Accepting Recurring Payments with Google Pay

Subscription businesses keep customer convenience at their core. Since they have to charge customers on a recurring basis, they have to make these payments seamless and user-friendly. After all, frictionless payments are a major force that drives customer retention, and grows revenue.

Google Pay is a popular digital wallet, currently being used by more than 150 million customers internationally. Its popularity, and ease of use makes it a great fit for subscription payments as well.

In this article, let’s discover how Google Pay can be used to accept recurring payments, and why does it matter.

How Does Google Pay Support Recurring Payments?

Google Pay allows subscription businesses to utilize it for accepting recurring payments. These are some ways how it supports the recurring billing functionality:

Integrates with Subscription Management Platforms

Google Pay can integrate with smart subscription management and billing platforms, such as SubscriptionFlow. If a business wants to offer Google Pay to its customers, it must sign up with a billing software that supports this payment method.

It is important to note that Google Pay does not support recurring payments on its own. It only acts as a payment facilitator. Therefore, it is necessary to pair the digital wallet with a billing software that specializes in subscription payments. That software is responsible for initiating recurring payments.

Shares Payment Data in the Form of Tokens

Google Pay is known for its protected payment data transmission. It turns customers’ payment information into tokens, and then shares this tokenized data with billing software. Data is then stored in the billing software in its encrypted form. It is used for recurring billing purposes from then onward.

Holds Multiple Cards

Customers can keep a number of credit/debit cards in their Google Wallet. In select regions, users can also link their bank accounts, or PayPal account with it. The wallet allows users to select one card as their default payment method. If they subscribe to a business, all their recurring payments are deducted from this card.

Supports Automatic Workflows

Google Pay supports automatic recurring payments. It gives the business’s billing software permission to store tokenized card details. The customer only has to authorize the initial payment attempt made by the billing software. The rest of the payments are charged to their wallet automatically.

How to Enable Recurring Payments with Google Pay?

For this, businesses must partner with a trusted billing platform that offers Google Pay. SubscriptionFlow is a great example in this case, as it has been purpose-built for managing subscription payments.

You have done your part.
Let SubscriptionFlow take it from here!

Let us help your business grow with our powerful
subscription management software.

Businesses using SubscriptionFlow can easily speed up customer sign ups by utilizing the software’s hosted checkout. Here’s how they can accept Google Pay recurring payments using SubscriptionFlow’s checkout:

Customers proceed to the checkout page to pay for subscription.
They can see Google Pay in the payment options.
When they click on Google Pay to complete transaction, the wallet requires their authorization first.
Once they authorize, their payment is deducted by SubscriptionFlow.
Google Pay allows SubscriptionFlow to save customers’ encrypted payment data.
Once the data is stored in SubscriptionFlow’s database, the software can use it for future recurring payments.
Customer is not asked to authorize again for future payments.

That’s how businesses can enable recurring payments via Google Pay with SubscriptionFlow. Once these payments are turned on, businesses can build a steady stream of revenue brought in by their Google Pay customers.

Benefits of Accepting Recurring Payments Via Google Pay

Faster Checkout Process

Google Pay doesn’t let customers type in their payment details at checkout manually. When the wallet is chosen for subscription payments, it auto-shares payment details with the billing software. This speeds up checkout completion, and helps users subscribe faster.

It also lowers the cart abandonment percentage, and accelerates payment collection for businesses.

Less Failed Payments

Customers can store different cards in their Google Wallet. So if their default card causes payments to fail due to any reason, they can simply choose another card to pay. This means that they don’t have to manually update their card information in the customer portal. They just need to change their default card in the wallet, and continue paying.

Moreover, if a customer’s card details are updated by the bank, they are automatically updated in Google Pay as well. Meaning, they don’t have to update them for subscription payments on their own. The billing software can still use the same stored tokens to charge the same card in Google Pay successfully.

Payment Data Security

Payment data is only stored by the billing software in its tokenized form for payment processing. This protects customers’ billing information against data breaches. Since Google Pay is known for enabling secure payments, offering it as a payment method can boost the business’s credibility for customers.

SubscriptionFlow Makes Recurring Payments with Google Pay a Breeze

With SubscriptionFlow, businesses not only get to unlock recurring payments with Google Pay, but can also control their entire billing cycles. They can use the software to set up the billing cycles of their preference, and later automatically charge customers whenever their payment dates arrive.

SubscriptionFlow optimizes Google Pay recurring payments by:

Automating Billing

Billing automation is a must for efficient payment cycles. Otherwise, businesses are left to deal with too much manual work. When Google Pay is enabled as a payment method, SubscriptionFlow charges it for recurring payments itself. It tracks each customer’s billing date, and collects accurate amounts automatically.

Generating Invoices in Multiple Currencies

SubscriptionFlow creates customers’ invoices automatically, and in their local currencies. This facilitates multi-currency billing to make payments more user-friendly. Invoices can be sent to customers as receipts after their payments are collected automatically.

If customers don’t prefer automatic recurring payments, they can be sent their invoices with payment links embedded in them. Customers only have to click these links once to pay.

Enabling Payment Retries

Businesses can even make payment retry attempts using SubscriptionFlow. If a Google Pay payment is declined, the system can automatically charge the wallet until the necessary payment is restored. Retry of payments can be made as often as needed.

Supporting Multiple Billing Models

With SubscriptionFlow, businesses are able to charge their Google Pay consumers in a flexible manner. This means that they are not limited to charging fixed subscription prices. They can leverage SubscriptionFlow’s powerful billing features to apply different kinds of payment models. For instance, pay-as-you-go or volume-based billing.

Sending Payment Notifications

Automated and personalized payment reminders can be sent to customers when their subscription renewal is near. Similarly, after their payments are collected, they can be sent payment confirmation emails with receipts.

This ensures that customers’ recurring payments are always transparent. Moreover, subscribers can easily view their past invoices in both their customer portal and Google Wallet.

Connecting with Multiple Payment Gateways

SubscriptionFlow offers businesses more than one gateway to process Google Pay recurring payments. For instance, it supports Adyen, Braintree, and Stripe. You can choose any by considering each gateway’s fee structure, and processing speed.

Handling Subscription Updates

Subscribers can make changes to their plans easily. They can opt out of their subscription altogether, or can switch to a different plan. SubscriptionFlow allows them to make these changes via their self-service portals.

When such modifications are made, the software updates customers’ accounts on its own. It also handles plan changes by prorating subscription charges, and updating billing cycles. Then, it automatically deducts only the updated amounts through Google Pay.

Do you also want to make payments effortless and customer-friendly? Book a demo with SubscriptionFlow, and start collecting subscription payments via Google Pay today.