Embedded Payments are becoming an increasingly popular offering among software companies. Simply put, embedded payments are a way to seamlessly integrate payment capabilities within an application or software platform. This means that customers can complete transactions without ever having to leave the platform they are using.
For software companies, embedded payments offer a number of benefits, including a more streamlined user experience, improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, and an additional revenue stream for the company. In this article, we outline how embedded payments work, explore the benefits for software companies, detail a few examples of software companies that are implementing this technology, and provide some best practices for successfully integrating Embedded Payments into your software platform.
What are Embedded Payments?
When SaaS companies are looking to offer their merchants a way to process payments, they have a choice of three main business models: integrated payments, becoming a full payment facilitator (PayFac®), or PayFac-as-a-Service. Embedded Payments occur with the PayFac-as-a-Service model and within the full PayFac® model. They allow software platforms to integrate the payment experience within their platform, providing customers with a seamless user experience and software companies with more visibility and control over their customers’ payment experience.
Embedded Payments can be structured in different ways, depending on your platform’s needs. The primary benefit is that with Embedded Payments, you’re in the driver’s seat of creating the customer payment experience. When you choose Worldpay for Platforms, you get to customise the features and functionality. You’re essentially white-labeling the payments and the customer gets a frictionless experience that is contained entirely within the software.
What are the benefits of Embedded Payments for software platforms?
Not only do Embedded Payments provide a frictionless user experience, but they also deliver a range of commercial and operational benefits. And for software companies that choose to embed payments, they can acknowledge all the benefits of bringing payments inside the software without the compliance and underwriting risk associated with becoming a full PayFac®. These benefits include:
- Improved merchant experience: With the ability to white label or design the payment solution to your specifications, the payments experience operates seamlessly within your existing interface, which provides a cohesive feel for the merchant.
- Dedicated support: Software companies that choose a true payments partner will get access to dedicated payments experts. For example, Worldpay has a strategy and implementation team that helps software companies get the most out of their investment.
- Revenue optimisation: Embedded Payments allow software companies to add a new revenue stream to their business.
- Improved user retention: Processing payments in-platform creates more inherent value in your product, resulting in a better user experience and a more profitable subscriber base. This can result in growing revenue by 2 to 5x per user.
- Valuable data insights: When payments are embedded within your platform, your customers have access to valuable data and insights about their business. Partner and merchant dashboards allow for reporting views that give visibility specific to their business needs.
How can software companies implement Embedded Payments?
A recent report from IDC estimates that by 2030, 74% of global digital payments will be processed through platforms owned by non-financial institutions. Software companies that take steps now to implement embedded payments give themselves a competitive edge in the market.
When you work with an embedded payments provider like Worldpay for Platforms to embed payments directly into your software using payments APIs, your users process payments on your platform, it’s fully white‑labeled, and the entire payments experience looks exactly like your software.
According to a recent Forrester report, The Total Economic Impact of Payrix Pro, implementing Payrix Pro, our PayFac-as-a-Service offering, can provide a 264% return in three years, with a payback period of less than one year. In the world of software development, where new revenue streams are often resource-intensive and risky, Embedded Payments offer a streamlined and lean opportunity to secure new income.
Embedded Payments case studies: How SaaS platforms are finding success with Worldpay
Whether your company operates in the health and fitness industry or in education, there are many examples of how embedded payments have transformed software platforms in a range of verticals. Below, we’ve outlined some case studies that detail how Worldpay’s solutions have helped.
Perfect Gym
When expanding into Australia and New Zealand, Perfect Gym needed a payments partner that matched its customer‑first approach and supported multi‑location fitness operators with a seamless, fully branded experience. They chose Worldpay for Platforms for its best‑in‑class API and single integration across multiple countries, which saved time and reduced complexity. In the first year Perfect Gym processed 30,000 transactions; five years later they’re handling more than ten times that volume each month. Matt Inglis, Country Manager ANZ, says Worldpay’s combination of technical expertise and strategic support made the difference
HubHello
HubHello, a leading early childhood education and care platform, embedded payments to simplify fee collection for 6,000+ services and 200,000+ families across Australia. After finding direct bank integrations fragmented and resource‑heavy, HubHello selected Worldpay for Platforms for its developer‑friendly APIs and turnkey compliance. The result: paper direct debit forms were replaced with a fully online, mobile experience that automates collections, improves cash flow for services, and enables new commerce features like groceries and a marketplace for learning resources.
SimpleRent
SimpleRent built its leasing and payments automation platform on Worldpay for Platforms’ Payment Engine to eliminate friction and keep development focused on industry‑specific UX. By leveraging our infrastructure, SimpleRent offers its software free to agencies, monetises via transaction margins, and delivers tenant benefits like retailer discounts. Matt Kesby, Head of Simplification, notes that Worldpay provided the reliable payments foundation so SimpleRent could concentrate on integrations, personalised automations, and scaling adoption.
Embed payments on your platform with Worldpay
Embedded Payments are the future of payment processing, offering software platforms maximum customization, flexibility and a frictionless user experience. By choosing Worldpay as your Embedded Payments provider, your company will benefit from the expertise of a white-glove service partner who is always there to help.
We work with each of our customers personally, ensuring their payments solution is fit for purpose and addresses their user’s unique payments needs. It’s the Worldpay difference because we know every software platform is different, and your user’s payment needs are different too.
Click here to learn more about the range of payment business models we offer to SaaS companies.
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