Recurring Payments’ Supporting Role In Keeping Customers Loyal

Entertainment powerhouse Disney made a big splash last month when its long-awaited streaming service Disney+ officially launched on Nov. 12. Within weeks of the launch, Disney+ acquired more than 10 million global subscribers, making the service highly competitive in the SVOD/OTT space. As a newcomer to the subscription streaming market, Disney will need to realize quickly that customer loyalty can’t be taken for granted and that a seamless payment experience is essential for retaining customers.

The new Global Recurring Payments Tracker® highlights the latest solutions that are enabling firms in different markets to provide their customers with an uninterrupted payment process. Recent solutions are enabling more seamless cross-border subscriptions and accounts receivable (AR) operations, among other use cases.

Around The Global Recurring Payments World

Global markets can be challenging to offer seamless subscription services. A new partnership promises to help businesses deliver a smoother subscription experience across borders.

Payment solutions provider GoCardless and subscription commerce platform Recurly recently collaborated on a new solution aimed at helping businesses to more seamlessly process payments using different global payment schemes. Under the partnership, Recurly’s clients will be able to collect funds using financial networks like the U.K. Bacs Payments Scheme Limited, the EU’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) or the automated clearing house (ACH) in the U.S. The partnership enables Recurly to expand its global footprint and by enabling more businesses to offer subscription plans in international markets.

Publishing platform WordPress, meanwhile, recently released a new tool of its own. The service enables content creators, including artists, publishers, game developers and more to offer subscription capabilities to their WordPress-powered websites. This feature enables users to add recurring payments and offer paid plans or collect regular donations for their work.

Business-to-business (B2B) firms are also benefitting from recurring payment capabilities. FinTech Bottomline Technologies, for example, recently released an upgrade to its Paymode-X AP automation service designed to help businesses shift away from using paper-based methods like checks and invoices. The solutions works by automatically capturing data and images from invoices and aims to offer users greater insight into the AP invoice-to-pay lifecycle. The solution can also automate invoice processes, freeing company employees to focus on expanding company operations instead of manual invoice tasks.

Deep Dive: Fighting Involuntary Churn

A frictionless payment experience is essential for any subscription company to retain customers. Many subscription businesses — whether they provide access to streaming video content or software-as-a-service (SaaS) products — risk losing subscribers to involuntary churn that results from expired credit cards or outdated billing information. The Tracker’s Deep Dive explores the challenges that involuntary churn presents to subscription merchants and outlines the steps businesses can take to address these challenges head on.

Enhancing The ‘Business Of Relationships’ With Customer Support

Businesses need to deliver a seamless experience at all points of customers’ journey to remain successful. Many firms use support services like chats, call centers and data analytics to help customers address frictions as they arise. Recurring payments are important for firms to access these customer support tools. In the Tracker’s Feature Story, Pablo Kenney, director of product strategy and operations for customer support service firm Zendesk, explains how recurring payments enable businesses to enhance their customer support efforts.

About the Tracker

The Global Recurring Payments Tracker®, a PYMNTS and GoCardless collaboration, is a go-to monthly resource examining the complexities and challenges of the international recurring payments space, as well as the latest efforts to enable smoother cross-border transactions for global business growth.