Stripe’s latest Billing Report reveals significant hurdles for subscription businesses worldwide, even as the industry continues to show strong growth potential. The report, based on a survey of over 2,000 decision-makers from subscription businesses across nine countries, offers insights into how companies are navigating international expansion, flexible pricing models, and persistent issues with customer churn.

According to the report, nearly half of subscription businesses (49%) plan to invest in global expansion within the next twelve months. However, 69% of business leaders expressed concerns about whether their current billing systems can effectively support these global ambitions. As companies seek to grow their customer base internationally, many are now reassessing their billing infrastructure to ensure it can scale alongside their expansion plans.

“Reducing customer churn should be on every business leader’s agenda: it’s cheaper than acquiring new customers and an effective way to maximize revenue and increase customer lifetime value,” said Sarita Singh, Regional Head and MD for SEA, India, and Greater China at Stripe.

Flexibility in Pricing Plans Remains a Challenge

The report also highlights the growing trend toward more flexible subscription models, such as usage-based billing. Approximately 73% of businesses plan to experiment with these pricing models in the future. However, current billing systems are often ill-equipped to handle this level of flexibility, posing a significant roadblock for businesses aiming to diversify their revenue streams.

Involuntary churn – when a subscription ends due to failed payments – remains a persistent issue, with 40% of businesses reporting an increase in churn over the past year. Despite this, many companies lack the necessary data to fully quantify the revenue lost from payment failures. Alarmingly, 43% of surveyed businesses cannot measure the financial impact of churn, while 79% have yet to implement basic preventive measures, such as retry policies.

“For involuntary churn, we have found that Stripe’s Smart Retries have really worked for us. They’re built into Stripe Billing and use machine learning to retry cards at the optimal time. We’ve recovered millions of dollars in revenue that would have otherwise been lost – this is very substantial for us as a subscription business,” said Nadia Ali, CFO of Midjourney.

Stripe’s Billing Solutions Leading the Charge

Since the launch of Stripe Billing in 2018, more than 300,000 companies have used the platform to manage their billing relationships. Stripe’s software supports a wide range of pricing models, including tiered pricing and usage-based billing, making it easier for businesses to customize their payment systems and scale globally.

The company’s solutions have already gained recognition, with Stripe being named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Recurring Billing Applications. Notable clients such as Atlassian and OpenAI rely on Stripe Billing to streamline their billing processes and recover lost revenue.