Shopify has launched a bill pay solution with Israeli B2B payments company Melio to help U.S. merchants manage costs and vendors.
Shruti Patel, Shopify’s global head of merchant services alliances and monetization, said it’s part of their fintech-commerce strategy.
The new tool is based on the idea that merchants may spend more time building their businesses if they spend less time aggregating and paying bills. In an interview with TechCrunch, Patel said retailers wanted money movement capabilities.
“Stripe-powered payments started our fintech journey,” she added. Our payment data was illuminated by it. In 2016, we launched Shopify Capital, a micro and macro loan solution for retailers. In addition, Shopify Balance, a money management tool, was released last year.
Shopify wants its bill pay option fully integrated into the shop administration, where its merchant clients operate their businesses.
“Banks and financial institutions offer bill pay today, it’s pretty redirect,” Patel added. “…But many of those experiences are faulty because they only link to a bank account and allow people to access them through that one payment method.”
She added Shopify shops might use bank accounts, Shopify Balance, credit or debit cards, or ACH bank transfers. In addition, credit cards are accepted even if a seller doesn’t.
“It’s not only cost optionality on which payment method and how to choose that, but also the speed we are allowing them to schedule payments,” Patel said. She claimed Shopify might make payments four days earlier than a bank. Merchants can pre-schedule payments.
Patel said retailers pay “inimal fees” for credit card payments, but bill pay is free.
“One of the reasons we wanted to do this for our merchants is going back to some of the feedback we heard that bill pay is a pain point, especially for smaller merchants who cannot afford very expensive subscription plans,” she added.
Bill Pay will help Shopify track its expenditures and vendors. Patel said banks have the expertise but don’t use it since they ddon’tmaintain shops for small companies. “e want to use data to increase merchant revenue.” Shopify stated that it had “illions of merchants” worldwide.
