5 businesses investing in cloud-based payments
Last editedSept 20214 min. read
Big and small businesses are investing in cloud-based tools to help them grow.
According to a Forbes survey, 90% of respondents say that cloud collaboration tools can help businesses to execute faster than otherwise possible. And that’s contributing to growth, with 91% of businesses using 10 cloud-based tools experiencing growth in the last three years.
But cloud-based tools don’t just contribute to increased collaboration. Automating your payments process in the cloud should not be overlooked for businesses trying to rapidly scale.
We’re going to look at 5 different businesses that have invested in cloud-based payment strategies, created efficiencies and turned their focus to growing their business.
Epson
As offices closed globally and we all started working from home, the demand for printing services came home with us. As a result, Epson needed to respond to this new consumer based demand. Luckily, the team had already started to roll out their at-home service, ReadyPrint, so accelerated it’s roll-out as lockdowns were enforced Europe-wide.
The service was originally taking payments via taking credit and debit cards. Epson quickly realised that there was a stronger preference for an automated payment option like Direct Debit when it comes to subscription. They utilised the Zuora and GoCardless partnership to quickly get the payment option to market.
After promoting Direct Debit as a payment option, Epson experienced a 40-50% improvement of customers completing their transactions vs abandoning them midway. Among new customers, uptake is trending towards 80%.
They were able to adapt quickly to the changing market during the pandemic and capitalise on the new demand.
Read the full Epson story here.
Diaper Stork
US-based diaper service and baby boutique, Diaper Stork, delivers cloth diapers and related items straight to customers' doors, providing an eco-conscious alternative to disposable diapers. During the pandemic, whilst shelves were empty, they were able to service their customers as normal and expanded their services.
As a small business, they needed to free up as many hours and as much money as possible.
“As a small business owner, I wear a lot of hats. Anything that frees up time for me to focus on higher-level strategy rather than transactional tasks is a huge help.”
Carrie Pollack, CEO, Diaper Stork
Their manual payments process was an area ripe for optimisation. They were paying 3% for their card transactions and reconciling payments manually. Moving to an automated payment method like ACH debit (equivalent to Direct Debit in the UK) would reduce costs and resources spent on collecting payments. The company is now paying 2% less per transaction and saving 2-3 hours per month on reconciliation.
“Paying with a low-cost method like ACH debit really makes a big difference for small businesses,” said Carrie. “It allows us to reduce costs, and, as a result, more money stays in the local economy.”
Read the full Diaper Stork story about how they’re championing eco friendly and sustainable parenting.
Rebel Energy
Dan Bates, former BP executive, founded Rebel Energy, a British domestic energy supplier dedicated to providing 100% renewable electricity and lifting people out of fuel poverty in the process. Their mission is to bring renewable energy to as many people as possible - not just those lucky enough to own a Tesla.
To do so, he built a company with automation and data-driven processes at its core, to keep inefficiencies and costs down. This includes their payments process, which they fully automated to reduce costs with bank debit. They also wanted increased visibility of the payment journey so they can react quickly if a customer's payment fails and manage their changing needs, making the service more accessible.
“We fully expect that, with our focus on automation and with the contribution from GoCardless, we’ll be able to exceed industry benchmarks around cost to serve. Potentially by a factor of three.”
Dan Bates, CEO, Rebel Energy
Read the full story.
intY
intY is an award-winning distributor of cloud services from the biggest cloud software vendors in the world. In 2014, they started seeing strong results in the UK and Europe, but their billing process in those markets was causing friction.
“Our billing process was incredibly manual and error-prone. It was holding us back. Our customers were generally happy; the one thing they complained about was billing.”
Chris Swanson, Data Analytics & Insights Manager, intY
They knew they needed to automate their back office collection processes to avoid upsetting and losing anymore customers. They had been managing 50% of transactions that came through Direct Debit directly with the bank. This process meant filing cabinets full of Direct Debit mandates and manually recollecting failed payments. They automated all their Direct Debit transactions and migrated to GoCardless.
As a result, they’ve grown their revenue 5 times over yet reduced their collection staff from 1 to 3, freeing up employee time to spend on higher value work. What’s more, they’ve seen a 67% reduction in days sales outstanding since moving to an automated Direct Debit service.
“Once we finished implementation, I had done myself out of a job! This means I have been able to move to a role where I’m adding a lot more value for the business.”
Chris Swanson, Data Analytics & Insights Manager, intY
Read the full intY story.
Eatclub
Eatclub is a mobile app that enables restaurants to offer short-notice deals and discounts to diners. Eatclub launched in Australia and is now available in all major cities, and in 2019, the team opened its first international location in New York.
Their manual billing process took 2 full days per month to complete and they often had to batch process payments meaning payments were received later than when they were due. By automating payments through Direct Debit they were able to save time and resources, improve cash flow and offer a simpler payment journey for customers.
"For us, it’s about having a reliable system that works seamlessly within our finance processes as we continue to scale, and we’ve got that with the GoCardless and Xero solution."
Pan Koutlakis, Co-Founder and CEO, Eatclub
By investing in cloud-based automated payment solutions, these businesses have been able to shift focus away from the day to day payments process towards bigger-picture strategic activity that contributes to the scaling of their business.
Take a look at 5 ways you can optimise your payments strategy in the cloud.