Challenge
Having recently launched a set of differentiated payment propositions for small and medium-sized businesses, a merchant acquiring bank wanted to ensure it stayed on top of product-market fit in an evolving, post-covid landscape.
Role & Responsibilities
I worked as a market research consultant across multiple engagements. I surveyed and interviewed current and prospective customers across established and emerging verticals in the small business market segment to map patterns in changing payment needs.
Approach
We ran time-bound mixed-method research, often using a mix of primary and desk research techniques.
After each research cycle, we made recommendations on what the firm should continue to do, where they should invest, and on the areas they needed to explore further. Some of our recommendations included investing in digital self-service, and exploring integrations in the accounting and insurance spaces.
SME State of Play, 2022
Post-covid we ran research with small business prospects in the UK and Ireland to find out what consumer businesses in emerging (private medical, accounting and trades) and established (retail and hospitality) verticals expect from a card payment provider, and what this could mean for the bank's payment packages.
One finding that resonated particularly strongly with retail and hospitality businesses was that the online revenue streams that many businesses were forced to adopt as a reaction to UK lockdowns and restrictions had now become a core part of their offer making integrated payment views a desirable feature.
Testing Payment Propositions, 2024
Following on from our previous research, and as the shift towards omni commerce solutions, value-add services and integrated payments became more established, we tested the bank's existing packages and new omni-channel solutions with prioritised verticals to help our client build and validate a GTM plan.
This research established that ‘faster payments’ is an important differentiator and should be included as standard across packages, with other features like integrations and advanced fraud unlocked to attract growing or higher turnover businesses. It also disproved a previously held assumption that certain packages were best suited to businesses of a certain size with high turnover automotive businesses preferring packages initially designed for micro hospitality vendors.
This led to an internal repositioning of how these packages are bundled and marketed to different businesses.