Subscriptions and recurring billing services are revolutionizing the ecommerce industry. The services are a big value-add for consumers, offering them extra flexibility by making it possible for them to pay in intervals for products that they use. It's not just consumers, however, that benefit from subscriptions and recurring billing services; merchants benefit, too. When managed correctly, these services can give merchants an extra edge that leads to new revenue streams and more satisfied customers.

In order to see true long-term benefits from subscriptions and recurring billing, optimizing your payments process is a must. A great way to do this is to integrate an account updater, which is designed to keep your customers' payment information up-to-date - ensuring there are no interruptions in service or payments due to a change in credit card numbers or expired cards.

The effects of outdated information
On average, 30 percent of credit card accounts per year are closed or incur a change to an account number or expiration date. When this happens, two scenarios can play out:

  • Declined transactions: When cardholders are faced with changes such as product upgrades and lost or stolen card replacements, they may not update their information with all the merchants they have relationships with. That means merchants continue to bill using out-of-date information, resulting in declined transactions - and ultimately a poor consumer experience and lost revenue for the merchant.
  • Subscription change: When credit cards are declined due to outdated information, consumers must provide the correct information - which may cause them to re-evaluate their existing subscription and possibly change their minds. Or, if a merchant contacts cardholders for updated information, they run the risk of them switching subscription service providers or service cancellation.

Account Updater from Digital River World Payments
By adding an automatic account updater to your payments process, you can see an increase in authorization approvals and sales, improved customer loyalty and reduced customer service expenses. Digital River makes this process easy by offering merchants a self-service and fully automated solutions. Both options provide merchants the ability to easily update customer credit card details, such as expiration dates and account numbers. The self-service option puts merchants in control of when and how their customer accounts are updated; and the automated solution is a fully managed service that sends updated card information on a pre-determined schedule.
For additional information on Digital River World Payments' Account Updater services, please contact us.

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