Walmart expands B2B payments as merchants navigate uncertainty

Bloomberg

The current economic climate is stressing supply chain management, with Walmart adding business payment features designed to address clients' cash flow challenges while expanding its long-standing encroachment into banking.

"For small- to medium-size businesses and nonprofits, they need to be flexible and in times of uncertainty it's especially important," Ashley Hubka, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Business, told American Banker.

Walmart is testing a product that offers extended payment terms and treasury management tools for businesses, nonprofits and government-affiliated organizations. While the big box retailer has long pushed a consumer-focused financial services menu, its Pay by Invoice release is a deeper foray into B2B finance. 

What Walmart is adding

Walmart's Pay by Invoice works through TreviPay to set up 30-day terms for business purchases at Walmart. Buyers apply for a line of credit with TreviPay, with options to increase the credit limit as business needs evolve. The product is in pilot, with Walmart planning to expand availability in the coming months. TreviPay, a B2B invoicing and lending fintech, manages credit underwriting, know-your-customer and other risk management. 

Walmart currently supports debit, ACH, credit card and gift card payments for business purchases, which limits some larger ticket items. Small businesses, nonprofits and schools use Walmart to buy supplies and large grocery orders for events. Larger purchases, particularly bulk supplies, can require credit or financing, which normally forces buyers to use a bank or other outside financial relationship. Pay by Invoice can keep more shopper activity under Walmart's umbrella. "We've noticed a need for more options," Hubka said. 

Hubka said the B2B payments expansion is not a direct response to Trump's tariffs, but she did mention the current environment poses economic challenges. In addition, many of Walmart's business customers told the retailer that Walmart's existing payment systems did not support larger purchases, while potential business clients said they could not buy from Walmart unless the retailers' payment processing system could be expanded to include lines of credit or longer terms than immediate purchases. 

Read more about tariffs (Tariffs and Banking: Key Insights and Analysis | American Banker)

"Some couldn't buy with us at all until we had Pay by Invoice,'" Hubka said. "This enables us to get more of their wallet share and spending so we can be a viable and competitive option."

The new payment product is not related to any moves Walmart may make to issue or support stablecoins, nor is it related to Walmart's fintech partnership with Ribbit Capital, which for now is focused on consumer financial services, Hubka said. Walmart's B2B partnership with TreviPay also fits with its larger payment strategy which includes encouraging alternatives to credit cards. This includes adding its account-to-account product to the FedNow and RTP instant processing networks, and other fintech and payment company collaborations.

What tariffs can't solve

Walmart's new payment program is aimed at encouraging companies to choose the giant retailer as tariffs make imported-merchandise sales more expensive. 

Economic uncertainty of any kind tends to make businesses more cautious about spending, and the macroeconomic trends, of which tariffs are only a part, are the bigger issue, Aaron Press, research director of worldwide payment strategies for IDC, told American Banker

"The Pay by Invoice solution looks like it offers a couple of advantages," Press said. "It gives businesses the option to make purchases using their usual invoicing processes, but it also offers a more flexible credit line beyond typical net terms, essentially a BNPL for B2B."

Tariffs are in part designed to encourage domestic manufacturing or sourcing from within the U.S.

But In the short to medium term, retailers and others will still be dependent on importing for items, according to Gareth Lodge, a senior analyst at Celent."While manufacturing of certain goods may be done domestically at some point, it's not something that can be instantly switched from existing suppliers," Celent's Lodge told American Banker. 

The uncertainty, in part, therefore comes from what the tariffs will be, and when, Lodge said of the tendency of Trump's tariffs to change over time, or to be temporarily withdrawn. 

"There have been large fluctuations in the levels, nor are they uniformly applied," he said. "That creates risk and uncertainty. If I order today, what price will it be in the future? Could it be cheaper elsewhere? What might the implications be on FX and payment terms?"

Walmart and other companies are investing to better support their supply chain, including visibility of cash positions to the ability to renegotiate pricing to estimation of future costs, Lodge said. "There will also be tools that look to optimize their processes as well, including how they manage their liquidity across borders. Many believe that stablecoins will help in this regard, though this is far from certain," Lodge said.