Fat Zebra at B2B eCommerce World Asia Pacific 2026
Fat Zebra was proud to join B2B eCommerce World Asia Pacific as platinum sponsor this year, held on 28–29 July at Centrepiece Melbourne Park.
Two days, one clear theme: B2B businesses aren't chasing flashy technology. They're trying to get the fundamentals of digital buying — including how their customers pay — right for the first time, or right again after skipping over them in an earlier upgrade.
Why is the payments step still the hardest part of B2B buying?
Because so many B2B buyers still pay by cheque, and moving them onto something modern is harder than picking a new sales platform.
Kyle Willersdorf, our Head of Sales & Partnerships, opened proceedings alongside the B2B eCommerce Association's Brett Sinclair and Jason Greenwood. His message: choosing a product is rarely the hard part of B2B buying. The hard part is everything that happens between “add to cart” and the money actually moving — approvals, PO numbers, invoice chasing, and for plenty of businesses in the room, still getting customers to stop paying by cheque.
That middle stretch is where the goodwill a business builds earlier in the customer journey either holds or gets spent. It's why Fat Zebra sponsored the event, and it set the tone for two days of conversation about where digital transformation still has work to do.
What's holding back B2B digital transformation right now?
Legacy platforms — and the fact that most businesses aren't trying to reinvent B2B payments, just get the fundamentals right.
Our mid-market, partnerships and enterprise account teams were on-site for the full two days, running back-to-back meetings with manufacturers, distributors and technology partners from across the region. Olivia Lacey represented Fat Zebra at the Women in B2B Breakfast, joining a room of senior leaders and rising stars in digital transformation.
What stood out in those conversations wasn't ambition for the next big thing — it was how many businesses are still working out how to get off legacy platforms and find one that can actually grow with them. Nobody in the room was trying to reinvent B2B payments. They wanted the meat and potatoes done properly: a platform that can tell the difference between a customer who's:
- Paying on account
- Paying on terms
- Ready to pay online, in a modern way
— and handle all three without extra manual work on their end.
At our booth, we leaned into a golf theme — branded balls, socks, cups and umbrellas — plus a payments-themed mini golf green with a hole-in-one challenge that kept the exhibition floor busy between sessions. And at the awards night, there was a genuine sense of community — businesses that compete with each other cheering on one another's wins. For an industry so focused on catching up to the best tech stacks in the room, it's a reminder that everyone's figuring this out together.
What's the biggest mistake businesses make with payments during a digital transformation?
Treating it as an afterthought. Businesses that leave payments until the end often have to backtrack and fix problems that should have been solved from day one.
A lot of businesses we spoke with know exactly where they sit against competitors — they came to learn, not to leapfrog. The advice our team kept coming back to: don't let payments be the last thing you think about. More than one person told us they'd finished a digital transformation only to discover payments had been an afterthought — and were now backtracking to fix problems that should have been solved from day one. Bring payments into the conversation early, and it stops being a fix and starts being a lever — especially when margins are tight and every improvement to how a business gets paid shows up directly on the bottom line.
Thanks to the B2B eCommerce Association for having us, and to everyone who stopped by the booth, took the hole-in-one challenge, or grabbed a coffee with the team. See you next year.
FAQs
What is B2B eCommerce World Asia Pacific?
It's the region's dedicated conference for B2B digital commerce, bringing together manufacturers, distributors and technology partners. Fat Zebra sponsored the 2026 event as platinum sponsor.
Why do so many B2B businesses still get paid by cheque?
Many B2B buyers are used to manual payment processes — cheques and manually processed bank transfers — and haven't had a reason, or the right platform, to move on. Modernising this is one of the biggest open opportunities in B2B digital transformation.
What happens if a business treats payments as an afterthought in a digital transformation?
It usually means backtracking after launch — fixing checkout, invoicing or reconciliation problems that should have been solved before go-live, instead of using payments to capture more revenue from day one.
What does Fat Zebra do?
Fat Zebra is an Australian payments platform. We process 650m+ transactions a year for more than 100,000 businesses, helping them accept payments online and differentiate how different customers pay — on account, on terms, or online.
