Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies manage multiple customers across various services, solutions, recurring billing, and subscription models. This makes payment processing challenging. You must ensure your payment processing architecture is accessible, easy to use, compliant, and capable of adapting to different subscription plans and customer expectations.

The limited variety of payment processing systems available in the past has led most SaaS companies to rely on solutions that redirect customers to external websites to get paid. Direct debits, credit cards, and third-party payment platforms have become the most common methods of managing payments for SaaS clientele.

The problem is, payment processing for the SaaS is more than just a transaction. Subscription-based or recurring billing-type payments require customised invoices that give customers time to manage their payments as they may want to upgrade, downgrade or cancel their service. Once-off payments require accurate invoicing processes that are easy to access and pay.

None of this can be managed manually, that’s an untenable approach for any SaaS company, but it is also rapidly becoming equally untenable for you to use a third-party service provider that doesn’t keep your customers on your site. Why?

When Your Customers Leave

If your SaaS platform is using a third-party payment processing platform that isn’t embedded or integrated within your platform, then your customers will be redirected to another website when they are paid. The invoice comes in, the customer then goes to another site to manage payments, and the process becomes instantly more complex.

Your customers now have to reconcile the payments they received in the third-party website with an invoice sitting on your website - this can introduce errors and add time and admin to the already intensive accounting process. The other challenge is that customers then have to use the third-party website to assess real-time cash flow, which means, once again, they are directed outside of your ecosystem and are using another service to manage their needs.

This is not ideal.

The Challenges Customers Face

Invoicing, billing, payment management. These are complex to begin with. Your customers must remain ahead of invoicing, payments, reconciliation and cash flow (just to name a few) while still running their own businesses and ensuring their customers are happy. If their subscriptions or payments from your SaaS solution require that they jump across multiple tabs, debits, payments and systems to stay ahead of their accounting, then they’re not going to relish the experience.

The most common challenges faced by customers of SaaS platforms include:

• Subscription and recurring billing operate differently, so not only do you have to juggle different payment plans, but so do your customers, which means more complexity across payment options, invoicing and processing.
• Redirects to third-party websites and payment services introduces the risks of error while adding to the admin burden and making payments even more time-consuming.
• Juggling different website tabs, customers, invoices, payment types and payment plans isn’t ideal for anyone - all customers would prefer quick, easy and painless.
• International payments and access to global markets can be restricted by different payment plans and types which could alienate or frustrate customers that don’t have access to a more varied pool of payment options.
• Compliance is essential across multiple jurisdictions and services, which means you always need to be aware of how your payment plan is aligned with regulations while remaining ahead of the latest security challenges and expectations. Reputation is everything in this business.
• Your brand is your business, so every time a customer leaves your platform to visit a third-party platform to manage their payments, they step away from your brand. You want them to remain within your platform for all services - you want a sticky space that keeps them engaged and loyal.

What If Customers Could Stay?

This is not a trick question. What if your customers could stay? There is no need for them to leapfrog from your platform to another website and back again. Embedded payments have become one of the most popular and powerful tools available on the market because they allow you to keep your customers within your ecosystem.

In fact, they allow you to create an ecosystem.

With an integrated, white-labelled embedded payments solution, you can bypass all the challenges that traditionally come with payment processing without compromising your brand. How?

• An embedded payment solution from Unipaas can be white-labelled and customised to fit within your SaaS platform. Branded to look like part of your ecosystem, this solution allows your customers to manage payments, connect with their customers, streamline invoicing, and manage cash flow from within your platform. No more multiple tabs open and complicated accounting, everything is in one space.
• The Unipaas embedded payment solution sits effortlessly within your SaaS platform using various integration options ranging from low-code to a fully customisable API interface - you choose the payment integration that best fits your business and customer needs. It can be implemented quickly and at a fraction of the cost of creating your own embedded payment solution and allows you to significantly minimise payment friction for your customers.
• You can use an embedded payment solution to create new revenue streams on top of your existing revenue models. This is a tangible return on your investment in an embedded payment solution, and it can drive a higher average revenue per user.
• Your customers get better control over their cash flow, you increase customer stickiness, and everyone wins within an ecosystem designed to make life easier. The Unipaas embedded payments architecture allows your customers to pay and go - onboarding is quick and painless, compliance is smart and seamless, and you can create truly engaging customer journeys.

The Unipaas Solution

Unipaas provides your SaaS platform with an embedded payment solution designed to make your life easier and your customer experiences stickier. You can improve pay-outs and flexibility by changing how you manage your funding flows, the speed of payments and payment processing, and you can introduce multiple payment methods across cards, open banking, Apple Pay and Direct Debit.

Thanks to our effortless white-labelling functionality, all of these benefits are covered in your branding. It is compliant with regulations, secure, agile and customisable and enhances your reputation as a trusted space that makes it easier to do business. Combined with our variety of features and the fact that now, with our solution, your customers never have to leave your website or ecosystem, you’ll be creating a vibrant space within which you can explore new business opportunities. 

Our unique and accessible embedded payment solution will fit perfectly within your platform and give you the tools to cut the admin and the complexity.