Making payments safe and easy

Using digital payments to make your business more secure

It's a good business practice to make payments easy since both business and consumer buyers are accustomed to making purchases the way they want. Companies are recognizing that it's a competitive advantage to offer a variety of payment options. More than one-third of all small and midsized businesses (SMBs) in a recent survey from Citizens say that expanding the number of customer payment methods they accept is a current priority.

Specifically, resilient companies are turning to digital payment tools in greater numbers. Resilient businesses in the survey offer 25% more digital payment tools than less resilient companies. The positive impact is clear in the data: Resilient companies are expecting 68% growth in the coming year.

"Customers today want a number of easy ways to pay, and successful SMBs are meeting that need with digital tools", says Kate Conroy, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Payments Strategy & Innovation at Citizens. "Using a variety of digital payment tools can also lower business costs and automate payment data tracking, which saves time and contributes to informed business decision-making."

It's also critical to make payments safe. Digital payment tools can help protect customer and company data by offering consistent and comprehensive safeguards. Research from Cybersource¹ shows that 28% of merchants are choosing to use a variety of digital payment options specifically to lower their risk of payment fraud.

How popular digital payment methods make businesses more secure

Here are some of the top digital payment tools SMBs plan to use and how each one can help to safeguard business payments.

• Digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. Money transfer tools such as Cash App™, PayPal™, Venmo™, and Zelle™ give customers a secure way to pay with the click of a button. No personally identifiable information is shared when sending or receiving money, making the transaction secure.
• Mastercard Direct. Like a debit card, these cards connect to a user’s bank account to make real-time payments. But like a credit card, these cards can be used to make payments securely anywhere in the world. More than half of resilient companies in the survey use this tool to fight financial fraud compared with only 28% of other companies.
• Point-of-sale (POS) systems. Tools such as Square™, Shopify™, and Toast™ have built-in fraud prevention features to help detect and mitigate fraud. Data transmitted between devices and servers is secure. Roughly 50% of resilient SMBs use these digital payment tools for business payments fraud prevention compared with 38% of other companies.
• Contactless point of sale. "Tap and go" payment options such as Google Pay™ and Apple Pay™ transfer secure payments through one-time codes that are generated when consumers make a purchase.
• Invoicing software. Platforms such as Autobooks™, FreshBooks™, QuickBooks™, and Zoho™ that let customers pay their invoices online help businesses reduce fraud by providing an all-in-one view of their accounts and transactions, to make sure payments are secure and accurate. More than four in 10 resilient companies will use invoicing software offered by a bank to let customers pay online, compared with 27% of less resilient businesses.
• Electronic receivables. Options with two-factor authentication and encryption such as lockbox networks, ACH, EDI, and wire transfers provide a secure way for businesses to accept both domestic and international payments. Electronic receivables can also reduce the risk of check fraud schemes such as check washing, where paper checks are stolen from mailboxes and altered before criminals cash them. Close to four in 10 resilient SMBs will use domestic electronic receivables in the next 12 months; 34% will use international electronic receivables.

See how Citizens can help your business keep payments safe and easy. Check out these resources to discover ways you can protect against financial fraud.