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Five SaaS Pricing Models & Three Strategies

Category: Payment Orchestration

Five SaaS Pricing Models & Three Strategies

Five SaaS Pricing Models & Three Strategies

Image credit: Pixabay

There are various factors determining whether the products will sell. As a SaaS company, you can’t do without a user-friendly website. Loading speed and navigation are also essential to avoid high bounce rates.

Another trend of the 2020s is the predominance of mobile traffic. Many companies optimize their websites by converting them into progressive web apps (PWAs) or create native apps to ensure user comfort. Luckily, the more technologies advance, the more solutions emerge to streamline development. Examples include ready-made templates providing an easy way to develop a PWA.

Product price also plays a crucial role in a purchase decision. That’s why you need to determine your pricing model. In this article, we’re going to explain the two most essential components of competitive SaaS pricing:

  1. pricing models to strike a balance between value and revenue;
  2. pricing strategies to meet your growth objectives.

Five SaaS Pricing Models and Examples

There are five major SaaS pricing models, such as:

1. Flat-rate pricing
It’s perhaps the most straightforward approach to market a SaaS service. You offer a single product, a single set of features, and a single price. You typically get paid every month.

2. Usage-based pricing, or pay-as-you-go model
This pricing model revolves around product usage. The more you use, the more your bill increases. Instead, if you use less of the service, you pay less.

3. Tiered pricing
The essence of this approach is to provide a variety of “packages” with a different set of features and prices. You can have as many packages as you like, but the average number is three or four. The sections generally represent low, middle, and high price points. They meet different customer needs, so clients can pick what suits them best.

4. Per-user pricing or per-seat pricing
It’s when a company sells access to its products or services to individual users at a fixed price. If a customer needs two accounts, they pay for two; if they need 100, they pay for 100.

5. Freemium
This pricing model enables users to utilize the basic version of your product or service free of charge. They can proceed to the tiered offerings if they’re satisfied with the tool. A vivid example is a free demo by PayTabs. The company provides SaaS solutions for secure payment management. You can register for it to test the tools before switching to the full version.

Three SaaS Pricing Strategies

  • Penetration pricing

When using this method, the company first sets prices very low to attract customers and increase demand, even at the firm’s expense. The company then raises prices, hoping to keep the same number of clients.

  • Skimming pricing

If you choose a skimming pricing strategy, you deliberately overprice a new product. It helps to obtain super profit to pay off the investments spent on the development, production, and product launch. After that, you gradually reduce the price of the product.

  • Value-based pricing

This approach means that the SaaS company should balance the price and the product’s value when setting the price.

To Sum Up

We’ve gone over five different SaaS pricing models and three strategies. But there is no ceiling on how you can develop your pricing plan. While you may know which model is best for a given product, there’s no need to choose one and stick with it.

Today’s data-driven world allows companies to test multiple patterns. Thus, you’ll see which one meets the requirements better and makes sense. Find even more insights by subscribing to blog alerts and receiving tips from one of the top payment processing providers, PayTabs.

About the Author

Alex HusarAlex Husar
Alex Husar, chief technology officer at Onilab. For over 8 years he’s been working on Magento migration and development projects as well as building progressive web apps (PWAs). Alex is an expert in full-stack development who shares his expertise and in-depth knowledge on modern technologies and Computer Software Engineering.

Choose PayTabs SwitchOn Payment Solution Over Others – Here’s Why

Choose PayTabs SwitchOn Payment Solution Over Others – Here’s Why
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As a merchant or business owner in a modern, dynamic market, you need to enable flexible payment solutions to make sure that customer payments get accepted smoothly, irrespective of the method chosen. And PayTabs understands this perfectly well. Which is the reason why, they took a huge step towards meeting this objective by launching their very own transaction processing platform and globally validated unified payments solution called SwitchOn.

The payment solution has its own IP and is available for local deployment at an affordable price as well. It has been built based on deep use case expertise and empowers innovation in the region. Its architecture allows clients of different scales and from multiple industries to maximise the benefits while working in tandem with the legacy systems. Here are a few reasons why business owners like you are choosing SwitchOn payment solution over others.

Features and Benefits of PayTabs SwitchOn

· 3DS Solutions

With the help of SwitchOn’s 3DS Solutions, you can accept payments safely from customers or other merchants. It supports multiple payment methods including MasterCard, Visa, digital wallets, UPI cards, AMEX and more, so that you never miss a business opportunity. Your business can accept subscription or recurring payments from customers as well.

Also Read: The Most Popular Online Payment Methods

It is important to make sure that your digital payments are secure and safe from any kind of unauthorised activities. Luckily, SwitchOn payment method not only helps in enhancing the customer experience, but also provides fraud protection with the help of cardholder authentication.

· eCommerce Suite

Even if you are just foraying into the world of business and have no prior experience, SwitchOn makes your journey easy. This payment solution enables you to create your own online business in less than 2 months, complete with product images, descriptions, reviews, and more. It also helps you in creating self-service portals which are customisable and includes support for dispute management, batch or real-time settlement, and chargeback handling.

The eCommerce suite of SwitchOn will allow you to accept digital payments from the website or social payments from different social commerce platforms. The real-time merchant dashboard will also allow you to generate customer insights and analytics.

· QR Payments Solutions

One of the best ways of growing merchant sales is by enabling QR payments. SwitchOn payment method offers this capability by providing full omnichannel capability, both static and dynamic. It can be easily integrated into ATMs and POS for accepting value-added payments.

QR payments are a great way of increasing the customer base as it provides them with a very convenient way to pay for goods. SwitchOn understands that losing out on even one customer is not good for your business, and thus, includes support for Mastercard QR codes, Visa QR codes, and other QR programs. This payment solution also provides customisations for any national or domestic QR programs as well as close-loop QR programs.

Also Read: A Basic Guide to 6 Different Payment Solutions for Freelancers

· POS Management Solutions

A lot of people prefer cards as a payment method. SwitchOn’s POS Management Solutions will help business owners like you to accept card payments easily and more efficiently. Transactions can be monitored from the Business Manager Dashboard in the Terminal Management System. There’s POS Merchant Management available as well.

The POS management solutions will give you more control over fees, incentives, discount rates, restrictions and more. You can customise the portal as per your need and perform settlements in real-time or in batches.

· Switching and Authorisation

Paytabs SwitchOn payment solution has a plug-and-play mechanism that makes it easy to integrate into any business. It is beneficial for omnichannel business owners as well since it supports different popular payment schemes like Visa, Amex, RuPay, Mastercard, and more. The payment solution is highly scalable with real-time routing and switching.

You can accept payments in different currencies and from different time zones with the help of the SwitchOn payment solution. You can also benefit from financial transaction switching with reporting, transaction distillations, EMV-enabled payments, online audits, settlements, balancing, and switch reconciliation.

· Cards and Wallet Management

SwitchOn not only helps in managing different cards, but also has options for issuing their own virtual and physical cards as well. The plug-and-play system gets integrated quickly and supports credit, debit, and prepaid cards as well. The SwitchOn issuing solution issues payment cards easily and is a great step towards increasing customer experience and maintaining customer retention.

· ATM Management Solutions

The SwitchOn payment method provides ATM driving and monitoring for major ATM brands like Wincor & Diebold, NCR, Nautilus, GRG, and more, so that no customer gets left behind. This enables efficient cash management and forecasting as well as support for cash recycling. Transactions can be dispensed in multiple currencies and support dynamic currency conversion as well.

All in all, as a renowned fintech enabler in the MENA region, PayTabs aims to deploy a unique payment orchestration capability across the region. And its SwitchOn payment solution is doing just that, by enabling businesses like yours to boost growth and reach new heights while complying with the regulations of the local country.

Which One is Better - Omnichannel or Multichannel Transactions?

Which One is Better - Omnichannel or Multichannel Transactions?
Customer experience in 2022 has drastically changed from what it was just a decade ago. People are now buying their favourite products directly from the store, through their smartphones, from their laptops, and even with the help of voice assistants. Basically, there is more than one channel for selling products as well as accepting payments from the customer. Which brings us to the concept of omnichannel and multichannel transactions.

In the world of eCommerce, multichannel and omnichannel are two buzzwords that are used a lot, and often synonymously. While both these methods have the basic principle of using multiple channels to engage with customers, there is a key difference between them. They are both different strategies for marketing products and communicating with customers.

But before we dive into omnichannel vs multichannel, and debate on which one is better, it is important to understand what these are and what they represent at their core.

Multichannel Transactions

Simply put, multichannel transactions give your customers the ability to pay for something in different ways. For instance, a person can walk into the store, choose a pair of shoes and pay for it through their credit card at the counter. Alternatively, they can open the website of the store, order the same shoes and pay for them digitally. They can even hop onto an eCommerce marketplace to buy the same shoes and pay cash on delivery when the order arrives.

Omnichannel Transactions

One thing that is lacking in a multichannel transaction system is the integration among channels. And that is the problem that an omnichannel system solves. Consider the above example. Imagine that the user orders a pair of your shoes from an eCommerce marketplace. Upon receiving, they don’t like the fit or has some other issues with the shoes and wants to return them. In an omnichannel transaction setting, the customer can simply walk to their nearest store with the shoes, show the cashier the order invoice, and either return the shoes or get a replacement pair.

This seamless integration among different channels enhances the shopping experience of the customer and offers them easy buy, pay, and return options.

Omnichannel vs Multichannel Transactions

There are a few main differences to consider while choosing between omnichannel and multichannel systems. These differences revolve around the purpose and aim of these techniques.

● Customer Focused vs Channel Focused

A key difference between omnichannel and multichannel transactions is their primary focus. While omnichannel transactions aim at providing a seamless experience to customers, multichannel transactions aim at providing different methods for a customer to pay.

Multichannel transactions provide several options to every customer when it comes to paying for something. Be it online, credit card, debit card, cash, digital wallets, or something else. The focus is to retain the customer and ensure that they don’t abandon a deal due to lack of payment options.

Omnichannel, on the other hand, is more focused on customers and how they can engage better with your business. It enables customers to move from one channel to another without any kind of friction. The focus is on the customer and ensuring that there is no break in their experience. This way, if a customer buys something online but wants to return it in person, they won’t face any issues due to a change in the channel or the payment mode.

● Customer Experience vs Customer Engagement

One of the most fundamental differences between both omnichannel and multichannel is that, while an omnichannel transaction is done for improving customer experience, a multichannel transaction is done for increasing customer engagement.

Multichannel transactions try to reach out to as many potential leads as possible to try to convert them into customers. It employs the use of different payment modes, be it digital or traditional, to make sure that more and more people can do business.

On the other hand, omnichannel transaction delivers a consistent experience to customers who already know about the business and have engaged with it on previous occasions. This form of transaction won’t care about whether the customer bought the shoes from a store, website, or on a sale online. It will rather focus on providing a superior customer experience by capturing transaction details and past orders from different channels.

● Quality vs Quantity

While multiple channels are great for engagement, they can cause a problem when it comes to providing guidance and support. Which means, a customer who buys a product through a third-party eCommerce platform won’t find any support from the brand as it was not bought from their channel. The same can happen for unsuccessful payments, with payment being deducted but the order not getting placed, because the channels are not integrated with each other.

In an omnichannel transaction system, customer conversations and interactions are stored, so that they can be served properly and efficiently. No matter which channel or medium they use to buy a product, their information will be captured in the company’s CRM and will be available to support executives to be used as a reference.

Which is Better?

So, when it comes to omnichannel vs multichannel, both have pros and cons. Multichannel transactions may be more convenient for customers, as they can choose the channel that best suits their needs. Omnichannel transactions, on the other hand, provide a more seamless and integrated experience for customers.

Ultimately, the best approach for your business will depend on your products, services, and target market. If you’re selling products that are best purchased in-store, then a multichannel approach may be ideal. If you’re selling services or products that can be purchased online or through a mobile app, then an omnichannel approach may be the way to go.

Whatever method you choose, remember that having a robust payment solution is vital for your business. in this regard, PayTabs is one of the best omnichannel payment solutions available and will help you provide a seamless experience to your customers and sell your products or services across the world.

understanding-the-difference-between-a-payment-gateway-and-a-payment-processor

Businesses now need to deal with online transactions more than ever. For this, you need to set up an online payment processing system that is safe as well as efficient. Such a system can comprise of several service providers. So, it is important to know the precise services provided by each provider. For starters, you need to distinguish between a payment gateway and a payment processor. While both of them provide online payment related services, they have very distinct areas of operations. So, read on to better understand their differences and run your business with confidence.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is a tool that helps process the payment between the client’s bank account and the business’s bank account. The main function of a payment gateway is to secure the transmission of online payment data from one end to another. These service providers are also responsible for authorizing payments for card-not-present transactions. A gateway is mainly useful for processing online credit card payments.

In simple terms, a payment gateway is a like a middleman between a client and an online business. When a client provides their payment details to an online business, then the gateway sends this data to the payment processor for further action.

For an online business, a payment gateway can provide a wide range of services such as ensuring the safety of personal data, uninterrupted services, and the ability to accept multiple payment options. Furthermore, a payment gateway may also enable your business to accept different currencies, thus enabling international transactions. While selecting a gateway for your business, you should pay proper attention to the service offered as well as the various fees and commissions charged.

Also Read: What are the benefits of working with a payment processor?

What is a payment processor?

A payment processor is generally a financial institution which carries out payment processing services for online businesses. Such payment processors generally enjoy collaboration with other companies, which have direct interaction with merchants or consumers. A processor acts as a connecting node between a payment gateway and a merchant’s account.

The main task of a payment processor is to facilitate the transfer of payment related information and to keep the data secured. A processor collects the data pertaining to the transaction, validates and executes the instructions, and then deposits the money into the merchant account. It concludes the cycle by informing the payment gateway about the final outcome of the transaction.

There are a wide range of payment processors available in the market today. It is important to pay attention to different criteria while selecting an appropriate payment processor for your business. A processor should not only provide swift and smooth transfer of funds, but it should also be able to ensure that sensitive data transferred remains safe and secure.

Also Read: The 4 Step Procedure for an Easy Payment Gateway Integration

Integration of payment gateway and payment processor

For an online business, it is important to engage the services of both a payment gateway and a payment processor. In order to complete the cycle of online payments, the services of both are required in conjunction with a merchant account.

Essentially, a payment gateway is required to receive the payment related details from the client. Then pass the information on to the payment processor, which carries out the rest of the transaction and sends the status back to the payment gateway.

These service providers should be chosen carefully after taking your business’s specific requirements into account.