Recurly Study Finds Consumer Payment Experience is Critical for Subscription Growth

Study shows the payment experience has massive impact on revenue, building brand trust and growing customer lifetime value

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Recurly, a leader in subscription management and recurring billing solutions, today announced the release of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Recurly. Titled "The Payment Experience Is Critical To Subscriber Growth And Retention," the study sounds the alarm on pervasive payment challenges flatlining consumer subscription growth, with a staggering 100% of surveyed businesses acknowledging the detrimental impact of failed payments.

“We know the moment of payment is emotionally charged, but it’s not about the payment itself,” says Lina Tonk, CMO of Recurly. “The most successful businesses know it’s about the consumer experience and the value being provided. Choosing a strategic and mature billing and payments partner is imperative to nurturing subscriber relationships and fortifying subscription growth.”

Payment challenges create adverse effects on customer relationships, brand perception and subscriber value. According to the Recurly study, issues with payments led to 61% of respondents reporting revenue loss, 53% observing damaged subscriber relationships, and 45% witnessing a decline in brand perception. Only a mere 7% had confidence in their capacity to deliver superior subscription billing experiences.

With 65% of companies conceding that payment failures decrease customer lifetime value, the study emphasizes the need for sophisticated monetization strategies and an enterprise-grade subscription management platform that prioritizes flexibility and scalability to accelerate growth.

Key recommendations within the Recurly study include:

• Prioritizing both acquisition and retention to facilitate growth in subscription businesses.
• Investing in the right technology platforms that drive efficient operations and leverage data for insights.
• Adopting advanced churn mitigation techniques to preserve customer relationships and brand value.

These recommendations were informed based on the responses of more than 160 people in senior management positions at US and UK direct-to-consumer companies that participated in the study. The study highlights that while a significant percentage of subscription businesses struggle to anticipate and react to subscriber demands, the industry is poised for explosive growth when there’s an intentional focus on the payment experience.

To tap into the tremendous opportunity for growth through strategic billing and payment management, access the full study.

In addition, Recurly’s study will be presented at a virtual event on May 20th at 10 PT | 1 ET | 6 GMT, titled The critical payment experience in consumer subscriptions: Transform billing and payments into your growth engine, where attendees will join Jonas Flodh, CPO at Recurly, Lina Tonk, CMO at Recurly, and guest speaker Lily Varon, Principal Analyst at Forrester, as they discuss how optimizing billing and payments can help drive consumer subscription growth. For more information, visit the events page.

About Recurly

Thousands of innovative companies across digital media, streaming, publishing, SaaS, education, consumer goods, and professional services industries rely on Recurly to unlock transformational growth using subscriptions. Recurly’s all-in-one, integrated platform removes the complexities of automating subscription billing at scale by enabling teams to manage and optimize their subscriber lifecycles with ease. Category-defining companies including Sling, Twitch, BarkBox, FabFitFun, Paramount, Lucid, and Sprout Social have chosen Recurly to manage billions of dollars in recurring revenues, future-proof their recurring billing and revenue management, and recover billions of dollars in lost revenue due to churn. Founded in 2009, Recurly is based in San Francisco, with offices in Boulder and London. For more information, visit https://recurly.com.