As businesses look to drive growth in 2025 amid a dynamic market environment, new research from American Express reveals about 8 in 10 (78%) are planning to improve their business payments process, with almost two-fifths (39%) doing so as part of strategies to drive growth. 

The Amex Trendex: B2B Payments Edition surveyed 500 UK business decision makers, revealing a shared recognition that optimised payments are key to strong commercial relationships that underpin sustained business success.  

The survey found that almost all - 94% of business decision makers - agree easy, streamlined, and secure payments create happy customers and 89% believe they drive growth. 

Where payments are not optimised, this creates friction and can impact relationships. Almost a third (30%) of respondents cite late or slow payments as a common reason they have stopped working with a specific business. And four in five say that a single fraud incident relating to payments could significantly impact trust in their relationships with buyers (79%) and suppliers (80%). 

With over a quarter (27%) of respondents admitting they spend too much time managing payments, a significant proportion recognise the benefits that automation can deliver in process improvement, chiefly highlighting faster payments (49%), reduced errors (34%) and time savings (25%). In fact, over a quarter (28%) of respondents admitted they would sleep better at night without the worry of their payments being on time and accurate. 

However, despite acknowledging the benefits, the research found a mixed picture when it came to automated payments in their own business. Just one in seven of those surveyed have fully automated their payments processes; and the same proportion have not automated at all, with cost and security ranked as the chief concerns for failing to do so. 

Craig Barclay, Vice President, Commercial at American Express, said: “Optimised payments are key to strong commercial relationships and overall business success. Businesses can gain greater visibility into their cash flow, reduce errors, streamline processes and keep both buyers and suppliers happy. While it can feel like a daunting task to make changes to payment processes, the reality is that the time and cost to automate can be less than expected - and provide benefits both for the short and long term.” 

Businesses can benefit from automated payment solutions such as: 

1. Automated AP (accounts payable) and AR (accounts receivable) software solutions – helping businesses save time and money, reduce errors, improve efficiency and cash flow 
2. Straight-through-processing of static and Virtual Cards – automated systems that allow card details to be processed electronically from start to finish without any manual steps 
3. EIPP (Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment) – automated systems through which AR teams can send invoices to and accept payments from customers electronically  
4. Digital Push Payments – transactions through which a payer initiates a transfer of funds to a payee, improving control over the payment process. 

American Express offers a range of automated solutions to help businesses save time and money, reduce errors, along with improving efficiency and cash flow.