Payment Preferences for Recurring Purchases: 2019 Consumer Payer Report

Making a payment is the final step in a complex buyer journey; it’s the difference between intent and revenue, between lost opportunity and conversion. Understanding which payment methods your buyers can access, and which they feel comfortable with, will impact how many of them you manage to get over the line.

Whether you’re billing customers by subscription, through invoices or through instalment plans, Preference matters. Here at GoCardless, we consider it as one of Eight Payment Dimensions that drive your business success, alongside Coverage, Conversion, Churn, Cost, Success, Visibility and Cash flow.

This is the first in a series of reports which look at those Eight Dimensions, how they impact your success – and what you can do to influence them. You can find out more about the Dimensions, and why we think they’re important, on the next page.

If you’re reading this report, you care about how your customers want to pay you, and which payment options they
pick when given a choice. We call this Preference.

If you’re a subscription business, Preference can have a huge impact on checkout conversion and therefore how fast your business grows. However your business works, Preference shapes how you should collect payments, as well as affecting customer satisfaction and therefore Churn.

In this report, we’ll look at payer Preferences for different types of recurring purchase, across different markets.