Despite the dominance of alternative payments, credit cards also have their niche for online B2B purchases: recurring and low-ticket transactions.

“This is where cards find their optimal market opportunity for B2B purchases. Cards offer an unparalleled user experience for recurring and digital purchases, which makes them the number one choice for businesses buying software or other digital services,” says André Peixoto, Director of Operations at EBANX. 

Indeed, EBANX internal data shows that cards account for the majority of B2B sales for SaaS, social media, and digital services in Brazil, with over 50% of the volume in the past two years. These verticals have an average ticket of around USD 100—only 10% of the average purchase value for other B2B purchases.

Of course, using credit cards for B2B purchases faces challenges due to their low ownership rate among the overall population in emerging markets, which can be as low as 2% in Nigeria and Indonesia, and 11% in Mexico, per the World Bank Global Findex. However, as companies become digitized and financially included, card issuers see this as an opportunity to grow commercial card penetration, especially among SMBs. 

According to Lindsay Lehr, Managing Director at PCMI (Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence), commercial card offerings, which typically include travel insurance or corporate benefits, are increasingly shifting to allow access to digital subscriptions such as Office 365, Slack, Canva, Facebook Ads, and other digital services needed by SMBs. 

“There's a transformation of how commercial cards are being used by small businesses. At the end of the day, cards are still the best payment method for digital services today,” says Lehr.

Credit card spending can also be an important source of financing for SMBs. In Brazil, according to official data from the Central Bank, credit cards represent around 12% of all credit obtained by micro and small-sized companies. This makes them the 3rd largest source of credit for SMBs in the country.

Enterprise companies can also benefit from credit card spending. “For large companies, cards bring the ability to manage cash flow more effectively, with different settlement times, more sophisticated reward or loyalty programs,” says Etcheverry from EBANX.

A recent report by Euromonitor International highlighted the importance of reward programs for cards to compete with other electronic B2B payments, which currently represent 71% of B2B spending worldwide. 

The study recommends card strategies tailored to merchant size and that include value-added services, such as virtual card issuance, individual spending control, or multicurrency cards to avoid high FX fees.