APIs, RETAIL & ECOMMERCE SumUp, the payment solution for microbusinesses, pivoted during the pandemic to provide merchants who had been forced to shut up shop with a suite of online transaction services. For some, it’s proved transformational, says the company’s Peter de Souza Like many small traders in Italy, COVID restrictions threatened to put Marco the parrot seller out of business – just as demand for pet birds during lockdown was taking off. With no visitors allowed to his store and no means of taking payments other than face to face, he turned to small business payments provider SumUp to help him launch a ‘parrot post’ – a home delivery service, with transactions facilitated by text message. Now, he says, parrots are literally flying out of the door. Marco is testament to the resilience of millions of microbusinesses that, despite the initial confusion, panic and doom, have found ways to survive – even thrive – during the pandemic, because technology, in the form of new payment channels and solutions, has come to their rescue… when the going gets tough, as they say, you've still got to keep the cashflow going. That’s not to play down the catastrophic impact the pandemic has had on small businesses. In the UK alone, 234,000 of them have already permanently ceased trading since the start of the crisis.
And of those left, a study by Simply Business found that 67 per cent had suspended trading at some point in the last six months, suffering an average loss of around £11,000 (this jumps to £21,000 in the hospitality sector). When you consider that SMEs account for 99 per cent of all UK businesses, contributing a combined £2trillion to the economy, and are responsible for 60 per cent of all employment, it’s clear that those individual tragedies affect all of us. But a recent regional report from Lloyds Bank gives grounds for optimism. It shows that a whole host of businesses have embraced new ways to trade – specifically by going online. Half of them, the report finds, would have ceased trading without it, with almost a quarter moving online for the first time. Moreover, a third said they had increased their online trade since the pandemic started. Another third reported cost savings from using it, while half said the internet and digital adoption had helped simplify their businesses.
SumUp, which was launched specifically with the payment needs of micromerchants with up to 25 employees in mind, has responded to this rapid change in fortunes with a new suite of service options.
Ever-increasing portfolio Founded in 2012, SumUp operates in 33 countries, and is backed by the likes of American Express, BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), Groupon and Holtzbrinck Ventures. Originally, it largely focussed on face-to-face, physical payments, but with this year’s increased abandonment of cash, it has transformed its offering, providing additional tools and partnership services. SumUp’s head of demand generation for sales and partnerships in Europe, Peter de Souza, explains: “Early in 2020, we expanded into multi-channel payments, which means we now offer an online store, we have payment links and invoicing, and even a SumUp card. “What this means for all different types of businesses – the coconut seller in São Paulo, the taxi driver in Berlin, the café in London – is that they can not only accept card payments, but do it from anywhere. All it takes is connectivity with a card reader or mobile device, and customers can pay them however they want to. That’s the key change.” It’s clear that 2020 has been as transformative for this company as it has for the micromerchants it serves. In March, it introduced SumUp Invoicing and Mobile Payments, but it was the launch of the SumUp Online Store that de Souza regards as the real game-changer.
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Issue 7 | ThePaytechMagazine
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