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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – U.S. Small Businesses are Reeling as a Result of COVID-19
Small Businesses Are Making More International Payments, and Using More Cards:
- In 2019, 37% of small businesses made an international payment. In 2020, 43% of small businesses did so.
- While business credit card (50%) and business debit card (43%) are still the most dominant payment methods, others are seeing huge gains.
- The largest increase in payment method came from PayPal, increasing from 13% in 2019 to 25% in 2020.
- Business charge cards and personal credit/charge cards also increased substantially, with each increasing by 9% from 2019 to 2020.
- In 2019, 12% of small businesses used bank account transfers to make international payments; this rose to 20% in 2020.
- In 2020 small businesses began using cross-border payments specialists (6%), up from a base of 0% in 2019.
- International wire transfers for small businesses increased 7%, from 10% in 2019 to 17% in 2020.
About Report
Mercator Advisory Group’s new Insight Summary Report, 2020 Small Business PaymentsInsights, COVID-19 and B2B Payments & Cards – The Result of the Pandemic, reveals that U.S. small businesses have a much less positive view of the future than in previous years. The report is the first of three from Mercator’s annual Small Business PaymentsInsights Survey Series, a part of Mercator’s Primary Data Service. It is based on findings from Mercator Advisory Group’s online survey of 2,000 U.S. small businesses fielded in March and April 2020.
The report details the ways COVID-19 has changed small businesses and their outlook on the near-term future of their businesses. The report also provides insight into how small businesses bank and pay for goods and services, their banking relationships, how they view technology and their top business concerns.
“Small businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. In many ways, more than their larger counterparts. Organizations that service small business have an opportunity to help these firms as they try to come out of the COVID crisis,” states the author of the report, Pete Reville, Director of Primary Data Services including Small Business PaymentsInsights Survey Series at Mercator Advisory Group.