Aussie businesses shift to subscription models

Below is an excerpt from an article in The Australian

A new collaboration between international billing providers GoCardless and Zuora is set to drive a wave of international Australian tech exports, as more companies shun one-off payments for subscription models.

The integration will allow Australian businesses to more easily issue subscriptions via Zuora and collect payments by bank debit with GoCardless.

Zuora Vice-President and General Manager of the Asia-Pacific Region, Iman Ghodosi, said the trend was “about a fundamental return to customer relationships”.

“It’s the agility of the subscription model that uniquely positions businesses to adapt quickly to customer needs and provides them with consistent value – regardless of the economic climate,” said Ghodosi.

Evan Miller, Global Director of Billing and Collections at SiteMinder said adopting recurring payments was key to their growth into new markets where the company did not have a defined payments strategy.

“The way customers want to pay in different markets is fundamentally different. In Europe, bank debit is extremely prevalent. Our customers demanded it and now 70 per cent of our European customers choose to pay through GoCardless over credit card” he said.

Similarly, Head of Business Systems at Deputy, Scott Westbrook said the integration would help the company’s international growth by reducing “burden on internal teams [with] billing and bank debit payments in one place”.

As more Australians turn to subscription models, GoCardless reports it will double down on its presence in the Australian market after launching its Melbourne office in 2019. The direct debit payments company claims it has seen 250 per cent year-on-year revenue growth across its base of 2,500 merchants like Docusign, Survey Monkey and Expensify.

ANZ General Manager Carolyn Breeze said the market was the fastest-growing international region for GoCardless, reporting a growth rate six times faster compared to its UK launch.

Read the full press release with details of Zuora and GoCardless’s partnership here.

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