Retailers and suppliers are finding that the key to unlocking millions in savings lies in how they manage working capital. According to PYMNTS Intelligence commissioned by Visa, 4 in 5 CFOs and treasurers studied for the 2025/2026 Working Capital Index have unlocked about $19 million in average savings thanks to the efficient use of external working capital solutions.
For JOOR CFO Rich Rein, that figure reflects how embedded finance is reshaping relationships between brands and retailers. “The retail industry is really a classic example of how important working capital and working capital management is,” Rein told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster. “It’s a textbook case.”
Cash Flow: Retail Balancing Act
Payments between buyers and suppliers in retail are a study in complexity. Cash flow often stalls midway through the supply chain, leaving brands waiting to collect and retailers hesitant to pay before inventory sells.
Rein said brands want to get paid quickly, while retailers want to pay as late as possible. Bridging that gap increasingly depends on embedded working capital solutions that create flexibility on both sides of the ledger.
While large enterprises enjoy ready access to bank credit lines, Rein said the “SMB [small and mid-size businesses] and middle-market part of the world” has seen slower innovation. Credit card and virtual card usage has grown, but other lending tools “have been slower to evolve.”
Traditional banks’ underwriting frameworks, Rein added, “don’t really fit” the cash flow realities of small and mid-sized retailers. “It’s not due to fundamental creditworthiness … it’s much more that these types of entities … don’t fit in the traditional underwriting models that banks have used.” As a result, he said, “you have seen a proliferation of alternative lenders trying to step in and fill that void.”
Embedded Finance and the Rise of JOOR Pay
That market gap has created new demand for embedded finance and digital payments tools that can simplify transactions between buyers and suppliers. JOOR’s answer to that demand is JOOR Pay, which Rein said was designed “to make embedded payments easier.”
Its goal, he explained, is to streamline transactions “for both sides,” recognizing that brand-retailer relationships “are critically important — no one wants it to be an adversarial relationship.”
One core feature of JOOR Pay is the ability for a brand or retailer to pay or get paid in any currency. That flexibility, Rein noted, improves liquidity for both parties and speeds cash conversion cycles.
Rein said JOOR’s brand and retail clients are adopting digital tools “to improve the overall efficiency of their AR [accounts receivable] or AP [accounts payable] processes.” On average, brands on JOOR experience about an 80% reduction in operational costs when adopting a digital solution like JOOR Pay to manage their wholesale business rather than relying on more traditional, manual processes.
Working Capital as a Relationship Tool
Working capital solutions are evolving beyond simple cost-saving mechanisms. For Rein, they are also about maintaining trust and partnership between brands and retailers.
“Maintaining those good, true partnerships … can often be overlooked when you’re thinking about trying to maximize your own working capital efficiency,” he said.
Retailers that pay promptly often gain preferential access to inventory: “Financial stability and willingness to pay … has become increasingly important when a brand is looking at who they want to be working with,” Rein told Webster.
Webster observed that the healthiest supplier ecosystems share that same dynamic: “If a supplier can send inventory to multiple places, why not start with those who pay the fastest?” Liquidity and reliability, she noted, have become competitive advantages.
AI, Data and Smarter Forecasting
Both executives highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven forecasting in how retailers manage working capital. Rein said JOOR is applying advanced analytics “to help us surface insights that otherwise just simply may not be as evident.”
AI, he explained, enhances forecasting, inventory planning, and even supplier production schedules. “You can leverage data … to better inform expectations of supply and demand … to drive efficiency in all aspects of the supply chain,” Rein said.
That visibility is also changing how retailers structure their purchasing cycles. Rein noted that brands are shifting to “smaller upfront orders, but then more frequent reorders,” a pattern that now accounts for almost 35% of JOOR’s platform gross merchandise value.
Such strategies, he said, show how companies “are adapting their business strategies to optimize their working capital overall.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Rein said retailers will need to balance caution with progress. “It’s very easy to look at the retail landscape and say, yes, people are in a defensive posture,” he said. “But the reality is they’re shifting strategies to enable working capital efficiency. … It’s really all about finding that balance.”
Ultimately, Rein said, “brands will do business with retailers who are easy to do business with, and vice versa.”
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/