Every business competing in the market today seeks a competitive edge, and one way that subscription businesses gain this edge is by offering multiple payment options. Letting subscribers use their preferred payment method can increase conversions. And preferences differ. In the US and Canada, credit cards dominate ecommerce, but purchasers in other parts of the world favor digital wallets, direct debit, and other payment methods. Demographics also play a role in what payment methods are preferred.

Recurly began supporting Apple Pay on the Web in 2017. We also support Amazon Pay for USD transactions. And now we support the EU/UK version of Amazon Pay to enable transactions in the Euro and British Pound. This allows our customers to give subscribers in these regions the option of using these popular payment methods to complete their transactions.

With the popularity of mobile commerce growing each year, demand for digital payment options is only going to get stronger as consumers discover how convenient digital wallets are. With a digital wallet, an individual doesn’t need to carry their actual wallet in order to complete purchases. And when making a purchase with a mobile device, a digital wallet streamlines the process by eliminating the need to type in a credit card number.

PayPal is another popular digital wallet which Recurly supports. A key benefit of offering PayPal as a payment option is that it outperforms all other digital wallets, according to a study by comScore. In fact, PayPal was found to perform 60% better than all other digital wallets and 82% higher than all other payment methods. Another study by Ipsos found that customers are 54% more willing to buy when a business accepts PayPal. To learn more, read our blog.

By addressing a common pain point—digging out a credit card to complete a purchase—digital wallets mitigate cart abandonment, a persistent bane of ecommerce companies. Anytime a subscription business can remove friction from the checkout process, they can increase conversion rates

Mobile payment options can also be more secure than credit cards. Most digital wallets require some form of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), which is an upcoming requirement of the PSD2 mandate in Europe. So, offering these additional payment methods may also help with conversion rates while at the same time, meeting regulatory requirements.

Recurly knows how important it is for our customers to offer the payment options popular with their subscribers, to streamline the checkout flow and increase conversions. To that end, Recurly supports a wide range of payment options, from digital wallets to localized payment methods, so that subscribers and prospects always have easy ways to pay.