Digital Payment Tools to Enhance SMBs’ Engine for Growth

08/18/2025

 

SMB (Small and Medium-Sized Business) are the engine of Thailand’s economy driving innovation, creating jobs, and fuelling national growth. According to a statement from the Commerce Ministry which aimed to raise Thailand’s SMBs contribution to ฿6.6 trillion in 2024, which would represent approximately 36 per cent of the country’s GDP.

At Visa, we are committed to supporting these businesses in their journeys as they navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape. From rising costs and shifting consumer expectations to forward-looking initiatives like Thailand’s upcoming einvoicing mandate, SMBs have new opportunities to reimagine how they manage their finances and operations.

Visa’s latest Thailand SMB Digital Banking and Payment Needs study¹ offers insights as to how financial institutions can better support these SMBs to strengthen their financial foundations and provide them relevant digital payment solutions, so they can stay resilient, competitive, and ready for whatever comes next.

The reality: Making progress, but pain points still exist
Our study shows that Thai SMBs are making incredible strides in digitising customerfacing processes, with over 85 per cent already embracing digital marketing and sales. However, they are still operating in analogue mode. Financial management tasks including supplier payments, expense tracking, and cash flow control are manual. In fact, some business owners use their personal cards for business finances, with 80 per cent of SMBs still relying on personal credit or debit cards for urgent business expenses, and
73 per cent spend over 5,000 THB per transaction.

One of the key aspects of financial management is the clear separation of personal and business expenses. This distinction not only simplifies accounting but also ensures that business owners can take full advantage of the benefits offered by business-specific financial products.

When SME owners use personal cards for their business expenses, they often find themselves sifting through statements, trying to distinguish between personal and business expenditures. This not only consumes valuable time but also increases the risk of errors and misreporting. Moreover, personal cards do not offer the same level of financial management tools and benefits that business cards do.

Business cards, including debit, prepaid, and credit cards, provide a streamlined solution to this problem. By using business cards exclusively for business transactions, SME owners can maintain a clear and organised record of their expenses. This separation simplifies bookkeeping, making it easier to track and manage their business finances. Business cards often come with features tailored to the needs of businesses, such as expense tracking, detailed analytics, and integration with accounting software. Business credit cards can offer a suite of services that personal cards do not, which include appropriate working capital limits, rewards programmes designed for business spending, and access to business-specific perks such as travel insurance, purchase protection, and discounts on business-related services.

By leveraging these benefits, SMEs can optimise their cash flow and earn rewards on their spending. Having a ready credit product can also benefit companies when there are unplanned investment opportunities.

Purpose-built solutions to support SMBs need
Research reveals that over 80 per cent of SMBs believe having a virtual business card would reduce the need to use personal funds for business expenses, making the case for digital-first financial tools even more compelling. Virtual cards come with features like spending limits, real-time tracking, employee-level controls, and seamless integration with business management systems. These capabilities are ideal for companies seeking to modernise expense management and gain greater financial visibility.

Visa’s suite of SMB-focused solutions including virtual business cards and mobile-based expense tracking tools are designed to help business owners regain financial control, improve transparency, and reduce administrative burden.

Building on this demand, 4 in 5 SMBs (79%) are already using some form of expense management tool. While smaller business groups may currently adopt modern financial tools at lower rates, their interest in digital solutions is strong. Key features driving this demand include the ability to track income and expenses (60%), mobile app accessibility (50%), integration with bank accounts (35%), and access to real-time accounting data (30%). This trend underscores a growing appetite for smarter, scalable fintech solutions that meet the specific needs of small businesses.

Partnership is key to supporting the entire ecosystem
At Visa, we are a payments network, and we believe in the importance of collaborating with all key stakeholders in the ecosystem because together, we can work with financial institutions and fintechs to bring innovative payment solutions to businesses, helping them focus on accelerating their business growth.

Business owners don’t wake up in the morning thinking about how they should use digital payments and solutions. They focusonpriorities like profitability, drivingbusiness growth, operating costs and so on. We believe that by introducing and enabling them with digital payment solutions can help drive productivity, efficiency, and insightful business analytics with efficient working capital management.

With new initiatives like e-invoicing coming into effect, and evolving economic landscape, SMBs cannot afford to wait. Fortunately, the data tells us that 63 per cent of them are already prepared for the e-invoicing transition and view it as a chance to upgrade systems and sharpen their operations.

Ultimately, our vision is simple - to empower every Thai entrepreneur whether they run a growing tech startup or a family-owned store to participate fully in the digital economy. SMBs should have access to tools that help them manage complexity, make confident decisions, and scale sustainably on their own terms. At Visa, we’re proud to walk alongside Thai SMBs in this journey, not just as a payments provider, but as a trusted partner in innovation, inclusion, and long-term success.

Stay tuned for the release of our full Visa Thailand SMB Digital Banking and Payment Needs report. It will offer deeper insights and practical guidance to help SMB unlock the power of digital finance and thrive in a fast-changing world.

 

About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.