If you follow the growth curve of online businesses over the past decade, you will find that for subscription-based businesses, it has spiked noticeably. According to a recent report by Statista, the U.S. OTT access revenue is projected to reach US$ 88 Billion by 2026 with the Netflix’s subscriber base set to reach 182 Million by 2024 from its pre-recorded 154.4 Million subscribers in 2019. While these figures give a glimpse of the rising popularity of the subscription-based business models, it also depicts the need and increasing demand for robust subscription billing systems. Foreseeably, new software entrants as well as 80% of the historical vendors are adopting subscription-based business models as mentioned in a Gartner report. As a result, the demand for subscription billing systems tends to sky-rocket further.
What is a Subscription Billing System?
A subscription billing system or subscription billing software handles all the recurring or subscription-based billing for any business, by providing an automated solution such as timely charging the subscribers, generating invoices, dealing with late payments etc., and also minimizes time, cost and error associated with these activities.
Subscription billing systems are widely used across OTT platforms, e-commerce websites, B2B SaaS businesses, gaming apps, news and job portals and others. And in order to keep you up-to-date with its usage, we have picked up the top use cases of a subscription billing system.
Top Use Cases of a Subscription Billing System
-
Automated Recurring Billing Processing
If you have a subscription to any online store or platform like Netflix, Amazon, LinkedIn, UberEats etc., you already know that once you opt for the auto-renewal option, your billing keeps getting processed on the specific interval of time – monthly, quarterly or annually. And this is done by a subscription billing system or recurring billing system.
Also Read: How Automated Billing Solution Can Help Business Growth?
-
Managing Various Subscriptions
There is a thin line between handling recurring billing and managing subscriptions. And a subscription billing system does both these jobs with great efficiency. It can smoothly take care of various subscription related activities of your subscribers such as subscription upgradation, subscription downgradation, pausing subscription, changing billing frequency, and others. A top-rated subscription billing tool even allows mid-cycle changes of the subscription plans by your subscribers. As a result, there are no delays or ambiguity in payment flow for your online business.
Furthermore, it supports multiple monetization models such as single subscription, bundle subscriptions etc. to help your business cater to the wider audience and optimize the revenue.
-
Maintaining Security
Be it any online platform- a fast-growing B2B SaaS business or your freelancing website, your subscription business model requires robust security when it comes to billing. Most of the leading subscription billing softwares are compliant with the security protocols leaving no loophole in online payment security. Starting from VPN detection to providing server-level security – a sound subscription billing system can do all that and even more! And this is why it is one of the most vital use cases of an enterprise grade billing software.
-
Implementing Multiple Currencies, Payment Gateways & Languages
Currencies, language and even payment gateways can be a barrier to grow your subscribers if your billing system is not flexible enough. The objective of a good subscription billing system is to offer a wide variety in all these three fields as well as letting you customize them.
This is a significant use case of a subscription billing system, especially if you are targeting a global audience for your business.
-
Policy Engine for your Business
For every business, owners need to implement certain rules or parameters on differential pricing, products, services, or content offerings, user type, subscription type etc. And a subscription billing system can act as the policy engine if you have chosen the right one for your business! As a result, you can easily set and maintain the service policies which suit you & your customers while monetizing the offerings.
Example: Suppose, A, the owner of an OTT platform, wants to create monetization-based policies by introducing multiple subscription plans such as plain, silver, gold, platinum etc. With the help of a subscription billing system, A can easily implement and link policies with the offerings.
-
Vouchers, Coupons & Promotions
With a subscription billing system, you don’t need any additional tool to provide coupons, vouchers etc. to your customers.
Designing and naming discount sets, creating promotional coupons, offering exclusive discounts- these all can be achieved easily with the help of such billing systems.
To Conclude,
Subscription billing systems are basically automated billing systems handling recurring payments. While automated billing systems have a more diverse approach, the bottom line is the same – handling all the billing related activities without errors. As a noteworthy recommendation, it’s always best to opt for a subscription billing system which is simple-to-use yet offers more versatility in terms of features than the basic solutions to give you that competitive edge.
One such versatile and robust billing system is Muvi Billing, a subscription billing software made for one and all billing needs of your online business. Easy to integrate with your websites and apps, Muvi Billing lets you achieve optimal operational efficiency with smooth billing. Its 40+ payment gateways support, flexible billing, multi language and currency support & carrier-grade security is what make your subscription billing model better than its peers in the market.
Take our 14-day free trial and get rid of all your online billing hassles, now!
