If you’re wondering if recurring payments and subscription billing are right for your business, consider this: How often do you think of your business as a one-off sale? 

The disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic generated 17 million U.S. unemployment claims by mid-April, with the unemployment rate hovering near 15 percent — the highest since WWII. Record-setting workforce displacement and sluggish government response has left tens of millions of people virtually without funds and having to decide between wants and needs.

There comes a time when a subscriber may consider canceling a subscription. In fact, nearly 40% of subscribers of any service type​ cancel. More than a third cancel in less than three months, and over half cancel within six, according to a study by McKinsey and Co. So, how can you get subscribers to stick around? Instead of allowing subscribers to churn, you can retain them by enabling them to pause their subscription. 

Every subscription business encounters credit card declines. These declines increase churn, reduce your revenue, and can negatively impact your subscriber relationships. But, with the right subscription management platform, you can minimize their impact.

Recurly has the advantage of working with thousands of subscription businesses which come from a wide range of industries. Many of these are ‘high-velocity’ businesses with large subscriber bases generating high transaction volumes annually. This gives us access to hundreds of millions of data points that encompass billions of attributes from many different types of companies in both B2B and B2C categories.

Recently, we wrote a blog that involved a London pub’s innovation in beer drinking that enabled a friction-free experience for its customers during the busy holiday season. The goal of course of frictionless commerce is to make it easier for your customers to shop, pay, and receive their purchases, and in return, you’ll gain more customers and sell more of whatever it is you offer, from beer to business services.