NAB has today announced a suite of innovations which will bring real time sales analytics to small businesses, as well as savings on merchant transactions through greater flexibility and choice.
As digital adoption accelerates in the wake of COVID-19, NAB has partnered with Pollinate, a global cloud-based platform designed to give small businesses real-time insights to help them better manage and grow their businesses.
Likened to internet banking for merchants, Pollinate provides sales analytics to SMEs at their fingertips. Businesses will be able to view their sales data, track average transaction value, compare day periods and even filter by payment type.
NAB Group Executive Business and Private Banking Andrew Irvine said: “Real-time data that delivers greater insights into what customers want, when and how they want it, can be transformative to a small business.
“Leveraging Pollinate’s platform, NAB will give businesses the information they need to make decisions about their daily sales at their fingertips.”
According to NAB’s report* ‘Supporting Economic Recovery’, smaller firms have traditionally fallen behind in digital capability with large firms adopting digital technology at up to four times the rate of small business, Pollinate will allow these companies to quickly embrace digital tools on one easy to use platform.
NAB’s business customers are also set to benefit from merchant choice routing, which will be rolled out later this year with one flat price of 1.15% on card transactions. The market-leading move will replace 10 separate pricing plans and result in savings for businesses with contactless debit card payments automatically processed on the lowest cost network.
Mr Irvine said NAB was focused on delivering simpler services and innovative digital products for small businesses to help them succeed. “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy – Australia must do everything it can to support and strengthen businesses right now, making it easier for them to thrive and grow” he said.
“Contactless payments are part of our daily lives with more than 400,000 ‘tap and go’ transactions taking place every day in Australia. Automating least cost routing ensures competition in the market while giving small businesses greater control over their expenses.”
Al Lukies CBE, Pollinate Founder and CEO said: “We’re delighted NAB is joining a global alliance of banks delivering innovative digital products to their business customers.
“SMEs across the world face similar challenges whether it’s access to insights, to capital, or to integrated business tools like accounting and loyalty.
“Pollinate allows banks to bring these services to SMEs through a single digital platform, and we’re honoured to be partnering with NAB in Australia.”
Pollinate, which NAB will also be a minority investor in, is scheduled to be rolled out to the bank’s customers in early 2021.
Notes to editors:
- NAB will run a pilot of Pollinate in March 2021 ahead of rolling out the technology across its customer network.
- NAB is the second bank to join the Pollinate network, together with NatWest. The platform was launched by NatWest as Tyl in the UK in September 2019.
- ‘Merchant choice routing’ allows contactless payments being processed via the network they choose – EFTPOS, Mastercard or Visa.
- NAB announced the successful migration of NAB Connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS) on 16 September 2020, the first major Australian bank to move its business banking platform to the cloud.
- On 24 September 2020, NAB won .
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