Worldline Adds Flexible Pricing for ISVs

The demand for more flexible pricing from independent software vendors using Worldline’s payment-processing services has spurred a new pricing model.

Dubbed FlexPricing, the feature enables ISVs to adapt their pricing strategies to best suit them, Worldline says. Among the capabilities: charging a percentage fee on bank transfer transactions, adding custom fees, and letting Worldline handle all billing duties.

In detail, the percentage fee can be attached to automated clearing house transactions, and the custom fees could be annual fees tied to a monthly software-as-a-service product or a one-time integration fee, Worldline suggests.

If billing is assigned to Worldline, it could reduce some operational complexities for ISVs, the company says, with consolidated statements for clients.

Worldline says ISVs have asked for this capability and FlexPricing is in direct response to that. “It’s a comprehensive solution that can adapt to various business models and market conditions,” Justin Passalaqua, chief executive, North America, at Worldline Merchant Services, says in a statement.

“As payments become increasingly integrated into consumer-facing platforms, ISVs and other providers are looking for ways to generate incremental revenue from the added consumer value of an embedded payment,” says Thad Peterson, strategic advisor at Datos Insights. “Sharing revenue with the ISV adds incremental value to their offering, and it creates an opportunity to share success with their customers.  That can make for a sticky relationship where the ISV is reluctant to change providers if their revenue streams are at risk.”

The Worldline move lines up with ISVs awakening to the benefits and greater potential residual-based revenue streams, says Cliff Gray, principal of Gray Consulting Ventures LLC. “The IT industry has long been stuck on legacy licensing and maintenance-contract models that ignored the revenue potential of transaction-based models, but they are catching up quickly,” Gray tell Digital Transactions News. “For Worldline and other processors embracing the ISV, the goal is driving merchant adoption—but they’ll need to carefully manage the share with the ISV, lest they be detrimental to their own revenue streams.”

The Worldline move comes as ISVs continue to cement their positions as channels to provide payment services to merchants. Pricing is one component of that relationship, with communication and setting expectations also vital, as observers outlined in a recent Digital Transactions News article.