-year journey from safely and securely connecting buyers and sellers to connecting consumers with digital financial services.”

“The combination of Visa and Plaid will put us at the epicentre of the fintech world, expanding our total addressable market and accelerating our long-term revenue growth trajectory,” he continued, according to the FT.

Reporting on the agreed acquisition, Forbes fintech expert Jeff Kauflin believes Visa is strategically acquiring plaid for the sake of its relationships and partners: “Plaid’s 2019 revenue was between $100 and $200 million… Visa would be paying a sky-high price of 35 times sales, one of the highest price-sales multiples in recent history for a private company.

“Visa’s primary reasons for buying Plaid are twofold. First, Plaid works with the vast majority of the largest fintech apps in the US, including Venmo, Square Cash, Chime, Acorns, Robinhood, and Coinbase. With the acquisition, Visa gets access to an important, ballooning base of customers that it can sell additional payment services to. Second, Visa has a global network that’s unparalleled in financial technology, with millions of customers across 200 countries. That will make it much easier for Visa to take Plaid global.”

On the other hand, Stefano Vaccino, founder and CEO of Yapily, believes that this is just the first of many moves by card operators, in anticipation of the changes to the way we pay, powered by Open Banking: "It’s great to see big players positioning themselves in the world of open banking and open finance, this will help to accelerate the sector’s growth even further. 

“Card payments are expensive for merchants to process, and with two-factor authentication on its way in the second part of this year, there will be an increased layer of friction. Payments through Open Banking will offer a smoother and more secure way to pay, and will provide an opportunity for merchants to decrease costs and transfer these benefits to consumers.

“This space will be disrupted hugely as the possibilities of open finance are realised, and incumbents must innovate to remain relevant.”