Australia’s Ezypay cements itself as a defining player in the Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) payment subscription management market as it begins to extend its services to merchants and developers in South Korea.
The cloud-based subscription payment platform Ezypay, which is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, is continuing its expansion into the surrounding APAC market with its latest move into South Korea.
With this, merchants will be more easily able to manage their customers’ recurring payments, while software developers can also integrate the platform and its subscription management tools into existing software.
Touted for its ‘global capability’, the Ezypay platform supports features including subscription plan management, analytics, customer sign-up processes and the further management of invoices and failed payments.
The company has proved its popularity across APAC with current operations in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Retaining its non-exclusive focus on serving the health and fitness, education and real estate industries, Ezypay is tapping into an underserved area of the fast-growing payments market of its newfound territory.
Subscription payments and the wider payment ecosystem in South Korea
Like many of its neighbours, South Korea is continuing to develop its digital economy through the application of payment technology within e-commerce.
This area of the South Korean market currently sits at a value of $34.5billion. Mobile commerce accounts for around 60 per cent of this figure, bolstered by a 96 per cent internet penetration rate and 79 per cent mobile penetration rate.
Given the popularity of mobile shopping and mobiles in general, payment providers operating in the country have been strongly encouraged to accommodate payments through the use of mobile devices. This includes the advent of mobile wallets and alternative payment options like digital assets.
Yet the innovative payment options to emerge out of South Korea proved to be insufficient in the face of the covid-19 pandemic, which is when many retailers were forced to readdress their relationship with customers and how their services were transacted.
This necessity gave way to a rise in recurring and subscription-based payment models, which sought to retain both customers’ attention and cash. As an example of this, the Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam, Seoul, debuted its fruit and bread subscription services at the height of the pandemic, to great success.
Part of this success was due to the discounted prices incurred by the subscription model, and naturally, a range of shops and services followed and continue to follow suit.
South Korea is by no means a ‘world-leader’ in subscription payments, however, as Ezypay has recognised, models initiated during the darkness of the pandemic are growing into major pillars of South Korea’s digital economy.
Ezypay’s expansion into South Korea
“Like the other markets in which we support, we see an increasing need for merchants to offer their customers a more flexible way to pay,” comments Ezypay CEO, James Foster.
This includes increasing customer satisfaction, reducing churn, improving cash flow and offsetting the risk that often comes with upfront or one-off payment strategies.
“Launching our…subscription payment services in South Korea is another great milestone in the ongoing growth of our business,” adds Foster.
As a registered local entity, Ezypay has worked to adhere to security and other regulations to ensure merchants’ customers are provided with relevant, local payment options and are not subject to cross-border fees.
Obtaining local acquiring highlights the ongoing efforts to improve the overall customer experience and increase collection rates for merchants in South Korea.
Ezypay partners with Hapana
Ezypay has been supporting the health and fitness industry since its inception, and for reason, it is engaging with Hapana, the industry-specific end-to-end software solution as its initial integrated partner servicing the South Korean market.
“Expanding into South Korea has been an exciting journey for Hapana,” comments the company’s CEO, Jarron Aizen.
“Being able to provide our clients with an end-to-end software solution that delivers a solution for their growth is exactly what Hapana wants to continue doing across APAC and globally.
“Partnering with Ezypay enables us to provide a billing platform that, together with our software, gives fitness brands and owners the security, reliability and depth of operational functionality to focus their time on what really matters – growing their business.”
By expanding to South Korea, and through their partnership with Hapana, Ezypay provides the market with more opportunities to collect payments easily.
Foster noted, “Ezypay is more than just a payment provider. We are continuing to shape and guide the direction of subscription payments in Australia and the APAC region, and we are grateful to be working with strong partners such as Hapana.”
