Payments for SaaS
This guide is designed for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms, in which applications are hosted and maintained by a service provider. Users access these applications over the internet on a subscription basis, eliminating the need for local installation and maintenance. The guide outlines the benefits of Airwallex's solutions and provides guidance on how to implement these without requiring in-depth expertise in the domain.
Through Airwallex Payments for Platforms solutions, SaaS platforms can fully automate and streamline the end-to-end payment process, delivering a seamless experience for both customers and end users, natively within their product.
Overview
The SaaS industry encompasses a diverse array of cloud-based software solutions delivered over the internet, catering to the needs of businesses and individuals across various sectors. These platforms offer a wide range of services, including software applications, cloud storage, collaboration tools, CRM, ERP, financial management, marketing automation, e-commerce, HR management, and security solutions.
SaaS platforms are increasingly partnering with payment service providers to streamline and enhance the payment experience for their customers. By integrating with payment partners, SaaS platforms can offer a seamless and convenient payment process, allowing customers to easily receive payments from their own customers or end users.
Our Payments for Platforms solution addresses this need by making cross-border online payment acceptance easy, reducing FX conversion cost, and seamlessly paying out to customers, while remaining compliant. With broad geographical coverage, platforms can swiftly enter new markets and monetize sellers. The solution ensures global compliance with local regulations, guarantees reliable and timely payments, offers low-cost and high-speed transactions through local payment rails, and facilitates easy monetization with platform fee configuration. This comprehensive approach allows platforms to generate revenue while providing a competitive and streamlined experience for their customers.
Integration models
Airwallex's payments for SaaS solution supports two integration models:
Choose your integration model
The choice of integration model will typically depend on jurisdiction-specific legal nuances. Different jurisdictions have different regulations regarding fund ownership, impacting whether the platform can be in the flow of funds.
Understanding this legal complexity, Airwallex has built a solution tailored for SaaS platforms to help achieve both objectives:
- Compliance: Ensures that the platform stays compliant with all legal requirements regarding platform’s ownership of customers’ funds (e.g., PSD2 in EU).
- Customer experience: Provides the best user experience for both customers and end users with on time execution and market-beating FX rates.
| Customers as the owner of payments | Platform as the owner of payments | |
|---|---|---|
| Suited for | SaaS platforms who:
|
SaaS platforms who:
|
| Customer KYC onboarding to Airwallex | Platform and customers | Platform and customers |
| Customer KYB onboarding to Airwallex | Platform and customers | Customers |
| Is the platform in funds flow? | No | No |
| MoR (Merchant-Of-Record) | Customer | Customer |
| Fees and costs handling | Customers | Platform |
| Dispute / Refund handling | Customers | Platform |
| Reserve requirement | Customers | Platform |
| Funds split | Supported where funds can be settled into the Platform Account and Connected Account in parallel | Supported where funds can be settled into the Platform Account and Connected Account in parallel |
Airwallex can help you fast track your implementation by providing the necessary infrastructure and tooling support for secure money movement. For more information, see Enabling infrastructure and tooling.