Stripe Sessions 2024 brought together the top minds in payment processing for three days in the bay to discuss consumer trends, business challenges, and technological innovations that are transforming the way products get bought and sold digitally. As a Stripe partner that’s implemented the payment processing solution for a variety of digital products, Codal sent a team to the event to connect with industry leaders and investigate the future of payments.
“Our strategy is to listen carefully to the needs of the most sophisticated and innovative businesses in the world,” said Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, during his keynote speech.
Stripe announced a lot of exciting product updates and new releases that Codal can implement to keep our clients on the leading edge of their industry.
For our friends that couldn’t make it to Stripe Sessions 2024, but are actively looking to optimize their payments experience, here are the main takeaways:
Key Stripe updates in 2024
For Stripe users looking to maximize the value of the platform, check out these new releases:
- A/B testing: When adding a new payment method, users can conduct A/B tests directly from their Stripe dashboard to measure its performance.
- Local currencies: Stripe now supports currencies in over 40 countries, helping businesses enhance their international customer experience by presenting the option to pay with local currency.
- Usage based billing: Businesses can choose what payment capabilities they want to build from within versus outsource to Stripe. Monthly billing is determined by usage, which users can track via the Usage meter on their Stripe Connect dashboard.
- Organizations: For businesses with multiple Stripe accounts, each account can be managed in a single location with the new “Organizations” feature.
- Stripe Tax: To streamline tax compliance, businesses in the US can leverage Stripe Tax to manage their files and returns.
The internet’s GDP is accelerating rapidly
The digital payments market continues to move up and to the right, and Stripe has played an active role in this cultural shift. In 2023 alone, businesses using Stripe—from eCommerce, to healthcare, to education, to non-profit—processed more than $1 trillion in transactions.
How has Stripe achieved such meteoric success? Quick answer: Highly accessible and empowering solutions supported by an incredibly resilient technological infrastructure. In 2023, the Stripe API performed with a success rate of 99.999%, including during high traffic periods like Black Friday/ Cyber Monday.
Crypto is now a viable medium of exchange
Stripe was a strong supporter of Bitcoin when it was first introduced to the world over a decade ago. But the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies hasn’t been overnight. Issues surrounding cost, coin stability, and transaction settlement times kept many businesses and consumers on the fence for a while. Now, brands that accept crypto as a form of payment include Microsoft, Home Depot, Uber, AMC, Burger King, Adidas, the list goes on.
With payment leaders like Stripe offering solutions to support crypto payments, more and more businesses are joining the revolution. But given the fact that crypto isn’t regulated by the government, this space will become more politically complex, and businesses should be prepared to adapt to new rules and standards quickly.
GenZ consumers expect speed, flexibility, and personalization
To compete in the next era of eCommerce, brands need to think beyond the standard checkout flow. 77% of consumers will choose and recommend online storefronts that use their data to deliver a personalized experience. This includes tailored product recommendations, discounts and promotions, dynamic prices, and so on.
Another way to personalize the experience is by providing flexible payment options, so the customer can choose whatever works best for them. Perhaps the hottest trend to point to here is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). The industry experts at Stripe Sessions 2024 all agreed on this point: If you want to sell to GenZ, you need BNPL functionality for your site.
With BNPL solutions from Stripe, customers pay some or none of the cost, while the company receives the total amount immediately from a third-party payment provider like Affirm or Klarna. Then, the customer pays off the charge in installments to the provider. This helps the company maximize conversions, without taking on any financial risk—and GenZers love the option. In fact, 37% of GenZ consumers leveraged a BNPL service to purchase a product online in 2023.
In addition to a personalized touch, this next generation of online shoppers values speed. While Millennials may have been willing to work their way through multiple checkout pages, fill out dozens of fields, and wait several days for their order to be approved, GenZers won’t spend more than a few seconds on the page before bouncing to a competitor’s site.
Stripe has solved this with innovations like one-click checkout, which allows customers to automatically save and re-use their payment information for instant purchasing in the future. Stripe has also implemented real-time payments (RTP), which involves immediately transferring funds from one bank to another, regardless of the day or time—unlike traditional payment systems that can take several hours or even days to process. With RTP, customers receive an order confirmation within seconds and are able to access products faster.
The cost of payment processing continues to rise
Fees for processing payments have gradually increased over the years, presenting a challenge for businesses looking to grow their bottom line. Fortunately, new solutions have arrived to bring these costs down in certain use cases.
Stripe has built out functionality to link consumer bank accounts when making purchases online, which brings down the total cost of processing the transaction. Historically, Stripe ran into issues with authenticating bank accounts, delaying this innovation until now. By integrating more directly with banks, Stripe can process payments and payouts faster and more efficiently, and therefore charge less in fees. Looking forward, we can expect to see more payment processors following suit.
Get started with best-in-breed digital solutions
Codal partners with Stripe and other industry-leading technology providers to deliver the best results for our clients across industries.
For example, we implemented Stripe and several other third-party tools to develop a custom checkout and order fulfillment flow for Cocktail Courier—an online merchant in the highly regulated space of D2C alcohol sales. You can learn all about that project here. From homepage to checkout and beyond, we design customer experiences that maximize conversions, while also driving operational efficiency and scalability.
Ready to elevate your business? Get in touch with a member of our team today!
