Succeeding in international eCommerce on your own can sometimes feel like climbing Mount Everest in a gold suit. The views are spectacular, but chances are you won’t survive the journey.
Establishing and scaling a presence in the global Software as a Service (SaaS) industry is an exhilarating potential win. Still, the resources and operational workload that go into this adventure pose a serious threat to the viability of your SaaS company.
And, going global means more than switching languages!
International expansion means managing local SaaS payment processing, tax and regulatory compliance requirements, shielding your SaaS platform from a greater fraud risk, and accepting diverse payment methods and currencies, not to mention the constant need to innovate in terms of product development.
When selling worldwide, it's important to simplify how customers pay for your products. However, it's easy to get caught up in perfecting payment processes and lose sight of what truly captivates existing and new users: your SaaS product.
So, what happens next? How can you solve payment challenges and expand internationally while focusing on your products and services?
The short answer is joining forces with a Merchant of Record.
As we discuss several advanced strategies capable of boosting your global SaaS payments, you'll quickly see why and how an MOR service provider can ease the transition and supercharge your revenue:
6 SaaS Payments Strategies Businesses Should Know
Is the Merchant of Record a Solution?
How Can PayPro Global Help?
6 SaaS Payments Strategies Businesses Should Know
1. Offer Localized Shopping Experiences
With 2.64 billion online buyers in 2023, it’s natural to assume that payment habits exist amongst shoppers and, what is more, that they are in a constant state of change. For instance, debit cards are among the preferred options in the UK, whereas in the Netherlands, local payment methods like iDEAL rank on top.
Plus, considering local economies and customers’ willingness to pay, you could use regional pricing to your advantage. Streaming services, like Paramount, practice different prices based on the customer’s location. Others personalize their campaign based on cultural differences.
SaaS platforms determined to achieve global success and generate revenue must be able to cater to all of the different payment preferences among buyers. Unfortunately, many merchants lack the technology that enables them to do so.
The easy solution would be to join forces with different third-party payment solutions. However, having a complex payment stack is not only difficult to manage, but it can be extremely resource and labor-intensive, often hindering business agility.
Implementing global payment methods differs in process complexity and costs. Credit cards are a great example, as currency conversions between customer accounts, card schemes, and acquiring banks frequently require extra development efforts.
And let’s not forget that creating localized shopping experiences with the help of a payments provider must include additional features such as regional pricing, tax considerations, and compliance management.
This leads us to the obvious conclusion: A payments platform like the Merchant of Record, operating as the control room of your payment infrastructure, will help you answer customer preferences through local and popular payment methods wherever you might sell, considerably reducing operational costs and workload.
SaaS platforms need to start leveraging payment-related functionalities to ensure business growth in different corners of the world.
2. Ensure Complex Tax and Compliance Management
The very nature of SaaS and software products has made them the perfect fit for hyper-growth. But this is only in theory, unfortunately, because once these offerings became taxable, many businesses got caught in the tax compliance web.
Should you wish to expand globally, keep in mind that there are 195 countries in the world, each with its own set of regulations, all of which you must be in compliance with.
Once you start accepting payments, domestically and globally, ensuring tax and compliance management is now an obligation rather than a growth strategy.
Selling in the US alone exposes you to 45 regulation sets with different registration or tax reporting processes. And there is a need to ensure correct tax calculations for more than 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions. Sometimes these tax jurisdictions can have more than one tax rate, which may also change frequently.
Plus, you have data protection regulations such as GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and the list goes on and on.
Mind you, these regulations are always prone to change. Constant monitoring and audits are required to ensure that imposed data security standards and tax processes are always implemented within your sales processes.
A handful of people cannot possibly keep things in order. The amount of work is simply overwhelming, and failing to comply will undoubtedly lead to penalties, fines, reputational damage, business disruption, and even legal action in some cases.
With all of these mandates, it’s easy to see how global ambitions are undoubtedly crushed by inefficient tax and compliance management.
It is absolutely essential to find a way to ensure tax and regulatory compliance for each of the territories you are currently selling into, as well as for those you are considering doing so.
In other words, you want a solution that can scale together with your business.
Unfortunately, relying on a fragmented payment stack comprised of various solutions falls short of delivering the efficiency you require. Moreover, it continues to place a significant burden on your internal team, adding to their workload and taking their attention away from meeting their business goals.
Nonetheless, failing to comply could ultimately impact your business in a negative manner.
3. Provide End Users with Multi-Lingual Support
While we’re sure you are well aware of the importance of offering rewarding customer experiences, providing multilingual user support is a critical piece of this puzzle. And we can prove it, too.
Stats show that 70% of users who benefit from assistance in their native language feel more loyal to a brand, while 29% of businesses admit losing customers due to not providing multilingual support.
Multilingual payment support is especially helpful, as frustrations can escalate when discussing transactions. Just imagine having to navigate these conversations in a non-native language.
From improving customer retention to lowering chargeback rates, providing users with assistance in their native language is not a detail to ignore.
However, businesses that attempt to handle this process in-house run into implementation complexities and high costs, as well as linguistic errors or inconsistencies. All of these issues end up compromising user experience, doing more harm than good, and ultimately, costing businesses money rather than saving it.
Sadly, many SaaS businesses view multilingual support as a costly endeavor, overlooking its true impact on business performance.
4. Reduce Operational Overhead
The SaaS industry brings many exciting opportunities for businesses, especially in the context of international expansion. However, navigating the increasingly complex cross-border landscape is becoming more and more of a challenge for merchants, preventing them from winning more SaaS payments.
Rather than prioritizing product development and marketing efforts, SaaS merchants are burdened with an exhausting amount of logistical responsibilities, such as:
Handing a multitude of regulations that include the proper implementation of specific processes, as well as ongoing monitoring and proactive updating.
Ensuring vigilant fraud prevention and detection through comprehensive systems.
Management of different third-party solutions, each with its own features and integration processes.
Overcoming multi-currency complexities associated with selling worldwide.
Optimizing the payment infrastructure to meet new market demands and boost transaction volumes.
Efficiently handling customer support, chargeback, and reconciliation processes, which are notoriously time-consuming.
Facing these operational hurdles quickly strains your business resources, diverting the focus from your product and leaving it unattended and stalled for growth.
Inevitably, this will lead to a significant user loss, as customers will no longer obtain value.
Achieving success on a global stage entails not only operational readiness to seize opportunities swiftly but also delivering an innovative product that adapts to evolving needs and demands.
And the truth is no one can serve two masters.
While you are drowning in logistical challenges, your product is dying.
A growing number of SaaS payments is justified by a financial solution and a strong product offering. The two go hand in hand.
Make sure you choose a reliable payment processing partner that can remove the operational hurdles associated with accepting one-time and recurring payments so you can gain the freedom to work on your product.
5. Leverage Real-Time BI
We can all agree that having access to real-time business intelligence (BI) brings about powerful benefits for SaaS and software businesses.
From making data-driven business decisions and access to insights leading to enhanced customer experiences or optimized operations and processes, it all boils down to gaining that competitive edge that allows you to thrive in a fast-paced business landscape.
Even though the importance of real-time BI is no longer news to anyone, what is surprising is how difficult and challenging integrating dedicated systems is.
This happens for a number of reasons:
Real-time BI systems are, by definition, robust infrastructures capable of handling a vast amount of data. Requiring an ongoing flow of information, they can overwhelm the existing system, potentially leading to business disruptions.
Due to the complexity of the infrastructure, real-time BI requires having a skilled team that keeps the system working at all times, which can often turn into a costly operation. Still, not having data at hand is a dire threat to businesses.
In the process of harnessing data, it is crucial to be aware of existing regulations across the territories you are targeting. Whether GDPR or CCPA, strong security measures must be taken to ensure data security and compliance. Otherwise, you are exposing your SaaS business and your shoppers to significant risks.
Of course, that build vs. buy dilemma is a real thing in BI analytics tools. Even though the buy option is a straightforward solution, there are collaboration issues that might set your business back. Integrating an additional system in a crowded payment stack can cause massive headaches and operational hurdles.
When it comes to business intelligence, SaaS merchants find themselves in quite a pickle. On the one hand, having access to real-time insights opens the door to precise process enhancements and revenue growth.
On the other, the complexity of this endeavor, coupled with the additional expenses and ongoing maintenance effort, makes the merchant question their need for data, which is really not debatable in this day and age.
But don’t be fooled. Obtaining payment insights is crucial for boosting SaaS payments because it gives you a direct channel inside the mind of the consumer and the ability to better understand their behavior.
Access to real-time business intelligence enables you to adapt to regional financial preferences, winning their trust and more SaaS payments.
6. Set up and Oversee Partner and Affiliate Networks
With 79% of marketers using affiliate marketing to engage and grow their customer base, it’s reasonable to believe a strong partner network is a primary concern for SaaS businesses.
It is also a challenge, especially in the context of cross-border payments.
How come?
Well, SaaS businesses must build and maintain relationships with different third-party solutions, affiliates, partners, and payment service providers to simplify transactions in different regions.
Coordinating communication and system integrations between multiple entities can quickly become overwhelming.
Plus, you need to be aware of the legal side of things. Compliance requirements and revenue agreements must be set in place and meticulously followed.
Managing affiliate and partner networks adds an additional layer of complexity to an already elaborate payment stack.
However, a complete partner that can give you access to a cross-border expansion-ready solution could solve things and allow your business to build different channels bringing in SaaS payments.
Is the Merchant Of Record the Right Solution?
Conquering new territories requires setting up a strategic business plan, but it also presents numerous challenges for SaaS companies. One, in particular, stands out: the inability to efficiently manage a complex payment stack crowded by various third-party solutions.
From this perspective, yes, a whole-hearted yes; an MOR partnership is worth considering.
Not only does this business model offer specific solutions to different cross-border challenges, but it also brings together all the tools you need to grow globally without juggling various third parties.
Much more than a payment processing solution, the Merchant of Record business model removes the burden of having to manage a complex payment stack, assuming the legal and financial responsibility for the transactions you make in each new territory you enter.
As a result, they offer:
Complete payment infrastructure, giving you access to multiple payment methods and currencies therefore eliminating the need for multiple integrations.
Tax and compliance management, ensuring your SaaS business complies with all related regulations, as well as the proper registrations and reporting taxes worldwide.
Access To real-time analytics through a robust integrated system.
Extensive chargeback management.
Fraud prevention and detection.
SaaS Payment customer support.
Integrated payment processing.
However, it’s important to mention that not all Merchant of Record solutions are equal in integrated payment functionalities or price. So, making sure you choose the right partner for your SaaS business is the only way to ensure sustainable business growth and address users pain points related to payment.
The Merchant of Record that helps you grow
PayPro Global takes away the headache of selling your products worldwide. From local payment methods to simplified subscription handling and tax management, we give you the eCommerce tools you need to scale your business smoothly into the global market.
How Can PayPro Global Hep?
For over 15 years, we've witnessed the frustrations SaaS companies encounter when their goal is to reach global audiences while managing the complexities of international sales. This is all while trying to find the time and resources for product development.
The absence of a robust infrastructure and a reliable strategic partnership has made SaaS merchants put their product second to logistical hurdles, which is a recipe for a disaster unless you want your business to fail.
The good news is that with PayPro Global as your e-commerce partner, you regain the freedom to focus on perfecting your offering while leveraging innovative payment features effectively.
Acting as your reseller, PayPro Global’s unique Merchant of Record platform offers the tools you need to quickly grab cross-border opportunities without stressing over the operational complexities that are sure to come with them.
Through a smart mix of alternative payment methods and local currencies, smart routing technology, and a dynamic cascading system that effectively guides your customer’s transactions throughout our extensive infrastructure, PayPro Global takes care of all the behind-the-scenes payment technicalities, significantly boosting your approval ratio on transactions.
Not only that, but you can easily access global audiences and obtain smooth cross-border transactions through extensive subscription management, localization tools like regional pricing, fixed local prices, 24/7 multi-lingual customer support, and local billing,
As your PCI-DSS Level One Certified partner, we make sure the highest payment security standards are upheld at all times, allowing your SaaS business to process payments stress-free.
Additionally, with PayPro Global’s complete analytics module, ensuring real-time reporting and perfect synchronization between databases, you can easily trigger on-demand reports or schedule them at fixed intervals to drill into different segments and track your business’s performance.
When it comes to affiliate and partner networks, trust that PayPro Global’s module is your secondary sales channel, sure to boost revenue and easily reach new markets.
Find out more about our complete Merchant of Record solution and how you can access a platform that is ready to strategically scale your business in global markets.
Final Thoughts
The Global SaaS market presents huge opportunities for booting SaaS transactions but sadly poses just as big and complex challenges, which tend to overshadow the excitement.
Having entered global expansion independently, merchants are drowning in logistical and operational hurdles.
They are forced to think of ways to optimize the payment process, keep track of compliance regulations, and ensure correct tax management is performed, all while struggling to keep costs under control.
But where does all of this leave you, and how can you capture new long-term customers?
Luckily, forging strategic partnerships with Merchants of Record is your opportunity to surpass logistical nightmares and actually achieve global growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some strategies for succeeding in international eCommerce as a SaaS company?
When looking to boost SaaS payments, you might want to consider working with a dedicated payment service provider, capable of offering you a wide range of features to monetize payments Dong so you would be able to seamlessly accept payments, but also provide users with localized shopping experiences, ensure complex tax and compliance in all of the regions you are selling, offer multi-lingual support, reduce operational overload and costs, take advantage real-time business intelligence, and build and manage partner and affiliate networks.
How can a Merchant of Record (MOR) solution help with global SaaS payments?
To boost global SaaS transactions, you need more than a payment processor. The Merchant of Record business model is the right choice of partner, as it takes away the frustrations of having to deal with multiple third-party solutions. This robust infrastructure offers multiple, accessible and visible features that streamline the payment process. From complete tax and compliance management and access to real-time analytics to robust fraud prevention and multilingual payment-related customer support, the MOR simplifies cross-border transactions for SaaS businesses.
How can PayPro Global assist SaaS companies in managing international sales complexities?
PayPro Global acts as a reseller and offers a unique Merchant of Record model, ensuring seamless payment feature integration and taking care of all the behind-the-scenes details. Through a smart mix of currencies and alternative payment methods, localization tools, dedicated customer support, subscription management, analytics, and affiliate and partner networks, we help SaaS companies focus on product development while expanding globally.
Ioana Grigorescu
Ioana Grigorescu is PayPro Global's Content Manager, focused on creating strategic writing pieces for SaaS, B2B, and technology companies. With a background that combines Languages and Translation Studies with Political Sciences, she's skilled in analyzing, creating, and communicating impactful content. She excels at developing content strategies, producing diverse marketing materials, and ensuring content effectiveness. Beyond her work, she enjoys exploring design with Figma.
