The holiday season is an excellent opportunity for boosting your sales, but however good that might sound, it does come with various challenges and difficulties.
Processing payments in different currencies, navigating complex tax regulations, and ensuring data compliance, all of these issues can impact your sales revenue. The good news is that there is a solution to your problems, and we are about to talk all about it.
This extensive guides help SaaS, software and video game developers address the challenges of selling globally during the holiday season while facing the existing challenges.
From global payments to tax and consumer data compliance, this article helps you with straightforward, effective strategies on how to navigate the issues while boosting holiday profit.
Key Definitions
Merchant of Record (MOR): a third-party company that handles the legal and financial aspects of selling your goods and services online. This includes processing payments, managing taxes, and ensuring compliance with foreign standards.
Scarcity Marketing: a psychological approach in which limited availability or time-sensitive offers are utilized to push potential purchasers to act quickly, capitalizing on their fear of losing out.
Chargeback: a process conducted by a cardholder (customer) with their bank or credit card provider to dispute a charge on their statement. If the dispute is considered valid, the cardholder's bank reverses the transaction, and the funds are returned to the merchant's account.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): a European Union (EU) law that went into effect on May 25, 2018. It establishes criteria for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Relevant Stats
E-commerce Growth: As of 2025, there will be 2.77 billion online shoppers globally. This means that 33% of the world's population does their shopping online. This is a 2.2% increase over the previous year. To capitalize on this growing industry, SaaS, software, and video game companies must enhance their online presence.
Mobile Shopping: Global m-commerce sales total $2.07 trillion, accounting for 57% of all e-commerce transactions worldwide. Ensure that your website and payment processes are mobile-friendly.
5 Holiday Season Best Practices
Simplify global payments for peak sales
During the holiday season, sales volumes increase, which in turn raises the risk of payment fraud and failures. A Merchant of Record solution can help with secure payment processing across different regions and payment methods, minimizing cart abandonment rates and improving customer experiences.
Additionally, an MOR offers different currencies and various security measures, which ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.
Keep In Mind:
When selecting a Merchant of Record partner, it's important to consider the accompanying fees, as some may be substantial.
eCommerce Partner
Thrive with the industry's most innovative all-in-one SaaS & Digital Goods solution. From high-performing payment and analytics tools to complete tax management, as well as subscription & billing handling, PayPro Global is ready to scale your SaaS.
Sell your SaaS globally with PayPro Global!
Mastering International Tax Compliance
International tax laws, including as VAT in Europe and sales tax in the United States, may be a nightmare around the holidays. An MOR automates tax calculation, collection, and payment, assuring compliance while avoiding fines.
For example, a software business selling in Europe can use PayPro Global's MOR to manage VAT compliance, allowing their team to focus on marketing and sales.
Multiple Types and Comparisons:
VAT (Value Added Tax) is a consumption tax levied on the value added to products and services.
Sales tax is a tax imposed on the sale of goods and services.
Reduce chargebacks and refunds during high-volume sales
Chargebacks and refund requests generally increase over the holiday season. An MOR incorporates strong fraud prevention measures and offers customer support to help resolve concerns swiftly.
For example, a video game company that works with PayPro Global can respond to customer inquiries ahead of time, lowering refund requests.
Keep In Mind:
High chargeback rates reduce earnings. Think about setting up fraud prevention measures and offering exceptional customer service.
Localization Strategy and Pricing for Global Impact
Tailoring marketing content and prices for different locations can greatly increase sales. This indicates a greater awareness of your international consumers' wants and preferences, which builds trust and encourages conversions.
Furthermore, localized pricing strategies that take into account regional economic conditions and purchasing power can increase the competitiveness and accessibility of your products or services in a wide range of markets.
Keep In Mind:
Use a Merchant of Record like PayPro Global to offer local payment options, currencies, and language support.
Protect Customer Data During Holiday Promotions
In today's competitive digital world, compliance with data privacy standards is critical. However, data privacy rules such as GDPR compliance and CCPA compliance are particularly crucial during the holiday season.
This is because, during holidays, GDPR compliance is even more important due to the increased volume and possible sensitivity of customer data being processed.
The MOR you are collaborating with needs to adhere to customer data, following existing regulations such as GDPR compliance and CCPA compliance to avoid legal issues.
Keep In Mind:
When distributing marketing messaging, you need to align with customer data collection and protection regulations.
Tips Worth Knowing
Consider preparing for the holiday season early on, creating your ads, setting up your pricing strategy, and ensuring the right customer support to maximize the impact of your campaigns.
The holiday season is a goldmine for SaaS e-commerce, software sales, and video game monetization. To capitalize on this season, offer customers exclusive promotions to capture their attention.
Mobile optimization, international tax compliance, and safeguarding customer data are issues that matter considerably. Neglecting them will impact your profit.
eCommerce Partner
Thrive with the industry's most innovative all-in-one SaaS & Digital Goods solution. From high-performing payment and analytics tools to complete tax management, as well as subscription & billing handling, PayPro Global is ready to scale your SaaS.
Sell your SaaS globally with PayPro Global!
Conclusion
FAQs
What makes selling software globally tricky during the holidays?
Selling globally during the holidays gets tricky because you face a higher volume of sales across different countries at once. This means dealing with various currencies, complicated international tax rules (like VAT), ensuring customer data privacy (like GDPR) is handled correctly with increased traffic, and managing a greater risk of payment fraud and chargebacks.
What exactly is a Merchant of Record (MOR) and how can it help with holiday sales?
A Merchant of Record, or MOR, is a company that acts as the legal seller for your online transactions. For holiday sales, an MOR helps by taking over the complex parts like securely processing payments globally, handling tax collection and filing, ensuring you meet compliance standards in different countries, and often managing fraud prevention, letting you focus on selling.
How can my business handle lots of international payments securely over the holidays?
Using a Merchant of Record (MOR) is a reliable way to handle increased international payments securely. They have systems built to manage high volumes, process multiple currencies, offer various secure local payment methods preferred by customers, and employ security measures to protect against fraud during the busy season.
How does an MOR make handling international taxes like VAT easier during busy sales periods?
An MOR simplifies international taxes by automating the whole process. They figure out the correct tax (like VAT or sales tax) for each sale based on the customer's location, collect it during checkout, and handle filing and paying it to the right government bodies. This removes a huge headache and reduces the risk of mistakes or non-compliance fines during peak times.
Why do chargebacks go up during the holidays, and what can be done about it?
Chargebacks often increase during the holidays due to more online shopping activity, which unfortunately includes more attempts at fraud. Sometimes, legitimate customer issues or confusion about charges also rise. You can reduce chargebacks by using strong fraud prevention tools (often part of an MOR service) and providing clear, fast customer support to sort out problems before a customer disputes the charge.
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.
