As we move further into 2024, the way consumers and businesses access credit and financing is being radically transformed by embedded lending solutions. By seamlessly integrating bank loans and credit products into customer user journeys, merchants are unlocking larger sales volumes, increasing average order value and even building their brand loyalty and customer lifetime value.
Embedded lending experienced major growth and adoption in 2022 and 2023 as businesses looked for new ways to boost sales, enhance the customer experience and differentiate their offerings. As we head further into 2024, embedded lending is becoming an essential, mainstream service across industries expected by consumers and business buyers alike.
Here are six key embedded lending trends for banks, lenders and merchants to watch in 2024:
1. Increased Market Penetration Across Verticals
While embedded lending first took off in the ecommerce and retail sector, we’ve been seeing widening adoption across an array of other industries in 2024. From auto services and healthcare to consumer packaged goods and home improvement services, more businesses will leverage embedded lending solutions to embed financing within every customer touchpoint.
2. Expansion into B2B Transactions
Predominantly seen in B2C transactions, embedded customer financing is making significant inroads into the B2B sector, providing flexible payment options for businesses.
The adoption of B2B customer financing is expected to increase with a CAGR of 27.4% from 2024 to 2029.
ResearchAndMarkets.com Global B2B Buy Now Pay Later Market Intelligence Databook
By providing business customers with easy access to B2B financing options (such as working capital, deferred invoice and lines of credit) at the place of purchase, B2B merchants can help them overcome budget constraints and match their expenditure to their cash flow. By offering responsible financing options from trusted, regulated banks and lenders, merchants not only increase sales and average order value, but they also build loyalty and customer lifetime value.
Embedded lending is playing a larger role in the B2B sales cycle and will continue helping businesses secure big-ticket purchases on a wider scale.
3. Collaborative Approach with Traditional Banks
Banks have the capital, regulatory expertise, and unparalleled customer trust. On the other hand, embedded lending platforms offer agility, quick time to market, technological innovation, and a user-centric approach. By partnering, banks can leverage the technology of embedded lending platforms, giving merchants and their customers easy access to the lending capabilities, balance sheet strength and credibility of traditional banks.
4. Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships
We’ll see more strategic partnerships between embedded lending platforms and bank-facing and merchant-facing technology players to create seamless, end-to-end solutions.
We can expect to see continued convergence between embedded lending providers, financial services providers and SaaS providers to offer the best value to merchants and their customers.
5. Regulatory Progress
Fintech lenders may come under closer scrutiny and new compliance mandates from regulators concerned about responsible lending practices and adequate vetting of borrowers will create a market consolidation. We could see new industry frameworks emerge around fair lending practices, transparency, credit reporting and data privacy.
6. Hyper-Personalization and Customer-Centricity
In 2024, merchants will double down on hyper-personalized, customer-centric lending journeys. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, point-of-sale financing has shifted towards personalized financing that takes more than just the customer’s credit profile into account.
The customer would be offered a financing option that matches their specific purchase scenario, based on the product itself, ticket size, use case as well as their credit profile.
This involves customizing everything from the type of financial option offered (line of credit vs pay-in-4 vs installment loan), the lending product’s rates, terms, and amounts to the actual application flow, which can be tailored to the merchant’s branding, language and user experience.
In the B2B realm, this could mean tailoring credit line amounts and repayment schedules aligned to seasonality trends in a company’s revenue cycles.
Conclusion
By centering embedded lending around end-user relevancy, businesses can engage customers with the right lending options at the right time in a checkout flow. Increased personalization and customer-centricity will be key to delivering a seamless, streamlined embedded lending experience that converts.
