Challenge

For more than two decades, Visualsoft has offered software and digital marketing solutions to keep small- to medium-sized businesses competitive across the ecommerce environment. The platform supports more than 1,000 small- and medium-sized businesses across the UK.

As Visualsoft expanded, it added several payment providers, resulting in a fragmented and resource-intensive system that was particularly burdensome for Visualsoft’s development team to manage. To keep growing, the company needed to implement a standardized payment processing system that could easily be adopted by retailers globally.

To achieve standardization across its payment system—while also allowing developers to focus on their core products—Visualsoft looked for a white-label payment solution that was easy for new customers to use and universally accessible with support for global payments. “We want to minimize the barriers to entry for people to adopt the platform,” said Ed Harries, vice president of Strategic Partners and Payments at Visualsoft.

Additionally, the payment experience for Visualsoft clients was slow and cumbersome, with a limited selection of payment methods. To help businesses drive conversions and revenue, the platform needed to improve not only businesses’ experience with payments, but also the customer’s payment experience.

Behind the scenes, Visualsoft’s finance department was relying on an outdated system to handle invoices and wanted a more efficient method.

Solution

In 2022, Visualsoft selected Stripe to replace its original, fragmented payment system. It used Stripe Connect to launch its white-label solution, VS Pay, creating a better payment experience for businesses using Visualsoft, and for their customers shopping online.

“With Stripe Connect, we’ve been able to incorporate payments into our product licences to directly bill our clients based on their transactions and card payment activity. This integration streamlines our access to the flow of funds and offers merchants a solution that they can rapidly deploy, helping deliver a best-in-class customer experience,” said Ed.

Visualsoft was able to drive new revenue through the commercialization of the platform, while also reducing go-to-market complexity across the board by tapping into new innovations offered by Stripe—for example, by offloading retailer loss protection to Stripe.

Visualsoft partnered with Stripe professional services for a three-month custom implementation. The team worked closely with Visualsoft to create a comprehensive implementation strategy to ensure the platform would provide optimal value to Visualsoft customers.

"Our implementation consultant helped us with a monetization strategy for monetizing cards, instant payouts and embedded payments in the checkout—a lot of custom work. This wouldn’t have been possible without professional services, and it’s given us massive flexibility as a stand-alone payments solution," said Ed.

With the guidance of professional services, Visualsoft had the confidence and expertise to accelerate its implementation timeline.

“Their confidence to get the project to market drove a cultural shift at Visualsoft, for the engineering team to open up and engage to make the project happen at pace," said Ed.

After implementing Connect, Visualsoft used Stripe’s Premium Support team to continue focusing on growth as it onboarded customers. Through Premium Support, Visualsoft learned more about Dashboard features for its connected accounts and also received technical support during the integration of new features, as well as training, analysis, and recommendations to optimize its platform.

Visualsoft improved the payment experience for customers by implementing Stripe’s optimized checkout suite, which includes Stripe Elements (a set of flexible UI components), more than 40+ payment methods that are surfaced dynamically for each customer, and Link—a secure accelerated checkout that autofills customers’ payment information.

Visualsoft also made plans to implement Stripe Billing as its global solution for managing invoices and facilitating direct SaaS fees. All of these efforts were designed to simplify day-to-day operations and build a class leading experience for businesses using Visualsoft’s ecommerce solutions.

Results

98% authorization rate with VS Pay drives up to 35% conversion increase

Using Connect, the Visualsoft development team was able to launch VS Pay within six months, and the platform has since achieved a 98% authorization rate. At the same time, retail partners saw a significant increase in conversion rates—up to 35%. This uplift in conversion can be attributed to the intuitive payment experience provided by VS Pay, which reinforces customer confidence and satisfaction.

“Using Stripe has not just improved our authorization rates, it has fundamentally changed the customer experience,” said Ed.

25% of all transactions now made via Apple Pay; 13% of all checkouts processed using Link

With the Payment Element, Visualsoft was able to launch several payment methods—including Apple Pay and Google Pay, Afterpay/Clearpay, and Klarna—with minimal effort. Now, 25% of all transactions are made through Apple Pay. In addition, 13% of all checkouts are now processed using Link. With Link, the time it takes an average registered customer to check out has been reduced to as little as six seconds.

“Stripe’s optimized checkout suite is changing our business. It’s not just about speed. It’s trust in payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay that really make a difference. When customers see these options, they feel secure. That’s helping us deliver far better conversion rates for merchants,” said Ed.

An efficiency leap with Billing

Stripe Billing is a key step toward improving Visualsoft’s internal operations. In addition to accelerating its financial processes, the company will be able to reduce friction from its workflow.

“Our current system is slowing us down. It causes unnecessary friction for the financial team. Switching to Billing is one of those things that will allow us to move faster in certain areas and give our retail clients a better experience,” said Ed.