Author: Vibhore Uprety

The B2B payments market in APAC is set to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2025, yet FMCG and Agri-Chemical companies still struggle with fragmented supply chains, disconnected ERP systems, and manual payment flows. The result? Lost sales, inefficiencies, and untapped revenue opportunities for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers alike.

The Gaps: Why Traditional Systems Are Holding FMCG Back

📌 Data Reconciliation Issues – Purchase order mismatches, pricing discrepancies, and disputes over defective items create friction between FMCG companies and their B2B buyers.

📌 Lack of Real-Time Sales & Inventory Visibility – FMCG brands rely on outdated sales data, making inventory planning and restocking inefficient.

📌 Manual Promotion Execution – Promo tracking is still done manually (e.g., wrapping shampoo bottles together for a combo offer), limiting real-time insights and effectiveness.

📌 Cross-Border & FX Inefficiencies – Many FMCG companies operate across Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia, but FX volatility and high remittance costs slow down payments and impact working capital.

The Solution: A Closed-Loop, Data-Driven B2B Payment Ecosystem

To bridge these gaps, FMCG and Agri-Chemical firms must go beyond ERP-driven operations and leverage fintech-enabled B2B payments and embedded finance solutions.

Imagine a unified payments and data platform that:

 ✅ Integrates FMCG & B2B Buyer ERPs – Creates a real-time visibility layer between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

 ✅ Automates SKU-Based Promotions at POS – Instantly validates discounts, applies offers, and ensures compliance without manual intervention.

✅ Embeds A2A & Card-Based Payments – Leverages virtual cards, QR payments, and commercial payment rails to optimise cash flow and working capital.

 ✅ Enhances Supply Chain Finance – Provides instant, data-driven financing options for B2B buyers using transaction-level insights.

✅ Supports FX & Cross-Border Payments – Streamlines remittances, reducing settlement delays and costs for FMCG operating across Southeast Asia.

How Networks & Fintech Players Are Already Driving This Shift

Qwikcilver / Pine Labs has already built powerful closed-loop solutions:

✔ Integrated B2B Loyalty & Prepaid Programs – Helping FMCG companies incentivise distributors & retailers while capturing real-time sales data.

✔ Automated SKU-Based Promotions – Plugging loyalty solutions into payment terminals to offer instant discounts at checkout.

✔ High Volume Transactions – With over USD 3 billion in annual sales processed through its platform, Qwikcilver serves more than 500 large retailers and brands across the APAC region.

✔ Customised Loyalty Solutions – From Visa and Mastercard prepaid solutions to multi-partner loyalty programs, Qwikcilver enables FMCG companies to create tailored experiences for their distributors and consumers.

✔ Enhanced Transparency and Real-Time Reporting – A central hub for distributor sales, product promotions, and inventory optimisation, which helps FMCG firms track everything from sales rep performance to outlet promotions.

Mastercard is already moving towards modernising B2B payments:

🚀 Mastercard Track & Commercial Cards – Expanding acceptance of virtual cards for B2B procurement & cross-border trade.

🚀 Collaboration with Boost (Malaysia) – Helping FMCG players digitalise last-mile distribution via embedded fintech.

🚀 Consumer Goods Team Initiative – Dedicated support for sales, finance, and supply chain optimisation.

Visa has also been a key player in enhancing B2B payments in this space:

🚀 Visa B2B Connect – A cross-border payments platform built to streamline and speed up transactions between large corporate buyers and suppliers in Southeast Asia, including FMCG brands.

🚀 Visa’s Commercial Payment Solutions – Facilitating digital B2B payments through virtual cards and digital wallets, enabling FMCG firms to optimize working capital and make better purchasing decisions in real time.

🚀 Collaboration with Payoneer – Visa’s partnership with Payoneer supports cross-border payments and streamlines transactions for FMCG and Agri-Chemical companies, simplifying FX and reducing manual efforts.

Marqeta & Other Issuers are also innovating:

📌 Modern Card Issuance & Embedded Payments – Providing virtual card-based procurement & real-time expense controls.

The Future: FMCG & B2B Payments Networks Must Evolve Together

The opportunity for Mastercard, Visa, and fintech players is clear: B2B payments need to move beyond transactions and become enablers of sales growth, inventory efficiency, and loyalty engagement.

The question is: Who will lead this transformation in APAC? Would love to hear thoughts from industry leaders driving B2B & FMCG payment innovation!

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, contributing over 40% of GDPand accounting for more than 70% of employment in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Yet, despite their economic significance, many SMEs have historically relied on cash transactions, limiting their ability to access credit, automate operations, and scale efficiently.

The rapid adoption of digital wallets, projected to facilitate transactions worth $320 billion in Southeast Asia by 2025(Google, Temasek & Bain e-Conomy SEA report), is transforming this landscape. Wallets are not just enabling digital payments—they are serving as a launchpad for SME growth, offering financial access, automation, and enhanced customer engagement.

The Wallet Revolution in Southeast Asia

Digital wallets have gained significant traction due to high smartphone penetration, increasing digital literacy, and government-led financial inclusion initiatives. Players such as GrabPay, GoPay, OVO, ShopeePay, MoMo, TrueMoney, and GCash have seen widespread adoption, with Southeast Asia now home to over 500 million digital wallet users(Bain & Co, 2023).

For SMEs, the impact of wallets extends beyond convenience, driving meaningful improvements in financial access, transaction efficiency, and business automation.

1. Unlocking Financial Access for SMEs

Lack of access to formal credit remains a major hurdle for SMEs, with 51% of micro and small enterprises in the region unable to secure traditional bank loans (World Bank). Digital wallets are addressing this gap by:

• Leveraging transaction data for alternative credit scoring, allowing previously unbanked SMEs to access microloans and BNPL financing.
• Enabling embedded finance solutions, such as working capital loans and revenue-based financing, directly within wallet ecosystems.
• Partnering with financial institutions to offer instant credit lines, helping businesses manage cash flow challenges.

For instance, GCash in the Philippines has launched GCredit, a lending feature that has disbursed over ₱50 billion (nearly $900 million) in loans to SMEs and individuals who previously lacked access to traditional banking services.

2. Enabling Faster and More Efficient Transactions

In a region where cash still accounts for over 50% of transactions (Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study, 2023), digital wallets are helping SMEs shift to cashless payments. QR code-based payments have:

• Reduced checkout times by 40%, improving customer experience.
• Lowered operational costs by eliminating cash-handling risks and reconciliation errors.
• Enabled real-time transactions, boosting cash flow management.

Indonesia’s QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard), which allows interoperability between multiple wallets and banks, has facilitated over $15 billion in transactions as of 2023, benefiting SMEs by simplifying digital payment acceptance.

3. Integrating with Business and Loyalty Tools

Modern wallets are evolving into business enablement platforms, offering SMEs access to:

• Loyalty and rewards programs, helping businesses increase repeat transactions by up to 25% (McKinsey, 2023).
• Automated invoicing and settlements, reducing human errors and administrative workload.
• E-commerce integrations, allowing businesses to accept seamless in-app payments on platforms like Shopee and Lazada.

A great example is ShopeePay, which provides instant cashback campaigns and in-app merchant promotions that drive both sales and brand loyalty for SMEs.

4. Driving Operational Automation

Many digital wallets now include built-in automation tools that help SMEs streamline operations:

• Payroll disbursement tools, reducing manual payout times by 60%.
• Supplier payment automation, ensuring on-time settlements with minimal intervention.
• AI-powered financial insights, helping SMEs optimize expenses and inventory.

For instance, GrabPay’s merchant dashboard allows businesses to track sales trends, monitor cash flow, and manage multiple revenue streams—all within a single platform.

5. Expanding Market Reach

Cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia is growing at 30% YoY (Google, Temasek & Bain, 2023), and wallets are playing a crucial role in enabling SMEs to:

• Accept payments from international customers without the complexities of FX conversion.
• Leverage super apps (e.g., Grab, GoTo) to list products and reach millions of users within an integrated ecosystem.
• Tap into government-backed digitalization programs that encourage cross-border trade.

Thailand’s PromptPay and Singapore’s PayNow, which recently integrated, allow SMEs to transact seamlessly across borders, reducing remittance costs and increasing transaction speed.

The Future of Wallets and SME Growth in Southeast Asia

As digital wallets continue to evolve, we can expect advancements in:

• Embedded finance: More sophisticated credit models and SME insurance products.
• AI-driven analytics: Predictive insights for personalized financing and marketing.
• Blockchain-powered security: Enhancing fraud prevention and transaction transparency.

Governments and fintech players must collaborate to extend wallet adoption to underserved rural areas, ensuring financial inclusion at scale. The Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam still have over 50 million unbanked SMEs, representing a massive opportunity for wallet-driven solutions.

A Special Focus on Taiwan

While my work has primarily focused on the Southeast Asian fintech landscape, Taiwan holds a special place in my heart due to my family connections and deep affinity for the market. Taiwan’s digital economy has been growing rapidly, and its SMEs are undergoing a similar transformation as those in Southeast Asia.

Taiwan is home to over 1.5 million SMEs, which account for 98% of all businesses and contribute significantly to employment. The government has actively promoted digitalization, with initiatives like the Digital Transformation Plan for SMEs and the “Taiwan Pay” ecosystem, fostering greater adoption of e-payments.

Unlike some Southeast Asian markets, where digital wallets are primarily driven by super apps, Taiwan’s digital wallet landscape is more diversified, with key players like JKOPay, LINE Pay, and PX Pay leading the market. As of 2023, Taiwan’s mobile payments penetration rate reached nearly 60%, showing strong adoption among both consumers and businesses.

For SMEs in Taiwan, digital wallets offer key advantages:

• Faster access to credit: Platforms like JKOPay offer microloans and BNPL solutions to help SMEs manage cash flow.
• Integration with supply chain financing: Helping merchants streamline B2B transactions.
• Government-backed digital incentives: Programs such as Triple Stimulus Vouchers, which encouraged digital spending, played a major role in shifting consumer behavior toward e-wallets.

Given my personal connection to Taiwan, I see a tremendous opportunity for digital wallets to further accelerate SME digitalization, particularly in cross-border e-commerce, as Taiwan-based businesses increasingly engage with Southeast Asian markets.

Summary:

The digital wallet revolution in Southeast Asia and Taiwan is not just about payments—it’s about enabling SMEs to automate operations, access credit, and expand their market reach. The intersection of wallets, AI, and embedded finance will define the next phase of SME digitalization, creating a more inclusive, efficient, and growth-orientedfinancial ecosystem.

Given my deep professional and personal interest in these markets, I am keen to see how digital wallets will continue to evolve and shape the future of SMEs.