Recurring Payment Meaning

What Does Recurring Billing Mean?

Here's a simple recurring billing definition: it's a subscription.

Or more precisely, the recurring billing definition is an ongoing payment on a periodic basis for a product or service.

A subscriber will provide their credit card information to pay for the goods or services on a periodic basis. The vendor will then withdraw the payment on a regular schedule until such time as the subscriber's subscription expires and/or is cancelled.

Recurring billing provides a benefit to subscribers who don't have to worry about another monthly bill to stay on top of - or risk missing out on delivery of a product or service. Instead, with recurring billing, the subscriber is guaranteed to have continuous service.

Recurring billing also offers great benefits to vendors. It makes your revenue more predictible, since you already know what payments will be made, and it takes away many of the administrative headaches associated with collections. It's also good for customer retention.

Vendors need platforms like Zuora to help support recurring billing: to update payment information, offer and manage discounts, deal with pricing changes, etc.

The subscription economy is exploding. Consumers don’t want to buy products anymore, they want subscriptions to the products and services they want, when they want them. And they're willing to pay for this through recurring billing.

In response to consumers' wishes, not only are new subscription-based businesses launching in almost every sector, but many traditional companies are also transitioning to a subscription model. This is great news for businesses that have learned how to operate within the subscription economy to reap the rewards of predictable revenue through recurring revenue.

Watch a short overview of Zuora Billing platform to learn more.