Challenge

After launching the service in 2015, AWA set in motion plans to develop a more profitable business framework. This required rapidly establishing an environment where it could focus on product development by revising the payment platform, enhancing development efficiency, and improving daily operations. The payment method that was initially used made it difficult to accommodate detailed subscription-based payments, so AWA was searching for alternatives.

Solution

AWA now uses Stripe Billing, making subscription-based payments easier than ever. It automatically processes everything from contract management and calculations of applicable charges, consolidating them for each customer’s regular monthly payment.

Results

AWA has successfully minimised the work required for processing and managing subscriptions. Daily operations have been simplified to the extent that they can now be managed by a single member of staff. "Billing operations have run smoothly ever since we began using Stripe Billing. The release was successfully launched on time without any development delays," said Koki Togashi, Director, CXO.

Stripe Billing made it possible to accommodate any marketing strategy

After launching the service, AWA is now planning further customer recruitment strategies to expand the business. "We’ve brainstormed various marketing ideas, such as a free first month or a limited time offer, which would be impossible without a payment system that has the developmental capabilities to accommodate these," said Togashi. "Stripe Billing makes it possible to try almost any type of marketing strategy, freeing the marketing team from the limitations of our development capabilities."

"Without Stripe Billing, we would have had to develop the logic for this in house, resulting in a model that would be difficult to manage and would struggle to handle a diverse range of user recruitment strategies and the higher number of users. At AWA, we make full use of Stripe Billing by devising potential campaigns based on the features provided by the service."

Togashi stated, "The value of Stripe Billing for infrastructure lies in the fact that we can safely achieve our goals without missing any business opportunities."

Looking ahead

AWA intends to look into various pricing plan formats. Fortunately, using Stripe Billing allows AWA to flexibly respond to changes in the business environment and adapt its model to continue its growth.

Another attractive aspect of Stripe Billing is that new features are regularly added to keep up with global trends for subscription businesses. "The Schedule Subscription feature was recently introduced, which we plan to actively incorporate into future AWA operations," explained Togashi.

Togashi continued, "We’ve now decided to expand beyond the Japanese market to an international level. As Stripe continues its expansion into multiple countries, we feel that it is the perfect partner to continue supporting us in the key areas to grow the business. With our plans to accommodate convenience store payments and bank credit transfers in the near future, we expect to cover an even wider range of payment methods."

“We were impressed by Stripe’s efficiency. The platform is very reliable, and although we’ve used it for over 3 years, we’ve hardly had any issues. Stripe has become an essential service for our subscriptions," Togashi concluded.