The challenge:
After simultaneously managing multiple payment vendors over the years, Inktavo, a software solution provider for the printing, promotional product, and branded merchandise industries, knew they needed to migrate their customers to a single Embedded Payments provider.
Inktavo needed a partner who would understand the unique complexities of their business and provide payments expertise, while still giving Inktavo the ability to fully own the relationship with their customers. They also needed a partner who could quickly process high-ticket transactions – some as high as $500,000 – with no delays or automatic declines. At the same time, Inktavo needed the robust offerings of a single provider capable of doing some of the heavy lifting that would help their internal team become more operationally efficient.
The solution:
Payrix was able to offer the high-transaction limits that Inktavo’s customers needed and much more. Payrix was also able to provide embedded ACH, consolidated reporting tools, and single checkout experiences. Inktavo knew Payrix was the right payments partner because of their payments expertise, and they knew they would be able to grow together.
In just six months, Inktavo was able to migrate approximately 80% of their current customers across both lines of their business to Payrix, and they plan to be ready to fully sunset their legacy payment providers by the end of the year. Additionally, Inktavo has been able to provide more value for their customers, expanding beyond payments and offering an integrated lending program to further strengthen their platform.
Since implementing working capital with Payrix, Inktavo has:
- Funded 116 businesses
- 73% customer satisfaction score
- 74% repeat business in April 2024
- Merchant have looked to Inktavo Capital for equipment, inventory, and payroll/hiring
Just as we saw with Payrix Embedded Payments, we’ve found that the addition of the working capital embedded lending solution has significantly increased customer loyalty to our platform. Our merchants who have tried working capital have proven to be highly willing to accept a second or third lending offer, and our customers are more willing to try additional new products from Inktavo because they’ve had such a positive experience with Payrix solutions. Most importantly, Payrix continues to show that it is committed to Inktavo’s mission of providing solutions to our customers that provide real, meaningful, benefits and are easily accessible through our fully integrated platform.Renn Salo Vice President of Payments, Inktavo
We spoke with Renn Salo, Inktavo’s Vice President of Payments, to learn how they maximized adoption of the Payrix Embedded Payment solution throughout their new and existing customer base.
Payrix: What were your customers’ biggest concerns about adopting a new Embedded Payments platform?
Salo: Most customers were asking things like, “When am I going to get funded? How quickly can I get up and running? And, what’s the status of my application?” We serve many small to mid-size businesses, so cash-flow management is critical for our customers. Making sure they know when they can expect to receive their money is of most importance.
Payrix: Recognizing that change can be difficult, how did you go about communicating your migration plans to your customers?
Salo: When you’re talking about any type of migration, whether it’s software, payments, or anything else, your communication strategy is the key. You have to be sure you’re telling your customers upfront what to expect, when to expect it, and what’s going to happen.
We did that through various channels from emails, in-app, phone, blog articles, and other communication channels. We wanted to be really transparent that this was going to happen because we needed to consolidate our offerings so we could focus on those value adds for our customers and bringing those to fruition, versus maintaining multiple payments vendors.
By doing this, we are able to increase the value of our software to our customers, which is at the heart of what we want to do, so communicating that “why” was really important.
Payrix: Now that you have successfully migrated the majority of your client base to Payrix, what has been their feedback?
Salo: For our customers, a lot of the benefit is having an integrated checkout experience for both cards and ACH, as well as having streamlined reconciliation and one customer-support number to call.
Beyond those benefits, Payrix streamlines our customers’ ability to issue refunds and track all that activity in one place, and they can report their deposit activity within the product, instead of having to go somewhere else to get the data. Our customers now have that reporting information right at their fingertips within the product.
Payrix: What have been the biggest benefits of Payrix Embedded Payments to Inktavo’s business?
Salo: For us, the biggest benefit has been our ability to streamline and consolidate our offerings so that we can expedite adding those value-added features through our product, whether that involves a payment initiative or not. Instead of using our time and energy focusing on multiple payment providers, our teams are free to focus on really getting those features that customers have been asking for from our products. We can now do that in a more streamlined and efficient fashion.
Payrix: In addition to the Payrix Embedded Payments solution, Inktavo has now added working capital to your platform. Why was an embedded lending feature important to you and your customers?
Salo: Because the print industry was hard hit by COVID, and continues to struggle with supply shortages, inflation, and shipping issues, a fast and simple solution to access funds is especially important to our customers. This capital is critical to their ability to grow their businesses, maintain inventory, process payroll, and invest in printing equipment.
Payrix: Why aren’t traditional banks and lenders a good option for your customers, and how did working capital make it easier?
Salo: Traditional funding is failing small to mid-sized businesses in all industries, but especially those like our customers because their capital needs are considerable. Additionally, banks and other lenders often charge predatory fees. These traditional sources also may consider personal credit scores before issuing a loan, and the application process is time consuming and daunting.
But with working capital, our eligible merchants are pre-approved, and the application is easy, so they receive quick decisions for their loans. All our customers receive a fixed, transparent fee, and there is no interest or late fees on the loan. Merchants simply pay based off a fixed percentage of sales.
Loans are issued by Celtic Bank. All loans are subject to credit approval.
