product update Archives - FastSpring

Unlock New Features and Faster Checkouts With Store Builder Library v1.0.5

Katie Stephan — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 21:57:05 +0000

Give your customers a better experience — and your store a competitive edge.

The latest version of the FastSpring Store Builder Library (SBL), v1.0.5, is now available. This release delivers improvements in speed, security, stability, and features to our JavaScript library, ensuring your checkout stays modern, optimized, and competitive. If you’re still on an older version, now is the perfect time to upgrade.

What’s New and Why Upgrade

SBL v1.0.5 brings key improvements that enhance both your store’s performance and your customers’ checkout experience:

Faster Checkout: Optimized load times and responsiveness to boost conversions.
Enhanced Security: Patches for known vulnerabilities to protect buyer data.
New Features: Access functionality and enhancements exclusive to this version.
Improved Compatibility: Smooth performance across modern browsers and mobile devices.
Greater Stability: Bug fixes for a more reliable purchase flow.

Upgrading ensures your storefront stays secure and easy to use while reducing errors and providing the latest tools to improve the buyer experience.

Updating to the Latest Version

To integrate SBL v1.0.5 on your site:

Go to FastSpring Dashboard → Checkouts → Popup Checkout → “Place on your website.”
Copy the updated Transcript David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (00:04) Hello everyone! Welcome to the Growth Stage podcast by FastSpring. I’m your host, David Vogelpohl. I support the digital product community through my role at FastSpring. And I love bringing the best of the community to community to you here on the Growth Stage podcast. In this episode, we’re going to be interviewing someone who’s uh, really special for me. He works with me here at FastSpring. He’s going to be talking about product marketing is broken and how you can fix it with thematic product releases, and I’d like to welcome to Growth Stage Mr. Braden Steel. Braden, welcome. Braden (00:39) Thank you, I appreciate the intro. I’m excited to chat about product marketing today. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (00:44) Awesome. Well, I love working with you here at FastSpring, Braden. And I had a moment of panic because I rarely say your last name out loud. And I’m like, what if it was some weird pronunciation I forgot to, I forgot over the years or something, but welcome here. Yeah, of course. And what Braden’s going to talk about are his thoughts on what is wrong with traditional product marketing and how FastSpring, what we do here, are using quarterly thematic product launches. Braden (00:58) Yeah. Yeah, thank you. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (01:14) to give the best attention to your product releases, tell an overarching product story where the whole is more valuable than the sum of its parts, and help marketing be more planful and thoughtful so you can provide your best work for your product releases. I was at Spryng put on by Wynter, W -Y -N -T -E -R, I think, and S -P -R -Y -N -G, but it’s a conference. We were at a roundtable talking about the different challenges and marketing and the topic of product marketing came up. And people were feeling they were running ragged, you know dealing with every little feature release, new product releases, and trying to make a big splash for all of it. And the topic of thematic product releases came up somebody else in the group had suggested it and we had adopted that here at FastSpring a few quarters back and And so I thought it would be neat to talk about that topic here today. So, Braden, are you ready to kick it off? Braden (02:18) Yeah, let’s do it. I’m excited to talk about it. it. it. it. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (02:20) Alright, good deal. I’ve been here for awhile now, but I don’t know the answer to this question. What was the first thing you bought online? Braden (02:28) Yeah, this is a cool question. I spent some time thinking about it. And it was in junior high. eBay was in its heyday. And I bought a PlayStation 2 with a bundle of games. It had like some sports games and some other stuff. And I agonized over whether or not I should buy it. But I did and I enjoyed it. I got a lot of use out of that console and had a lot of fun. The other option was with my own money I ever earned was a didgeridoo was the first thing I ever purchased with my own money online. So that was the other option there. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (03:06) All right, I love how you differentiated between your own money versus, I guess, your, what was it, like, your parent money? How did you fund the PSP? Braden (03:14) Yeah, I may have earned it through weeding the garden or mowing the lawn or something. But the other one was like my actual real job money that I earned on my own. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (03:24) Well, I figure if you’re mowing the lawn, it’s your money, Braden. So, all right. Well, I kind of gave it away a little bit in the intro, but could you share with the audience what you do here at FastSpring or what FastSpring does and what you do here? Braden (03:27) Sure, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. So I’m the Senior Product Marketing Manager here at FastSpring. My job is everything go-to-market for all of our products and the industries we work in as well. So when a product launches, you know, all of the messaging underneath that product and around it, and then also supporting things like video games or B2B or other industries that we’re really excited to sell into. FastSpring is a merchant of record. And so what that means is we take everything from the buy button onwards in a digital product sales experience. We work with SaaS companies, gaming companies, AI companies, B2B, things like that. that. that. that. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (04:18) Excellent, excellent. Now, when you describe kind of what you did, you touched on a bunch of different areas. You touched on product releases, feature releases. You also touched on verticals. You mentioned B2B SaaS or video games. And the modern product marketer will often embrace these vertical positions for a particular product. And I think that just even further amplifies the complexity of product marketing. But what do you think is broken about product marketing? What wasn’t working for you with the traditional model? Braden (04:56) Yeah, it’s a really good question. You know, product releases hinge on a lot of moving factors that are outside of a product marketer’s control. Things like engineering, if there’s customer commits that need to happen, if sales suddenly has a big deal that’s like, hey, you need to finish this product before this other product gets released. And there’s a lot of moving pieces around these product launches. And so working with product teams to get commit dates and understand, when are these products going to get released? What does release really mean? Is it generally available or is it in a beta stage? And then the question starts to come, well, when do we want to talk about it? And what are the things we want to say? And can we even talk about this because we’re testing it? So a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty happens with this model of, you know, just the way that engineering and product works. And so I think the major thing that’s broken is that there’s just so— it’s so hard to see the final product and plan around a release date and plan for a product to be ready to go. And so what happens is product marketers like myself end up, you know, a week before launch, a week before GA, the product manager saying, Hey, this is going to be ready. Finally, go do all of this work. And it’s like, okay, hold on. I got other stuff I got to do. You know, you mentioned verticals. We’ve been talking about that. You know, that takes up a lot of time too. And so the question that, you know, I’ve had to solve and had to think about is how can I do the product launch work and also the other parts of my job when I have no control over that launch date? David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (06:40) So you’ve got like these floating timelines and so the product’s not ready. They discover a bug at the last minute. They somehow power through the release and get it done early. You’re trying to coordinate resources with other marketers, designers and website people and content folks and things like that. And so it’s this orchestration with these floating dates is what I’m hearing there. What about the other side? Like I’ve… you know, worked in product marketing and in many capacities over the years. I’m like, I feel like every time I talk to a product person, they’re like, I’m releasing X and we need to make a big blast about it. do you feel like the expectation around the level of effort for all these different product releases is sometimes overwhelming? Is that part of what’s broken with traditional product marketing? Braden (07:28) Yeah, for sure. I mean, these product managers, they’re product managers for a reason. They own those products. They’re super excited about it. They’ve oftentimes been working on these for, you know, up to several years that they’ve been trying to get these products to release. And so of course they’re going to want as much support as they can get for these products. And when it’s, it’s very challenging to have a product manager come to you and say, I’m really excited about this feature. I want a lot of support, here’s all of my ideas, and to have to say, well, let’s pump the brakes a little bit for A, B, or C reason, I just can’t support you, or I can’t, you know, I don’t have the time, or, and that’s discouraging and hard to maintain a strong relationship sometimes with those product managers because, you know, they may feel like they, you don’t wanna help them or something, which isn’t the case, obviously, you don’t wanna help as many people as you can. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (08:26) Yeah. So it feels like then from your perspective in terms of coordinating a go -to -market around a product launch, you’re dealing with the floating dates in the traditional model and then every product manager and rightfully so, like you said, with all the investment and time they’re putting in it, it’s like, let’s make a big bang about this. but with all of those demands, plus the floating dates, it feels a bit like you’re not doing your best work. It’s like, you’re spreading yourself amongst all these things and it’s hard to really do your best work is kind of the gist I’m getting. Is that fair? Braden (09:01) Yeah, yeah, that’s right. you end up in a place where a lot of things kind of collapse all at the same time. And suddenly you have to figure out how to, how to achieve all of them. And not only is there only 24 hours in a day, not to mention, you know, working those full 24 hours, but also the, the stress of having to think about, keep all of those things in mind, take these highly technical things and. condense them in something that is market facing. So yeah, there’s a lot of challenges there. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (09:35) So you alluded to this a minute ago when we were talking about supporting product managers and the relationship between PMMs and PMs, if you will. So do you feel like the traditional form of product marketing, is it fair to say it can have some tension with PMMs and PMs? Braden (09:58) Yeah, I think so. I’ve had experiences where, yeah, it’s certainly been a bit of a tense conversation to straight up say, I just don’t have the resources to support you. And, you know, in those cases, you want to listen and try to understand what the PM is looking for, but it certainly does create tension. And, you know, it’s all about good communication in situations where you’re, you know, you have to be there and have those conversations, listening. being clear, being really good at tracking what you’re doing, and in our case, deploying the thematic launch process to help avoid some of that challenge that comes with traditional product. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (10:41) So you have the product managers asking for the biggest megaphone possible for their releases. You have the rest of marketing saying, can we be more planful so we can do better work? And you kind of talked about the shift to thematic product releases. So let’s just start simply. What is a thematic product release? Braden (10:59) Yeah, great question. A thematic release is a bundling of products underneath a umbrella of a theme. For example, B2B as the umbrella and all of those products are supporting that theme. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (11:16) So when we talk about thematic releases, I mean, I’m guessing we’re talking about not one every week. Maybe, I guess, if you’re really aggressive, but like, are you doing these on a quarterly basis, monthly? Braden (11:30) Good question. We do a spring, summer, fall release. People aren’t around during the holidays at the end of the year, so we don’t do it at that time. But yeah, just three of them a year with ad hoc releases occasionally in between. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (11:45) So the product org is aiming to say like each quarter we’re going to have this thematic improvement to this product or product line and we’re going to bring it in product marketing, we’re going to bring it to life in one big campaign. And I guess does it include the elements of each of the products and feature releases within that theme? Braden (12:08) Yeah, it does. It includes those elements. We look at our customer roadmap and we say, okay, what are we planned for the year? And that helps us categorize those products within themes. So we aren’t necessarily going from a top -down approach and saying, we need to solve for theme A, what are the products that fit under theme A? Instead, we look at what are the suite of products we plan to release this year? And then what’s the theme that each of those products can fit under within these parts of the year. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (12:44) So you’ll have this, you’ll amplify it. You might be off by a quarter, maybe on the release date or something, but there might be a lag, I guess, before you know it. Yeah. So you’re decoupling the GA, if you will, from the promotion. Braden (12:51) That’s correct, yeah. That’s correct. Yeah. And that’s a strategy, you know, we’ve deployed, we have GA activities that we do, because these features do need promotion when they go live. And so we, as a part of the thematic process, we have GA activities and then thematic activities that we can deploy for each product. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (13:18) So everybody, every product release, if you will, kind of gets to ride along in the thematic releases. And then you have kind of a smaller version for like the GA rollout effectively. So you kind of get a double dip there, it sounds like. Braden (13:31) Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. And it’s been really helpful to make sure that our internal teams are enabled at GA. So customer success isn’t suddenly getting feedback from customers. They’re like, Hey, I’m using this cool product. I want to know more about it. And our customer success team was never enabled. That doesn’t happen because at GA we’re releasing FAQ documents, value messaging to make sure that our internal teams understand what’s happening. And then the go -to -market messaging, like you said, can lag on occasion. If you have the product release in January and you don’t have a thematically release until April, that product might not get as much marketing support early on, but it will get to tag along with that bigger push later in the year. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (14:17) If it was super strategic, would you like throw in an X, you know, a bigger release in between the thematic releases if you just happen to have some, you know, GA date for some like super strategic thing you were waiting on? Braden (14:30) Yeah, absolutely. So we have ad hoc releases as well that we do support. we try to limit those to one or two if we can. And we’ve built a process, you know, with you and the product team where we have a conversation and we say, okay, you know, there’s this really great feature. It doesn’t fit under the theme, but it’s really important for reason A, B and C. And so we plan for that as a team to make sure everyone’s understanding what we’re going to do. And then, you know, that does get separate treatment. But the benefit again is we don’t have 15 products suddenly crashing down at end of quarter, which is, you know, oftentimes when product is delivering everything at the same time. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (15:08) Thank you. One of my favorite business jokes is the, not joke, but observation is that, the executives Q3 means the beginning of Q3 and the engineering teams Q3 means the end of Q3. So it sounds like they’re all kind of, you know, of course sliding in there at the end to hit those quarterly OKRs. Yeah. Okay. I gotcha. Braden (15:33) Yeah, exactly right. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (15:38) So you have this theme coming out in next quarter or something, and there’s a major product or feature release that doesn’t fit in the theme. Is this just one of those special ones you were talking about that you might pop up in between the thematic release? Braden (15:55) Yep, exactly right. So I’ll give you an example from what we’re doing. We did a payments release early this year. and so we had a lot of cool payments features. One of those payments that slipped engineering just couldn’t get to it by the time the thematic launch happened was Google Pay and everyone knows Google Pay. And so, you know, we sat down and looked at it and said, how can we promote Google Pay? It’s not really a B2B feature. And so, yeah, we did a little mini release for Google Pay. Created some documents for it FAQ documents a blog post or promoted on social things like that. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (16:29) So what happens then if you have this kind of anchor product release and a thematic release that slips? I mean, it sounded like you still had some anchor product, I guess, in the thematic release that Apple Pay slipped from or Google Pay slipped from. But what do you do? Just wait to do the thematic release until the anchor products can be included? Or what do you do? Braden (16:54) Yeah, I mean, it depends. Oftentimes it can be a wait and see. We’ve had that happen. You know, I was having conversations with the product team today that told me, hey, B2B might be a wait and see coming up a little bit later this year. But the benefit of the thematic launch is A, it’s not a hard deadline. We’re setting that deadline for ourselves. And so if we need to push that back a little bit to better support the product and engineering’s deadlines, we can. or we can adjust those themes at any time. So if a key feature suddenly isn’t gonna get released, perhaps we can pick up one or two other smaller features to create a bundle that fits a theme in a different way. And so there’s flexibility that exists within this model that still allows for those changes that happen throughout the year. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (17:47) OK, that makes sense. So as I think of a traditional product marketing campaign for a feature release, it’s like an announcement blog post, maybe a press release, some social coverage, email our customers, email our prospects, that kind of thing. How does thematic release differ in structure? Braden (18:07) Yeah, I alluded to it a little earlier. A lot of those things still happen. And at the thematic moment, those things are still happening, but we have what we call the GA activities. So a lot more of like internal enablement, in -app notifications. You know, when someone could access that piece of software or technology, we’re enabling those customers and those— our internal teams. And we decouple that from this thematic release. And then at the thematic moment, instead of focusing on a lot of the more like, you know, hey, this feature is available, you know, at bits and pieces, we can tell more of a narrative story about the value broadly of all of these features together. And so that’s a big difference that I see that you can’t really do when you’re releasing something, you know, at piecemeal throughout the quarter or the year. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (19:04) Yeah. And it helps, it feels like it helps you elevate the story. Cause I, I like the perfect example for me is this quality of life improvements that were like really hard for engineering, but don’t necessarily make the product more marketable. Cause it’s, you know what I mean? The person on the outside doesn’t even know that was a problem or something. And, and so it’s often hard as Phil, as a product marketer to go out and say, Hey y ‘all, we, we fixed this. when in reality it was really valuable for the business and for the customers. Braden (19:08) Yeah. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (19:34) And so it feels like thematic releases not only allow you to kind of share the megaphone, but also kind of elevate the story of some of these more quality of life improvements. Braden (19:43) Absolutely, yeah, you get to, you know, a lot of features benefit from this that otherwise wouldn’t get marketing activities or might get, you know, a quick announcement in Pendo. Instead, they live on a landing page alongside these bigger features that, yeah, they get to, as you said, share that megaphone. And there’s a lot of benefit for the smaller, you know, quality of life improvements. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (20:08) Okay, so has this approach, how many quarters in are you? Braden (20:13) This is our third, we’re coming up on our third thematic launch this, in July. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (20:20) Okay, so three quarters in, would you say that it has improved your ability to coordinate marketing resources and support product launches, or is it too early to tell? Braden (20:33) I would say that it’s definitely improved, you know, from my side. I think the improvement I see is not only am I able to better support, the product team, and not only support them, but also coordinate with the rest of marketing, specifically demand gen. you know, they have a lot of lead time now that they didn’t have before about these products. and we can slot things into campaigns that we used to struggle to do. So I would say that would be the biggest benefit. But then the other benefit is it’s opened up time for us at FastSpring to focus on other vertical expansion, like into video games, that we might not have had as much time to do or not as much manpower to push those verticals forward. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (21:28) So you mentioned the video game segment for FastSpring for a while, and FastSpring’s had video game customers for a good long while, almost since the start of the company. You talked about the company kind of leaning into this segment. Do you feel like segments could play a role in thematic releases, or do you think that it’s more around the feature sets? Braden (21:51) Yeah, segments absolutely play a big role. You know, I mentioned our next launch is around B2B, a vertical that we want to sell into, that we’re excited about expanding into. I can see a world where we’re doing that around video games as well. You know, we mentioned we’ve improved our Apple Pay and implemented Google Pay. So yeah, expanding, having these vertical themes not only opens up that ability, you know, to… you get the benefits of the thematic launch, but you also get the benefit of coupling things like thought leadership into the thematic launch that you might struggle to combine with traditional product release. And so you can get a bigger, potentially a bigger campaign push and more value out of these product launches for the broader organization. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (22:44) Excellent. Well, this has been really interesting, Braden. I really appreciate you coming on the air and talking about this. It was such an interesting discussion at Spryng here in Austin. I thought it’d be neat to kind of bring it on the show, but that was awesome. Thank you so much for joining. Braden (23:01) Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. It was super fun. David Vogelpohl (FastSpring) (23:04) Awesome. And if you’d like to check out more about what Braden is up to, including maybe his next thematic release, you can visit fastspring.com. Thanks everyone for joining this episode of Growth Stage. I’ve been your host, David Vogelpohl. I enjoy supporting the digital product community as part of my role at FastSpring. And I love to bring the best of the community to you here on Growth Stage. Thanks everybody. The post EP24: Product Marketing Is Broken — Fix It With Thematic Product Launches appeared first on FastSpring.



Transact Faster with 70% of Mobile Users with: Google Pay Support from FastSpring
Braden Steel — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 21:00:00 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce that FastSpring now supports Google Pay, providing you with a seamless, secure, and convenient payment solution on your website or web shop for in-app purchases or for users within the 70% of global mobile users in the Android ecosystem. With Google Pay, you can offer your customers a faster checkout experience and ensure that their payment information is protected all while opening up new revenue channels to maximize your revenue potential.



Seamless Checkout Experience



Offering Google Pay with FastSpring allows your customers to complete purchases with just a few clicks using their already saved payment methods, leading to a smoother and faster transaction process.




Increased Conversion Rates: Simplifying the payment process reduces cart abandonment, leading to higher conversion rates.



Convenience: Customers can pay using Google Pay on any device, be it mobile or desktop, making it easier for them to complete their purchases wherever they are.




Enhanced Security



Security is paramount when it comes to online transactions. Google Pay offers advanced security features to protect your customers’ payment information.




Virtual Account Numbers: Google Pay uses virtual account numbers, ensuring that your customers’ real card details are not shared with merchants.



Next-Level Security: In addition to FastSpring’s PCI security measures, users have the additional layer of Google’s PCI protections added to the transaction.




Global Reach



With Google Pay, you can open up your product offerings to a global audience, expand your market reach, and increase transaction volumes.




Multi-Currency Support: Google Pay supports various currencies like USD, GBP, EUR, and more, making it easier for global customers to make purchases.



Wide Acceptance: Google Pay is widely accepted across various regions, including North America, Europe, Asia, and more.




Google Pay is enabled by default making it easy to implement with FastSpring. When customers check out, it will automatically appear as a payment option for an easy checkout experience. And, Google Pay is just one of the many payment methods available to FastSpring users to ensure that you can drive conversions with the most popular global payment methods.



How Google Pay Works



Enabled by default on all FastSpring stores, Google Pay will be presented to buyers using an eligible Android device during checkout. Once selected, Google’s Google Pay widget appears, allowing customers to authenticate right from their device for a faster, more secure transaction.




  
  

  

  





Get Started with FastSpring Today



Google Pay is just one of the many popular payment methods we make available to ensure that you can convert your customers in the most popular ways in which they want to buy. Ready to elevate your payment process with Google Pay? Speak with our sales team or Learn more about integrating Google Pay with FastSpring here. Experience the benefits of faster checkouts, enhanced security, and global reach with FastSpring.
The post Transact Faster with 70% of Mobile Users with: Google Pay Support from FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.



Introducing FastSpring’s Expanded Apple Pay Features
Braden Steel — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 14:05:39 +0000

We are thrilled to announce the expansion of our Apple Pay capabilities, available now to your buyers using FastSpring for purchases on your website or web shop on Safari, Chrome for iOS, and Mac. Tailor-made for businesses selling in-game currencies or in-app items or subscriptions within the Apple ecosystem, this update from FastSpring allows you to offer a seamless, fast, and secure payment option to your customers, enhancing the overall shopping experience and driving more sales through decreased purchase friction and expanded revenue channels.



Unlock Additional Revenue Channels



One of the significant benefits of integrating Apple Pay into your checkout is the potential to unlock additional revenue channels. Currently, Apple Pay is enabled on 78% of all iPhones and saw 100% growth from 2020 to 2022. By enabling Apple Pay, sellers can tap into a vast pool of buyers within the Apple ecosystem who are more likely to complete purchases when this payment option is available.




Massive User Base: Apple Pay caters to a large and growing user base that prefers using their mobile devices for purchases, particularly those operating on iOS.



Global Expansion: Apple Pay is supported in all countries where the platform is available, broadening your market reach.



Increased Sales: With more than 60% of mobile wallet transactions going through Apple Pay, adding it to your checkout can lead to higher conversion rates and fewer abandoned carts.




Reduce Purchase Friction



Another critical advantage is the significant reduction in purchase friction. Apple Pay provides a faster checkout experience by eliminating the need for customers to manually enter payment information and replacing it with two button taps. This convenience is particularly appealing to mobile users, leading to a smoother transaction process.




Faster Checkout: Buyers can pay quickly using biometrics or passcodes, making the process swift and hassle-free.



Fewer Abandoned Carts: The ease of use translates to fewer steps in the checkout process, which helps reduce cart abandonment rates.



Secure Transactions: Apple Pay employs device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes to ensure the security and privacy of each purchase.




How Apple Pay Works



Enabled by default on all FastSpring stores for one-time purchases and subscriptions, Apple Pay will be presented to buyers on Safari, Mac, or Chrome for iOS can select Apple Pay during checkout. Once selected, Apple’s Apple Pay widget appears, allowing customers to authenticate right from their device for a faster, more secure transaction.




  
  

  

  





Get Started with Apple Pay Today



Without any need for implementation, it’s easy to use Apple Pay with FastSpring and start selling your games, apps, subscriptions, and more. To learn more about leveraging Apple Pay to boost your sales, take a look at our documentation.



Apple Pay is just one of the many popular payment methods we make available to ensure that you can convert your customers in the most popular ways in which they want to buy. Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us today to learn how FastSpring with Apple Pay can transform your payment processing and enhance your customers’ shopping experience.
The post Introducing FastSpring’s Expanded Apple Pay Features appeared first on FastSpring.



FastSpring Expands Payments Support with Apple Pay, Pix, Preferred Payment Method, and More
Braden Steel — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 08:50:00 +0000

Offering a frictionless checkout experience is essential for digital transaction conversion rates. Today, we’re excited to announce new payment method improvements available on the FastSpring platform: 




Apple Pay



Pix



Preferred Payment Method




Apple Pay: Seamless Transactions Within the Apple Ecosystem



As Apple Pay adoption continues to grow, incorporating Apple Pay into payment options becomes an essential part of your digital strategy. Whether you’re a game developer looking to capture more of the Apple market – and take advantage of the new rules under the Digital Markets Act – or if you’ve been selling on Mac for years, this integration offers a quicker, and more familiar, checkout process for Apple users.




  
  

  

  





Key Benefits of Apple Pay:




Open Revenue Channels: With availability on iOS, Safari, Mac, or Chrome for iOS users have the ability to open new revenue streams that were previously unavailable.



User-Friendly Payments: Not only is Apple Pay more familiar with buyers in the Apple ecosystem, but making a purchase is as easy as using biometric authorization to authenticate and the transaction can complete.



Accelerate Market Penetration: Access the more than 78% of users on iPhone that leverage Apple Pay, in addition to the other segments of the market.




Learn more about Apple Pay here.



Pix: Expand Your Reach in Brazil



Pix, the most popular payment method in Brazil, has revolutionized how transactions are conducted in the region. With more than 153 million individual users, Pix allows users to tap into a new segment of the global market while avoiding cross-border fees.




  
  

  

  





Key Benefits of Pix:




Market Access: Double your customer acquisition with access to the largest payment method in Brazil.



Enhanced Localization: Provide a trusted and familiar payment method to users in Brazil and show commitment to the Latin American market.



Increased Conversion Rates: Capture more sales with a payment method familiar to millions of buyers in Brazil.




Learn more about Pix in our docs.



Preferred Payment Method: Tailor Your Checkout Experience



Preferred Payment Method empowers sellers to customize the payment experience, presenting options for payment methods that resonate with customers. This approach not only streamlines the checkout process, but also boosts transaction completion rates by reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment because of a missing payment method:




  
  

  

  





Key Benefits of Preferred Payment Method:




Customization: Users can preselect and display payment options, enhancing the buyers’ experience.



Increased Completion Rates: Buyers are more likely to complete their purchase when offered a familiar payment method.



Targeted Approach: Gives users the ability to focus on specific regions and payment methods within those regions.




For more details, take a look at our documentation.



Additional New Payment Methods



In addition to the above, FastSpring continues to add improvements to existing payment methods with expansion of PayPal into China and improvements to approval rates in the EU and UK as well as new currencies and regions to be accepted with Amazon Pay later this year. More information can be found at developer.fastspring.com.



The introduction of these new features, as well as the improvements mentioned, allow sellers to offer a more personalized and efficient checkout experience, cater to a global audience, and tap into new markets with ease. FastSpring is committed to support users in whatever business strategy they pursue to ensure that they can stay ahead in the competitive digital marketplace.



Interested in learning more about how FastSpring can support your global growth strategy? Schedule some time with our team or sign up for a trial account!
The post FastSpring Expands Payments Support with Apple Pay, Pix, Preferred Payment Method, and More appeared first on FastSpring.



Upcoming Changes to iDeal, Giropay, AliPay, Sofort, and Webmoney on FastSpring
Braden Steel — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 16:22:09 +0000

Background:



As part of our ongoing commitment to providing you with the best possible experience, we’re streamlining our payment methods to ensure the highest standards of safety and compliance.



In alignment with this commitment, certain payment methods are being carefully evaluated and, where necessary, removed. This proactive measure enables us to maintain a robust security framework, protecting both your interests and the integrity of our services.



What Is Changing?



FastSpring will discontinue support for the following payment methods.



Payment method Platform* Discontinue Date
iDeal Classic only 4/16/2024
Giropay, Webmoney Classic and Contextual 4/17/2024
Sofort Classic and Contextual 5/21/2024
Alipay Classic 5/23/2024
Alipay Contextual Paused until 5/23/2024
*Classic Platform: Legacy platform (Springboard), Contextual Platform: Newest platform (FastSpring app)



Is Anything Required for FastSpring Users?



No action is necessary from your end. FastSpring will manage the removal of these payment methods from your checkout pages.



What Is the Impact on Buyers?



For your customers that have been utilizing any of these payments, we want to assure you that there is an alternative option available. Customers can transition to paying via several other payment methods, including cards and PayPal. 



Further Questions?



If you have any questions about payment method changes or how it might affect your account, please reach out to our support team at support@fastspring.com
The post Upcoming Changes to iDeal, Giropay, AliPay, Sofort, and Webmoney on FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.



FastSpring Support and Subscription Management Continue to Impress SocialBee
Katie Stephan — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 18:54:13 +0000

SocialBee, a social media management platform and SaaS based in Romania, first started using FastSpring in 2018.



Co-Founder and Chief Executive Bee Ovi Negrean has used the word “flawlessly” to describe how FastSpring’s merchant of record use case has worked for SocialBee (more on that below!).



After adopting FastSpring as their merchant of record, SocialBee even saw 2x year-over-year growth in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) after their first year with FastSpring.



However, as SocialBee utilizes many different ways to package and monetize their software as a service subscriptions, they began discovering new ways to test the FastSpring platform’s capabilities.



Here’s how FastSpring not only rose to the challenge but continues to impress Ovi and the SocialBee team, especially with:




A dedication to listening to customers’ needs and providing communicative customer support.



An actively involved leadership team that gets to know customers personally.



Our continued focus on developing and improving a great product, especially features and tools for subscription management to support SaaS businesses.




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, and digital goods businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.



Why SocialBee Chose FastSpring as a Merchant of Record



FastSpring’s function as a merchant of record has always been very important to SocialBee. When they wanted to expand their business to new global marketplaces, knowing that FastSpring handles VAT and taxes made FastSpring an easy choice.



“FastSpring, for us, has always solved the problem of not having to worry about VAT and taxes, as well as the core of simply getting money from our customers,” Ovi explained. “And that use case always worked flawlessly; there wasn’t any problem.”



Ovi Negrean, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Bee at SocialBee.



It worked so well that SocialBee was able to double their MRR year over year.



But it takes a lot more than facilitating payments and managing taxes to make a merchant of record function within a business’ online environment, and SocialBee was going to ask FastSpring just how much it could do.



SocialBee’s Specific Business Needs



SocialBee was selling their SaaS product as a subscription with many different options and add-ons when they switched to FastSpring in 2018. Any one of those options and add-ons might not be that complicated on its own, but when stacked in many possible combinations, it created complex product and subscription needs.



“Our setup may have been a bit more complex, or stranger, than most of FastSpring’s other customers,” Ovi said.



Plus, SocialBee needed many subscription-specific features such as pricing proration for customers who change their subscription mid-payment period.



Because of that setup, SocialBee helped FastSpring discover a lot of edge cases and bugs that, while completely normal for any software company like FastSpring to work through with their users, were still annoying for SocialBee to work through. “For most customers and most use cases, things just worked. But the things that didn’t work were irritating and kept us from being 100% happy.”



So they reached out to FastSpring.



FastSpring’s Support and Product Development



Ovi said that the way FastSpring has handled SocialBee’s needs has made obvious FastSpring’s dedication to great support and to providing a great product.



Support From Customer Success Managers



The first thing that impressed Ovi was how communicative and attentive SocialBee’s customer success manager (CSM) Gareth has been.



“Since our new manager [Gareth] came in, he has been very on point, creating a list of all the issues we had and following up weekly to find out what was being done on the FastSpring side to solve those issues,” Ovi said about FastSpring’s support. “But we’re also being told expected delivery dates and what progress has been made. We’re also able to let them know which issues are a priority for us and which are less important.”



In particular, there was one incident in which an issue SocialBee was experiencing was time-sensitive thanks to a pricing increase they implemented.



“Gareth was there to very quickly support us, and something that could have been a blocker — or that could have delayed our related marketing campaign — wasn’t a blocker anymore, because they knew how important it was for us to have it solved.”



Support From FastSpring Leadership



The FastSpring leadership team has also been very active in SocialBee’s success, making it clear to SocialBee that FastSpring is really committed to their partnership.



Before Gareth was assigned as their CSM, SocialBee was reached out to by Chief Customer Officer Mansoor Bajowala. Ovi appreciates how some of the newer executives at FastSpring have really made it clear how dedicated FastSpring is to their customers’ success.



“We’ve had very good communication with [CSM] Garreth, but also with the leadership team at FastSpring,” Ovi said. “We saw not just lip service that you would do things, but that you actually did them.” 



Product Development and a Subscription Focus



Because FastSpring’s support and leadership teams have been so active with SocialBee, it’s been easy to have their needs communicated to the teams at FastSpring who can fulfill those needs.



Plus, they’ve seen how dedicated FastSpring has been to developing out new features and focusing on where the market is going, such as more and more subscription tools and analytics.



“People don’t like to hear about software platform issues, even though all of them have them,” Ovi explained. But he has seen FastSpring’s commitment toward ironing out the inevitable issues that come with any software product. “We saw how many early bugs we reported one by one went away,” he continued. “Those issues were solved, and the platform keeps getting better and better.”



Now, as FastSpring has added more and more features geared toward subscriptions, including a subscription analytics dashboard, SocialBee is happier than ever.



“I think we were about 80-20 happy with FastSpring in the past. Now, I’d say we’re 95%-98% happy.”



Partner With FastSpring



Are you ready to explore how your SaaS, software, video game, or digital goods business can benefit from FastSpring’s continued commitment to customer satisfaction?



FastSpring provides an all-in-one payment platform for SaaS, software, and digital products businesses, including VAT and sales tax management, payment localization, and consumer support. Set up a demo or sign up to check out the platform yourself.
The post FastSpring Support and Subscription Management Continue to Impress SocialBee appeared first on FastSpring.



Q3 2023 FastSpring Feature Release: Achieving Subscription Growth, Faster
Braden Steel — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:00:00 +0000

We are excited to share the release of three new groundbreaking features designed to turbocharge your subscription revenue! 1ClickPay, Trial Hopping Prevention, and Offers API are designed to boost your conversion rates and increase customer lifetime value. They also complement several other subscription focused capabilities we have released over 2023.




New Growth & Retention Features



1ClickPay





  

          
        
          
            
              
            
          
        
      
      







Designed to enhance your customers’ shopping experience, 1ClickPay streamlines the checkout process, reduces purchase friction, and makes it easier than ever for your customers to complete transactions.



Check out our 1ClickPay product announcement.



Offers API




  
  

  

  





Offers API is a revenue catalyst that enables businesses to maximize revenue at every customer interaction. Whether it’s at the point of sale or point of cancellation, Offers API strategically surfaces upsell, cross-sell, add-ons, and alternative offers to prospective buyers.



Want to implement Offers API? Take a look at our documentation.



Trial Hopping Prevention



With FastSpring, secure your product-led growth with Trial Hopping Prevention. We don’t just prevent users from signing up for multiple trials with the same email — we also encourage them to convert to a paid plan, maximizing the value they get from your products.



Refreshed Subscriptions Features



In addition to these new features, we’ve rolled out several other subscription tools in the past year. Tools such as Subscription Reporting, Trials With/Without Payment Method, Proration Preview API, and Change History API all optimize growth and retention to unlock your business potential.



Subscription Reporting




  
  

  

  





Designed to help you understand the ins and outs of subscriptions across your business, subscription reporting provides insight into MRR, Active Users, Trial Status, Churn Rates, and much more. Drill down into the dashboards and filter by date, product, country, and more to understand exactly what impact your subscriptions have on your bottom line.



Take a look at our reporting features here.



Trial With/Without Payment Method



Configure trials in the way that best suits your business and customers, directly within the FastSpring app. FastSpring’s Trials With/Without Payment Method feature allows you to minimize developer implementation and maintenance time, consolidate solutions, and open up new business models without needing to get additional third party support.



Interested? Here’s our documentation.



Proration Preview and Subscription Plan Change History API




  
  

  

  





Help your customers carefully understand their subscriptions — and give them insight into what could be — with our Proration Preview and Subscription Plan Change History APIs. Not only do we surface prorated estimates of proposed plan changes to your account management portal, but we also allow you to pull the entire history of your customers’ subscriptions to give them a clear record of their accounts.



Check out our announcements for the Proration Preview and Subscription Plan Change History APIs.



Interested in learning more about how FastSpring supports subscriptions? Sign up for a demo here. Or, are you interested in learning about our subscription features not highlighted here? Go take a look at our subscriptions page.
The post Q3 2023 FastSpring Feature Release: Achieving Subscription Growth, Faster appeared first on FastSpring.

Payment method	Platform*	Discontinue Date
iDeal	Classic only	4/16/2024
Giropay, Webmoney	Classic and Contextual	4/17/2024
Sofort	Classic and Contextual	5/21/2024
Alipay	Classic	5/23/2024
Alipay	Contextual	Paused until 5/23/2024

product update Archives - FastSpring

Unlock New Features and Faster Checkouts With Store Builder Library v1.0.5

What’s New and Why Upgrade

Updating to the Latest Version

Transcript

Transact Faster with 70% of Mobile Users with: Google Pay Support from FastSpring

Seamless Checkout Experience

Enhanced Security

Global Reach

How Google Pay Works

Get Started with FastSpring Today

Introducing FastSpring’s Expanded Apple Pay Features

Unlock Additional Revenue Channels

Reduce Purchase Friction

How Apple Pay Works

Get Started with Apple Pay Today

FastSpring Expands Payments Support with Apple Pay, Pix, Preferred Payment Method, and More

Apple Pay: Seamless Transactions Within the Apple Ecosystem

Key Benefits of Apple Pay:

Pix: Expand Your Reach in Brazil

Key Benefits of Pix:

Preferred Payment Method: Tailor Your Checkout Experience

Key Benefits of Preferred Payment Method:

Additional New Payment Methods

Upcoming Changes to iDeal, Giropay, AliPay, Sofort, and Webmoney on FastSpring

Background:

What Is Changing?

Is Anything Required for FastSpring Users?

What Is the Impact on Buyers?

Further Questions?

FastSpring Support and Subscription Management Continue to Impress SocialBee

Why SocialBee Chose FastSpring as a Merchant of Record

SocialBee’s Specific Business Needs

FastSpring’s Support and Product Development

Support From Customer Success Managers

Support From FastSpring Leadership

Product Development and a Subscription Focus

Partner With FastSpring

Q3 2023 FastSpring Feature Release: Achieving Subscription Growth, Faster

New Growth & Retention Features

1ClickPay

Offers API

Trial Hopping Prevention

Refreshed Subscriptions Features

Subscription Reporting

Trial With/Without Payment Method

Proration Preview and Subscription Plan Change History API