Ahhh, it’s that time of year again. Diplomas are being rolled, commencement speeches are being written, caps with tassels are being tossed, and the sound of Pomp and Circumstance is filling the air – graduation time is upon us. Graduation – the intersection of education and anticipation – where individuals take all that they’ve learned and apply it towards their next endeavor – it isn’t just for students. Companies graduate too.
Emerging online companies, like students, often go with what’s cheapest, what’s easiest, and what’s readily available when looking for a payments solution. And at that point in the company’s growth, it makes perfect sense to , but the time comes when a company needs more – more distribution; better experimentation with bundles, promotions, A/B testing; more flexibility on emerging business models, etc. The time comes when you need to go beyond payments.
Take Uber and AirBnB – both are different companies on the surface, but their underlying goal is the same – to disrupt staid existing industries with customer intimacy, resulting in frictionless payments which are transparent and seamless for their customer base. But what happens when such companies continue to grow and expand into new markets and sales channels? What happens when new (or not so new) regulatory hurdles get in the way? What happens when they want to experiment with new pricing and revenue models, like subscriptions, freemiums, try & buys, trials, etc? Enter commerce.
Where Commencement Meets Commerce
Commerce = smarter payments + distribution + back office operations. It’s at this intersection of commencement and commerce where companies recognize the need to transform their business. A comprehensive commerce solution (which can include payment providers like PayPal) offers many benefits for companies of all sizes. Some examples include:
- Global Expansion: Support for localized currencies, languages, pricing, payment methods in over 100+ countries worldwide.
- Revenue Transformation: Ability to embrace new recurring revenue models such as subscriptions, usage-based contracts, etc.
- Customer Touchpoints: Support mobile, on-line, in-app purchasing along with distribution channels for affiliates, resellers, marketplaces and more.
- Improved Operations: Manage financial, regulatory, and compliance (PCI, Data Privacy, Tax/VAT) issues, customer support, chargebacks and refunds, and other back office operations.
To successfully sell digital goods and services to global customers requires you to go beyond payments to commerce – the integration of smarter payments, distribution, and back office operations. A comprehensive commerce provider like Avangate manages all the commerce components on a single platform, integrating seamlessly with any existing business system, taking your company’s growth to the next level.
As graduations commence across the globe, ask yourself if it’s time for your business to graduate as well… to Commerce.
