Cary Strange, CEO of PayOnward
Peak season is often treated as a challenge for small to mid-size businesses as there is more inventory to buy, more staff to schedule, more orders to fulfill and more fraud risk to manage. But it is also a critical relationship test for the credit unions that serve those businesses. When volume rises and cash flow gets tighter, those businesses (SMBs) quickly learn whether their financial institution is simply holding their account or actively helping them operate and grow.
For SMBs, realizing peak season revenue gains relies on many factors, with the most important being financial planning to navigate liquidity, fraud and operational challenges brought on by the surge in activity and amplified by prolonged economic uncertainty. According to Deloitte, liquidity required careful navigation in 2025 amid elevated funding costs, inflation pressure and supply/demand volatility, even as companies delivered 6.8% top-line growth and 9.9% EBITDA expansion.
For credit unions, that creates a clear opening. By combining proactive cash-flow planning and real-time payment capabilities with sharper fraud monitoring, they can help SMB members move through peak season with more confidence. More importantly, they can use those high-pressure moments to prove their value as long-term growth partners, not just transactional service providers.
That distinction is important because peak season does not create isolated problems. It exposes whether an SMB has the right financial partner in place. A credit union that can help a business anticipate cash-flow gaps, accelerate access to funds and reduce payment-related risk has a stronger claim on the broader financial relationship.
Why Peak Season Creates Pressure for SMBs
The holiday season is arguably the largest – and longest – surge in activity SMBs experience during the year, and meeting this demand often requires strategic inventory, staffing and operational investment.
Every dollar counts for SMBs who typically lack the resource flexibility of large chains. Delayed reconciliation timelines can constrict cash flow, eating into their ability to prepare, stock and staff. Then, when the transaction surge hits, manual payment and back-office processes can easily become overwhelmed, causing delays and errors that slow time-to-revenue and strain staff. This is critical, as Deloitte found in 2025 the cash conversion cycle shortened by only 0.9 days year over year, with improvements driven unevenly by inventory and payable strategies while receivables pressure persisted.
These pressures also create room for fraud to slip through. Seventy-six percent of U.S. organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2025, and 74% were affected by business email compromise, according to the Association for Financial Professionals.
How Credit Unions Can Help SMBs Maintain Healthy Cash Flow
Cash flow is an SMB’s lifeblood, and maintaining a healthy balance is critical during peak season. Credit unions should encourage SMB members to establish liquidity plans before demand ramps up, while also offering real-time support and short-term financing options to help prevent overruns.
This does not require credit unions to overhaul every business banking capability at once. The most immediate opportunity is to identify where SMB members are most likely to feel pressure during peak season, then offer targeted support around working capital, receivables timing, faster payment options and fraud prevention before those issues become urgent.
Additionally, credit unions can leverage their own transaction data to identify which SMBs are most likely to experience liquidity challenges and connect with those business owners to ensure that proper preparedness plans are in place.
Reducing Friction Through Modern Payments Infrastructure
Liquidity depends on speed during peak season. When reconciliation timelines lag, SMBs have less visibility into incoming cash and less flexibility to make fast decisions about inventory, staffing and vendor payments. Credit unions that give business members access to faster payment infrastructure and clearer cash-flow visibility are better positioned to become the financial partners those businesses rely on most.
The U.S. Faster Payments Council has noted growing institutional focus on use cases such as immediate payroll and loan disbursements. For SMBs, modern payment tools such as real-time payments can streamline accounts receivable, improve cash-flow visibility, strengthen liquidity and support more agile restocking decisions. Automated bill pay and receivables can also reduce the administrative burden on teams, allowing them to spend less time managing operations and more time serving customers.
Turning a Seasonal Opportunity into a Long-Term Relationship
Recent PYMNTS Intelligence reporting underscores why that relationship work matters. Twenty-two percent of SMBs are somewhat to extremely likely to leave their credit union within a year, and among SMBs looking to leave, 75% say they would likely move somewhere other than another credit union.
Periods of rapid growth, change or stress often prompt businesses to seek more guidance from their financial partners. Peak season can therefore become a real test of the relationship. Credit unions that show up with relevant insights, modern payment capabilities and proactive outreach can build the trust needed to deepen SMB relationships over time.
From Seasonal Readiness to Sustainable Growth
Peak season may last only a few months, but its impact on SMB relationships can extend far beyond the holidays. Credit unions that help members navigate liquidity pressures, accelerate payments and mitigate fraud risk will be better positioned to earn trust, deepen engagement and become indispensable partners in their long-term growth.