Payment Practices: A Modest Improvement of 2.9 Points Across Commerce Models From 2020 to 2025

The Comparison

• 2020: Analysis of 204 companies revealed an average payment practices score of 60.1 out of 100, suggesting significant room for improvement across surveyed commerce models.
• 2025: The average score rose to 63.0 out of 100, based on data from 181 companies. While representing progress, the slight uplift suggests limited transformational change in payment behaviours.

What This Means

The relatively small increase of 2.9 points over five years indicates that while some advancements have been made, fundamental shifts in payment culture across these commerce models have been marginal. Several factors could contribute to this finding, ranging from the slow adoption of new payment technologies to persistent challenges in supplier-buyer power dynamics. Businesses struggling with late payments can use tools like this late payment calculator to assess the financial impact.

One-line summary: Across the analysed Commerce Models, the average payment score improved by 2.9 points, moving from 60.1 (2020, 204 companies) to 63.0 (2025, 181 companies).