Zuora, Inc. (NYSE: ZUO), the leading subscription management platform provider, today announced an expanded global partnership and new product integration with GoCardless, the leading fintech for recurring payments, to help companies across more than 30 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada to process recurring payments faster and reduce payment-related costs and customer churn. 

Over the past eight years, subscription revenue has grown up to 8 times faster than the sales revenue of the S&P 500, according to Zuora’s Subscription Economy® Index. As consumers increasingly demand access to digital services, the GoCardless Global Payment Preferences report found that the use of bank debit to pay for online subscriptions is growing as an alternative to legacy payment methods like wire transfers, paper checks, and credit cards. 

Companies that prioritize pull-based payment methods can avoid the high transaction costs and hidden fees associated with legacy payment methods, both locally and globally, as well as the costs associated with chasing late and failed payments, which ultimately leads to involuntary churn and lost revenue. Additionally, companies can access 44% more markets by offering bank debit as a collections gateway, according to IDC’s “The business value of taking recurring payments with GoCardless.

“It’s critical for any company with a significant share of its revenue obtained from cross-border transactions, as well as any business hoping to scale internationally, to have a seamless payment collection experience – not only to drive efficiencies across accounting and collection operations, but to drive a consistent and seamless customer experience,” said Thomas Zink, Research Director at IDC. 

To address the need for faster, higher acceptance rates for recurring payments around the world, GoCardless and Zuora engineered an out-of-the-box solution optimized for the digital Subscription Economy and recurring payments. “The latest Zuora and GoCardless integration will address this market need, enabling subscription organizations to scale their businesses internationally without additional fees and inefficiencies, and without impacting the end user experience,” continued Zink.

The advanced automation within the GoCardless recurring payment solution combined with the unparalleled agility of Zuora’s Billing platform, equips subscription businesses in their monetization plans as they launch, bill, and strategically iterate new subscription offerings. Using the Zuora and GoCardless integration, customers can expect to: 

• Minimize Churn: Offering a variety of payment methods catered to customer preferences, the Subscribed Institute’s Global Recurring Payments report estimates that subscription businesses can achieve up to 5% lower churn rates and up to 4% higher growth rates which protects and helps to grow revenue. Using Zuora and GoCardless saves time and money by pulling money in directly with bank debit, and improves payment failure rates with intelligent retry logic and automated dunning functionalities, ultimately helping to reduce customer churn.  
• Reduce Cost of Collecting Payments: There are many costs involved in collecting and managing recurring payments, but the real pain is felt in processing fees and recovery costs. Card processing fees are inherently high, compounded by FX costs and hidden fees associated with a high volume of cross-border transactions. The Zuora and GoCardless solution automates the entire payment process from invoice to collection and back-office reconciliation, reducing the number of resources required, and eliminates hidden domestic and international fees, significantly reducing costs of managing a global recurring revenue business. 

“We’re excited to expand our partnership with GoCardless to help subscription businesses carry out successful payment collection experiences, and truly embody the agility required to scale in today’s Subscription Economy. Our enhanced, integrated solution will serve as a foundation for businesses to effectively execute a global payments strategy, removing inefficiencies and barriers to scaling in international markets,” said Chris Battles, Chief Product Officer at Zuora. 

“GoCardless is committed to providing the best way for businesses to collect recurring payments. Through our expanded partnership with Zuora we can help subscription businesses automate their end-to-end payment process and lower their costs as they expand into new markets,” said Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, Chief Operating Officer at GoCardless.

Companies like SiteMinder have seen the benefits of using Zuora and GoCardless, including Zuora and GoCardless who now benefit from each other’s services on the corporate level.

Evan Miller, Global Director of Billing and Collections at SiteMinder, said: “The Zuora and GoCardless partnership means we can run everything through one integration, removing manual processes like payment reconciliation. The level of automation with Zuora’s platform coupled with the transparency of bank debit fees with GoCardless gives us the predictability and reliability we need to grow our business long-term."