Dun & Bradstreet is teaming up with FedEx Dataworks on a new predictive data product — and it has nothing to do with how your PAYDEX score gets calculated.
A note on terminology used on this page: BCC Supplies does not lend money. A BCC Supplies membership is a commercial installment contract, reported to the business credit bureaus as a business installment tradeline — some pages also describe this as an "installment loan" in a descriptive sense, not a cash loan from a lender. See how this is structured →
Dun & Bradstreet and FedEx Dataworks announced a new predictive insights product that tracks supply and demand trends across U.S. retail, built by combining FedEx shipping and returns data with D&B's analytics.1 It's aimed at retailers, brands, and analysts trying to read momentum in consumer demand before it shows up in quarterly earnings.
This is a data product, not a scoring change. Nothing about it alters how D&B calculates a PAYDEX score for an individual business, and it does not add a new data feed into your business's credit file.
The headline figure is a slowdown in retail contraction. Year-over-year shipment momentum was still negative in Q4 2025, but the average decline improved to 10.3%, compared to a 21.0% decline in Q4 2024.1 That's roughly half the rate of contraction from a year earlier — retail is still shrinking, just much less sharply.
Returns tell a similar story. Returns volumes fell an average of 38.4% from 2023 to 2024, and 54.5% from 2024 to 2025.1 D&B and FedEx read that as a sign of improved demand quality — consumers and businesses ordering more of what they actually intend to keep, rather than over-ordering and returning later.
These figures describe aggregate retail-sector trends across the U.S. economy. They say nothing about any single business's payment behavior, and they carry zero weight in how your PAYDEX or any other business credit score is generated.
No. PAYDEX is built from trade payment experiences — how promptly your business pays vendors and creditors who report to Dun & Bradstreet, weighted toward larger and more recent transactions.1 A macro retail-demand product built from FedEx shipment volumes is a completely different data pipeline.
D&B runs many products alongside its credit-scoring business, and this predictive insights tool sits closer to their market-intelligence and analytics division than to their credit bureau function. If you sell in retail, the underlying trend is still worth watching for planning purposes. It just doesn't touch your file.
It matters because retailers and their suppliers operate on trade credit, and slowing contraction plus falling returns can mean steadier cash flow up and down a supply chain.1 Steadier cash flow makes it easier for a retail business to pay net-30 and net-60 vendor accounts on time, which is exactly what actually does build PAYDEX and Experian scores.
In other words, the macro trend and your file are connected only indirectly: better retail conditions can make it easier to pay on time, and paying on time is what your score actually measures.
Focus on what your bureaus actually measure: reported tradelines with on-time or early payment histories. PAYDEX, Experian's Intelliscore Plus, and Equifax Business scores are all built from your own reported payment data, not from industry-wide retail trend reports.1
A commercial installment contract that reports monthly, like a BCC Supplies membership reported as a business installment tradeline, gives bureaus a consistent, predictable payment record to score. BCC Supplies does not lend money — this is a reported installment contract, not a cash loan, and it works alongside net-30 vendor accounts rather than replacing them.
BCC Supplies is not affiliated with Dun & Bradstreet or FedEx Dataworks. We have no role in this data partnership; we simply help businesses build the payment history that PAYDEX and other scores are actually built from.
Retail trend data doesn't touch your PAYDEX score, but reported monthly payments do. See how a BCC Supplies business installment tradeline adds consistent, on-time payment history to your file.
See Your Options →D&B and FedEx Dataworks are building a retail forecasting tool, not a new input into your business credit score. The improving retail trend — a 10.3% Q4 2025 decline versus 21.0% a year earlier, alongside sharply falling returns volumes — is useful context if you sell into retail, but it changes nothing about how PAYDEX, Intelliscore Plus, or Equifax Business scores are calculated. Those still come down to whether your reported tradelines get paid on time.
Sources: 1. Dun & Bradstreet — While year-over-year momentum was still negative in Q4 2025, the average decline improved sharply to 10.3%, compared to 21.0% in Q4 2024, indicating a meaningful slowdown in contraction. 2. Dun & Bradstreet — Returns volumes continued to fall significantly, declining an average of 38.4% from 2023–24 and 54.5% from 2024–25, pointing to improved demand quality and more disciplined discretionary spending by consumers and businesses.
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