The fintech superapps revolution for small and medium companies

Nearly a third of small businesses switched financial services providers in 2021, according to data from the American Express Small Business Recovery Report survey. The most cited reason for the switch was convenience: the new provider offers multiple financial solutions within one company. Furthermore, secondary reasons followed: Small businesses are turning to providers that simplify operations tasks and offer robust digital banking solutions.

Type into google “super finance app”. In this way, you will see that the concept is a decade old (the term was coined in 2010 by BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis), despite the fact that more than 83% of Brazilians are still unaware of its usefulness and meaning, according to a survey carried out by the Mind Miners at the request of Meio & Mensagem.

The modern super app in financial services promises seamless access to a variety of tools and services, each simultaneously improving one another. If a platform can provide a complete set of solutions needed to run a small business, then overworked owners will be able to expand their time management capabilities and streamline processes.

Typically, super apps launch as a specialized service, buy from a large user base, and then begin to diversify and expand their offerings. WeChat debuted in China in 2011 as a text messaging platform. It is now a massive bundle of over a million smaller apps where users can book tickets, pay bills, apply for a travel visa and even conduct a blind date. Alibaba was initially designed as an online shopping resource and now offers investments, loans and its own credit rating algorithm.

In the US, many started out as one-stop solution providers, such as payment processors or small business lenders, but are rapidly expanding to compete with banks and other fintech companies.

In the not-too-distant past, small business owners would have needed a physical bank for key financial functions like checking accounts and loans, but would still need to put together a network of standalone services. They went to four or five discreet sites to manage insurance, bill payments, billing, accounting, and anything else. It’s time-consuming and inefficient, even though each company offers excellent service in this narrow niche.

For consumers, the advantage of a fintech superapp is this much-needed convenience. If offers packaged in an all-in-one interface can handle your direct deposit, stock trades, mortgages, life insurance and credit cards all in one place, you’re less likely to forget about any of these things. Combining all these functions can save you a lot of time and money. In this way, fintech applications have become the face of many banking services and with this, large companies have made and are making investments in this medium.

With a highly competitive market for specialized fintech offerings and a customer base hungry for streamlined solutions, there is a race to become the all-in-one service provider. The stoppage provided by the pandemic has accelerated the already rapid adoption of autonomous applications for digital payment, ordering and logistics. However, proliferating platforms means additional costs and time. Small businesses have proven they are willing to switch from financial service providers to fully digital solutions, all under one roof.

Disadvantages may exist at the beginning. Depending on a single application—while saving time and money—means that an occasional break or service interruption can affect multiple business functions. The onus is on the platform provider to deliver an exceptional experience, build and maintain your trust, and continue to deliver quality service.

If you want to switch between platforms, the rights to port financial data to superapps will become as common as the exponential numbers of cell phones in Brazil during the 2000s. The chaos related to Covid-19 brought a series of new challenges for small businesses. companies. Just keeping the doors open has become uncertain, along with adapting to new protocols, trying to hire and serve customers whose needs are changing so rapidly.

So companies want tools that make managing their business more convenient, and super apps give them that. These ground-level transformations are driving innovative financial solutions designed with convenience in mind. Small business demand for affordable, customer-friendly digital interfaces will only grow. Financial service providers that offer a powerful suite of services will continue to draw customers away from those who are behind due to this shift.

Source: MobileTime