PayBright and Material Forge Alliance to Arm Small Retailers with Big Tech

RALEIGH, N.C. – March 10, 2026 – In a significant move to bolster independent retail, merchant services provider PayBright has announced a strategic investment in Material, a technology firm offering an all-in-one platform for small businesses. The partnership aims to equip often-overlooked merchants—like boutiques, gift shops, and pet stores—with sophisticated tools to compete in an increasingly digital marketplace.

As part of the deal, Material will become PayBright’s preferred Point-of-Sale (POS) solution for the retail sector. This collaboration integrates Material’s purpose-built hardware, software, and payment processing into PayBright’s extensive network, which already includes over two dozen industry partnerships. Underscoring the strategic depth of the alliance, PayBright's founder and CEO, Dustin Magaziner, will join Material's board of directors.

“We introduced Material to PayBright clients, and their response was some of the strongest feedback we’ve received from a beta test,” said Magaziner in the announcement. “They shared how seamless integration was, intuitive the system is to use, and deep the e-commerce and in-store operations data insights were. That enthusiasm made our decision to invest easy.”

Leveling the Playing Field for Main Street

For years, independent retailers have navigated a treacherous landscape, caught between the high-tech, data-driven operations of retail giants and the limitations of fragmented, often cumbersome technology. Many small business owners juggle separate systems for in-store sales, e-commerce orders, and inventory management, a practice that leads to reconciliation headaches, lost sales from stock discrepancies, and valuable time wasted on manual data entry.

The PayBright-Material partnership directly confronts these pain points. Material, founded by independent retailers who experienced these challenges firsthand, offers a unified ecosystem designed to streamline every facet of a small retail business. Its platform has already proven its value, helping over 5,000 boutiques generate $50 million in sales through its e-commerce marketplace, Shoptiques.com, and another $150 million in brick-and-mortar transactions.

“Material’s technology solutions are purpose-built for independent retailers, by independent retailers,” explained Marc Gugliuzza, Co-CEO at Material. “We empower business owners with the flexibility to choose business and payment solutions tailored to their unique goals. PayBright is the most transparent, responsive, and pro-business merchant services provider we have ever worked with.”

This specialized approach is Material’s core differentiator in a crowded market. While generic POS systems may offer a broad set of features, they often lack the nuanced tools required for niche retail. A gift shop, for example, needs robust inventory management for thousands of unique, high-variety SKUs and the ability to create custom gift baskets—features not always prioritized by one-size-fits-all solutions. Material’s platform addresses these specific needs, from overseeing complex inventory to building personalized customer loyalty programs and managing targeted marketing campaigns.

The New Standard: Integrated Retail Ecosystems

The collaboration signifies a broader industry shift away from disparate software tools and toward fully integrated retail operating systems. The future of commerce, for businesses of all sizes, lies in providing a seamless experience across every customer touchpoint, whether online, in-store, or on a mobile app. An integrated platform is no longer a luxury but a necessity for operational efficiency and customer retention.

Competitors like Square, Shopify POS, and Clover have built substantial market share by offering increasingly unified solutions. Shopify, for instance, excels at bridging the gap between online and brick-and-mortar sales, while Square is known for its accessible entry-level offerings. However, PayBright and Material are betting on the power of specialization.

“Independent retailers focused on growing e-commerce sales need more than a payment processor; they need smart, responsive technology that elevates the shopping experience and drives sales,” Magaziner noted. “Material delivers exactly that, combining real-time data insights, customer engagement tools, and powerful retail functionality in one.”

By integrating hardware, software, and payments, the platform eliminates the data silos that plague many small businesses. This allows for real-time inventory syncing, preventing the dreaded scenario of selling an out-of-stock item online. It also provides a single, comprehensive view of business performance, empowering owners to make data-driven decisions about purchasing, staffing, and marketing without needing a degree in data science.

PayBright's Strategic Evolution Beyond Payments

This investment is more than just an addition to PayBright's portfolio; it marks a calculated step in the company's evolution from a payment processor to a holistic partner in merchant growth. By embedding specialized operational software into its offerings, PayBright makes its services stickier and more valuable, creating a powerful moat in the highly competitive fintech landscape.

This strategy is not new for the company. The move mirrors a previous investment in Figure, Inc., a cloud-based POS system for restaurants, which established PayBright as a key player in the hospitality tech space. The partnership with Material extends this vertical-specific strategy to the vast and diverse retail sector, which includes a gift retail market projected to grow to nearly $100 billion by 2032.

“While PayBright offers 25+ custom payment solutions, there’s a gap in the market for retail merchants, especially in these overlooked categories,” Magaziner stated, highlighting the strategic thinking behind the investment. “We’re proud to partner with a team redefining modern retail technology.”

His appointment to Material's board of directors further cements this long-term vision. It ensures deep alignment between the two companies, facilitating a smoother integration of their technologies and go-to-market strategies. For PayBright, this is about fostering an ecosystem where its merchants don't just survive but thrive, driving more transaction volume and deeper loyalty in the process.

The partnership also provides a powerful distribution channel for Material, giving it access to PayBright’s established network of agents, ISOs, and banking partners. This synergy is designed to accelerate adoption and bring sophisticated, yet affordable, technology to a market segment ripe for innovation. As independent businesses continue to seek an edge, the combination of PayBright's transparent financial services and Material's intuitive operational tools presents a compelling proposition designed for the future of retail.