FastSpring is excited to be a sponsor of the sixth Global Internet Industry CEO Conference, or GICC 2025. This conference is held at the InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun Tongying Center on Oct. 23. 

This 90% C-level attended conference focuses on global expansion opportunities that resonate with the world. Topics such as AI, ecommerce, social, gaming, and more will be covered across the main summit, a games sub forum, an exhibition area, and an online summit.

Where to Get Tickets

To purchase a GICC 2025 conference pass, VIP pass, or Game Forum ticket, visit the registration page.

How to Connect With FastSpring

Besides cosponsoring a seminar session, FastSpring will also be available at booth V11 in the exhibition hall to share our expertise on cross-border payments and global commerce in the software, gaming, mobile apps, and digital products spaces. 

Want to preschedule a personalized demo during the event? Visit our sign-up page to request a meeting with one of FastSpring’s experts.

Are you looking for a merchant of record that will partner with you to grow your business internationally? FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, mobile apps, AI, eLearning, and other digital goods, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post FastSpring at GICC 2025 in Beijing appeared first on FastSpring.

Expanding into new markets isn’t without its challenges. From navigating competitive landscapes to adapting to ever-changing regulations and cultural differences, companies need more than great products — they need strong partners. 

That’s where FastSpring comes in. As a trusted global commerce platform, we help businesses simplify cross-border payments, manage taxes and compliance, and deliver seamless purchase experiences to customers worldwide. By integrating resources and building the right partnerships, companies can overcome risks, unlock new opportunities, and achieve sustainable international growth.

If you’re attending GTC 2025, we’d love to connect. Stop by booth D24 to learn how FastSpring can support your journey to expand globally and thrive in today’s fast-moving digital economy.

Where to Get Tickets

Head over to the registration page to grab your ticket and get access to incredible speakers, and unparalleled networking opportunities 

How to Connect With FastSpring

Stop by booth D24 to speak with the FastSpring team and learn how to spend less time managing your payments and compliance and more time developing. 

Want to schedule a specific time to meet? Request a demo to have someone reach out to you.

Are you looking for a merchant of record that will partner with you to grow your business internationally? FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video games, mobile apps, AI, eLearning, and other digital goods, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post FastSpring Sponsors Global Traffic Conference 2025 in Shanghai appeared first on FastSpring.

In this article, I’ll show you how you can optimize your buyer journey to drive up conversion rates, and how FastSpring is suited to be your partner in improving conversion rates across the globe.

Are you looking for a merchant of record that will partner with you to grow your business internationally? FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, video game, and other digital goods businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

How User Behavior in Emerging Markets Is Different From The Rest of World

Markets like India, SEA, and LATAM are unique in how they engage with digital goods and content online. These are markets where a majority of users exist in a world where they had very limited access to desktop computers but now have access to mobile devices. 

For example, a recent study by Apptile showed that India and Brazil each saw a 30% increase in mobile commerce sales in 2024. This means that in “mobile-first” markets such as those, a mobile-optimized checkout isn’t optional — it’s mandatory, even if you’re offering a product that’s primarily purchased on desktop in other regions of the world.

Using checkout options that offer integrated mobile-friendly payment methods such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, UPI, Pix, and others is an easy step in the right direction towards optimizing for mobile-first transactions. 

Businesses entering these markets must take into account the different payment preferences as compared to more established markets. 

For example, credit cards remain dominant in North America and much of Europe, but they are far less common in countries like India and Brazil, where most users rely on bank transfers, mobile wallets, and domestic card schemes. 

Taking it a step deeper, in India, fewer than 5% of consumers even own a credit card — less are internationally capable cards — while UPI now accounts for more than 75% of all digital retail transactions. Plus, UPI’s integration with mobile wallets like Google Pay and PhonePe means that most users can complete transactions without the need to ever enter any card details.

In Brazil, Pix has quickly become the most-used payment method, as reported by the Banco Central do Brazil, with more than 150 million users relying on its instant, fee-free bank transfers, and 24/7 availability. Local card schemes like Elo and Hipercard are also prevalent, especially among buyers without international credit access. 

Companies that fail to support local payment methods such as these are risking high cart abandonment in these emerging markets, particularly when users are forced into unfamiliar payment flows.

The most successful companies in emerging regions (and elsewhere across the globe) don’t just offer more payment methods: They offer the right ones. 

A merchant of record like FastSpring helps businesses integrate the most preferred options in each market — like UPI, Pix, Hipercard, and more — while automatically displaying local currencies and brand-consistent checkout designs. 

Emerging market buyers are highly sensitive to trust signals, local relevance, and pricing transparency. When the checkout experience meets these expectations, payment success rates go up, drop-off goes down, and new revenue becomes unlocked from previously hard-to-reach markets.

Why Branding Matters

It’s not uncommon to find a new product or subscription you’re interested in purchasing, but when you begin the checkout process, a change in style, branding, or experience gives you pause — and ultimately, you decide not to make the purchase. 

Companies looking to increase their conversion rates should look for ways to maintain a consistent brand look and feel throughout the entire purchase journey. 

A study by Baymard showed that 19% of shoppers in the US abandoned their purchase because they “didn’t trust the site with [their] credit card information.”Another example from WPFastestCache showed that an online retailer was able to increase their conversions by 220% by focusing on trust in their checkout experience. 

Offering validation to your customers through testimonials, security badges, consistent branding, consistent URLs, and more have an effect that is much greater than the sum of the effort to add them.

The same is true in gaming. Players who visit your web shop but are presented with a site that doesn’t look like the game they came from — or who have a checkout experience that doesn’t match the branding of the publisher — are more likely to drop off than players who are given a familiar experience to the shop and game they’re playing.

Further customization in experiences during checkout have been shown to make 80% of consumers more likely to buy, according to a study from Epsilon research. 

What does this mean? Use the information you already know about your buyers to make the experience more tailored to them. 

If you have buyers sign up for an account, pre-populate their name and email into the checkout page. If they’ve made a purchase from you before, offer them single-click payment options. These small details go a long way to not only building buyer confidence, but also to reducing purchase friction along the way.

Consistency in branding can be as advanced as adding a discrete embedded checkout to your website or as simple as applying a “dark mode” theme. 

Considerations that your business should be making are things like:

• Where are my buyers coming from? 
• What devices are they using to make their purchase? 

For example, decisions like these become important to users in a mobile-first economy because they may be making a purchase late at night, so offering a dark mode checkout prevents blinding screen glare that comes from a bright checkout. Or, offering a clean, embedded checkout experience on your site that is primarily reached by desktop buyers can maintain a frictionless experience that will lead to the uptick in conversions you’re looking for.

Even small checkout branding considerations like the above make a difference for your buyers and your business. At FastSpring, we offer checkout themes to help you match your site’s branding, offer different themes of checkout, and more to ensure that whether your buyer is browsing from bed, or you’re offering a premium embedded experience on desktop, we have the flexibility to match your business’ needs.

Ready to upgrade your online checkout with an all-in-one payments platform that includes branded checkout, localized payments, and even VAT and sales tax management? Schedule your personalized demo now.

How Fewer Steps and Simplicity Drive Up Conversions

Each step or form field in a checkout is another opportunity for your buyers to drop off. Research consistently shows that simplifying the checkout flow — reducing the number of pages, clicks and required inputs — can drive significant conversion gains. 

According to Baymard Institute, nearly one in five online shoppers have abandoned an order specifically because checkout was too complicated or took too long. Their research also shows that businesses can achieve up to a 35% conversion lift simply by streamlining checkout UX.

One way that companies have seen success in driving increased conversions is by taking multi-step checkout processes and reducing them into a single, straightforward page. This can mean offering the ability to purchase without creating an account, or reducing the number of fields required for checkout completion. 

At FastSpring, we offer flexibility through our platform to meet your requirements for data entry on checkout for your buyers. These are features like the ability to deselect unnecessary fields like addresses, zip code, or others.

Plus, we’ve streamlined our embedded checkout to simplify data entry and remove unnecessary checkout steps, including combining the month and year into a single field and adding credit card icons into the credit card entry field for easier visualization.

Beyond reducing steps, improved clarity and user guidance play critical roles in driving conversions. Small changes such as clearly labeled buttons, auto-complete fields (which can be done via FastSpring’s Store Builder Library), or other simplified forms can lead to dramatic results. 

Each incremental improvement in clarity and simplicity helps buyers feel more confident, reducing hesitation and significantly increasing the likelihood of completed purchases.

How Do You Know When Conversion Rates Need Improvement?

When evaluating conversion rates, aim to be within the 2-4% range, according to industry experts like Shopify. These rates can fluctuate depending on your industry and the goods you’re selling, but it’s always important to watch for signals and changes in your conversion rates. Signals like a sudden spike in cart abandonment, consistent declines in specific markets or regions, or lower-than-average conversions on mobile devices are all metrics you can use to monitor performance in emerging markets as you grow your business in those regions.

To support your growth, FastSpring offers its Checkout Conversion Dashboard to monitor checkout problems at three critical milestones: Sessions, Orders, and Completed Orders. 

For example, an unusual dip in “Orders” relative to “Sessions” might suggest that buyers are not entering their payment details, possibly due to confusing UI elements or a misalignment in branding from your site to your checkout.

Our dashboard goes a step deeper by enabling targeted analysis through its built-in filters. You can drill down by timeframe, product line, country, or customer segment to isolate specific issues. For instance, you might notice a high rate of abandoned checkouts in a certain region, indicating that you need to enable a local payment method there.

Switch to FastSpring to Improve Your Purchase Flow

No matter if you’re selling in-game content via your web store, offering presets for your photography editing collection, selling audio production software, or anything in between, the reality remains that reducing friction and uncertainty at checkout boosts conversions across the globe, and more so in emerging markets. 

And whether that’s by streamlining the UX, offering the right payment options (and currency) for each customer, or reinforcing brand trust and consistency, each improvement has measurable results. These changes mean that even though you might have run into conversion rate challenges, a large portion of those churned purchases are preventable. By addressing known buyer pain points, you can hold on to a big slice of revenue from your buyers.

Continuously refining your purchase flow by making it fast, easy, and tailored to your user needs across all markets will increase the percentage of your website visitors that turn into paying customers, without the need to spend more on user acquisition. 

FastSpring is here to help. With our suite of tools including Embedded Checkout, Automatic Payment Method and Currency Localization, Advanced JavaScript Library, Conversion Rate Monitoring, and much more, we’re built to help you be successful in your business’ growth endeavors.

Ready to learn more about how FastSpring is Powering the Digital Economy®? Set up some time to speak with our experts today.

The post How Changes to Your Checkout Can Affect Conversion Rates appeared first on FastSpring.

So, what can digital goods companies do to break into these markets effectively? 

Supporting country-specific debit networks, mobile wallets, and bank transfer schemes gives buyers seamless and trusted payment options. In turn, businesses gain access to the entire global market, boosting conversion and revenue along the way.

But don’t take our word for it; the results from a Baymard study speak for themselves:

• Businesses that enable regionally preferred payment methods see 21% higher growth rates than those that don’t.
• Websites that localize pricing twice the conversion rate of those that do not.
• 76% of shoppers prefer sites that display pricing in their home currency, which directly impacts buying decisions.

Global Payments: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

While credit cards are the default in most Western markets, they are far from the norm in high-growth regions like India, Brazil, and Asia-Pacific. In these markets, the rise of mobile-first economies has fundamentally changed how consumers pay for goods and services.

Take India, for example. With over 700 million Internet users and counting according to a Nielsen study, India has leapfrogged traditional banking models in favor of mobile-driven financial services. Credit card penetration remains strikingly low — fewer than 5% of Indians own a credit card according to Times of India — due to strict banking requirements, limited access to credit, and a consumer preference for real-time, bank-linked transactions. 

Instead, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has become the dominant force, processing over 75% of all digital retail transactions. UPI’s success is primarily due to its seamless, mobile-first experience, allowing users to make instant payments via mobile apps like Google Pay and Apple Pay without requiring a credit card. 

For businesses looking to capture the Indian market, supporting UPI has become a requirement.

The shift away from credit cards isn’t unique to India. Digital payments have also taken center stage in Brazil, with Pix emerging as the country’s most-used payment method. Launched by the Central Bank of Brazil, Pix now has 153 million users and has been adopted by 68% of mobile wallet users in the country. The appeal? Instant, fee-free transactions that work 24/7. 

For businesses selling in Brazil, integrating Pix is critical to reaching the majority of digital consumers who prefer bank transfers over traditional card payments.

Beyond Pix, Brazil’s payment ecosystem also relies heavily on local card networks like Elo and Hipercard, which serve a broad consumer base and can be offered only if you have local acquiring. Elo is the third-largest card scheme in the country, while Hipercard remains widely used, particularly among lower-income consumers who may not have access to international credit cards. Companies that fail to support these preferred payment methods risk high cart abandonment rates and lost revenue.

A Merchant of Record Handles Local Payment Methods for You

Partnering with a merchant of record (MoR) with a focus on the right local payment methods opens up emerging markets to companies looking for growth. With FastSpring, companies gain instant access to these key benefits:

• Local Acquiring and Card Schemes:
  • Higher Conversion Rate: Get improved transaction success rates, due to local acquiring.
  • Access to additional market share: Around 20% of Brazilian customers use local cards like ELO.

As global digital commerce expands, one-size-fits-all payment strategies no longer work. Businesses that fail to tailor their payment options to match consumer behavior in these high-growth regions will struggle to scale. 

By integrating UPI in India, local cards in Brazil, and other country-specific payment methods around the globe, companies can unlock new revenue streams, improve conversion rates, and build trust with their global customer base.

FastSpring’s Expanded Local Payment Support

At FastSpring, we know that seamless transactions drive conversion and revenue. However, not all payment methods drive the same results in every market. That’s why we take a data-driven, market-specific approach to expanding our global payment capabilities. We focus on methods that improve approval rates and cross-border transaction successes by aligning our strategy with how customers in each region prefer to pay.

Our goal is simple: to give you the payment methods that generate meaningful revenue. To do this, we continuously analyze payment data, market trends, and consumer behaviors to identify where demand is shifting. That’s why we’ve expanded our support to include:

• UPI in India: Meeting the needs of a mobile-first economy where credit cards are rare and real-time, bank-based payments dominate.
  
• Pix and Brazilian Local Cards (Elo & Hipercard): Unlocking Brazil’s vast digital economy by supporting the most widely used bank-transfer system (Pix) alongside local card networks.
  
• New Taiwanese Dollar (TWD) Currency Support: Expanding cross-border sales potential in Taiwan’s growing digital economy.

But we don’t stop at just adding payment options — we go one step deeper. 

We collaborate with our payment partners to understand the nuances of different industries and how customer preferences vary even within the same country. 

While Konbini is Japan’s most commonly used payment method, gaming customers overwhelmingly prefer PayPay. The same applies in South Korea, where Toss has gained more traction in gaming than Naverpay. By tailoring our offerings based on real-world payment behavior, we help businesses maximize approval rates, reduce friction at checkout, and drive higher conversions.

Expanding global sales isn’t just about accepting more payment methods — it’s about accepting the right ones. With FastSpring, you get a partner that helps your business position itself for success in the world’s fastest-growing digital markets.

Trusted Payment Methods Reduce Friction

Beyond our expanded payment support, FastSpring continues to provide comprehensive payment solutions that cater to global businesses:

• Automatic Currency and Payment Method Localization: Our system dynamically presents customers with the most relevant payment methods and currencies based on their location, increasing trust and conversion rates.
• Expansive Support for Global Currencies and Payment Methods: This includes AliPay, Pix, WeChat Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more, ensuring businesses can process payments seamlessly in high-growth regions.
• Data-Driven Optimization: FastSpring analyzes payment trends to continually refine and expand its payment offerings, helping businesses stay ahead of market demands.

By providing trusted payment methods, reducing friction, and delivering a localized experience, businesses can enhance customer confidence, streamline transactions, and foster brand loyalty.

Go Global With FastSpring

Expanding into new markets doesn’t have to be complex. With FastSpring’s expanded payment capabilities, you can offer the right payment methods at the right time to tap into high-growth economies, reduce cart abandonment, and increase revenue.

Ready to maximize your global reach?

Partner with FastSpring and make every transaction count.

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