As a vertical software company, your platform has one thing no standalone payment processor can match: a deep understanding of your customers’ businesses.
But that advantage doesn’t sell itself. According to Adyen customer data, up to 40% of new SMBs that sign up never fully activate embedded payments. Not because they resist switching. They simply don’t prioritize it.
Here’s what we’ve learned from leading platforms and thousands of SMBs on what actually helps close the adoption gap:
Generic messaging won't move a skeptical SMB
Most platforms describe embedded payments the same way: faster payouts, simpler reconciliation, better data. None of it is wrong. But SMBs need more specificity.
Staying with a legacy processor has many ‘costly’ challenges: integration gaps, limited support, and hardware that doesn’t fit the workflow. These friction points create an opportunity for platforms to compete on value, not price alone.
For example, a spa managing membership billing has different cash flow pressures than a contractor chasing unpaid invoices. As Ash Forsythe, General Manager for Payments and Patient Collaboration at ModMed, puts it: "Think about what workflows your customers are doing and how payments can improve their experience."
When messaging reflects that, the conversation shifts from price comparison to business outcomes.
Onboarding friction is where adoption stalls
Payments onboarding isn't software onboarding. A new customer might get comfortable with a core platform in days. Alternatively, KYC requirements, terminal configuration, and compliance steps introduce a different kind of complexity for embedded offerings.
Customers who don't adopt early rarely come back to it. The window between signup and first transaction is short, and what happens in that window determines whether payments become a core part of how SMBs run their business, or a feature they never use.
There’s a practical fix.
Treat the first transaction as the real launch moment, not the contract signature. Then tailor the process by customer segment and walk customers through KYC requirements before submission. That last step alone reduces delays and cuts support overhead on both sides.
Pricing confusion costs you the comparison
Adyen and BCG survey data found that across six regions, 14% of SMBs don't know what they're paying for payment processing. Many platforms treat that as noise. The frontrunners treat it as an opening.
Pricing transparency gives SMBs a clearer picture of what they're currently paying, what they're getting, and what they'd lose by staying with a legacy processor.
Michel Rbeiz, General Manager of FinTech at Toast, describes their model as designed to align with restaurant success: a base SaaS fee plus a payments component that grows with the business.
The fintech opportunity is yours to build
The infrastructure barrier is gone. Vertical software platforms can now access the financial tools that once required a bank charter or a decade of engineering investment.
That’s why the platforms winning with embedded payments are winning on clarity: about what their customers need, how to sell it, and what to build next.
Read the full GTM guide to embedded payments.
