Payment Pulse

Growing payments volume is encouraging, but volume alone doesn’t show what an embedded payments program contributes to the business. 

In this episode, Shannon and Michelle discuss how SaaS platforms can review their payments economics. They cover revenue and costs, transaction mix, pricing, the effort required to make changes, and the operational work involved in onboarding and supporting merchants. 

Listen in to learn how to take a clearer look at your program. 

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for practical insights on payments, industry-trends and strategies to help businesses and SaaS platforms grow. 

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For Episode 50, Shannon and Michelle discuss why great payments programs need ongoing, merchant-focused marketing, not just a launch campaign.

They cover how to identify adoption barriers, tailor messages to different customer groups, reduce the perceived risk of switching, and measure what happens after a click or enrollment.

Plus, six questions to help SaaS teams build a smarter payments marketing strategy.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for practical insights on payments, industry-trends and strategies to help businesses and SaaS platforms grow.

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As your SaaS platform’s payments program grows, how effectively are you managing the economics of the transactions you already process?

In this episode, Shannon is joined by Mark Passifione, Senior Vice President of Integrated Payments at Xplor Pay, to break down least cost routing (LCR) and its role in payments optimization.

They cover:

• What least cost routing is and how debit routing works

• How regulated and unregulated debit factor into the discussion

• Why no single network is always the lowest-cost option

• How eligible debit volume, transaction characteristics, and available networks influence potential savings

• What SaaS leaders should ask their payments provider as their program matures

Read more about least cost routing: https://xplorpay.com/blog/what-is-least-cost-routing-a-guide-for-software-platforms/

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for practical insights on payments, industry-trends and strategies to help businesses and SaaS platforms grow.

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Why do credit cards get declined, and what should your business do when it happens?

A declined payment doesn’t automatically mean a customer has insufficient funds or no available credit. Noelle and Joe explain what happens during payment authorization and how small businesses can respond when a transaction doesn’t go through.

You can’t prevent every decline, but having a clear process can help your team keep checkout moving and give customers another way to complete their purchase.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for practical conversations that help small business owners make more informed payment decisions.

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What work could your software platform start doing for customers?

In this episode, Shannon and Michelle share a practical starting point for vertical SaaS platforms thinking about AI: map the customer’s entire workflow, including what happens outside the product. Where do people still handle repetitive decisions, manual follow-up, handoffs, or payment steps?

They also look at how payments could become part of a larger workflow as platforms move from recommending actions to completing authorized ones.

For a deeper discussion, watch the executive conversation with Luke Sophinos, Mark Passifione, and Daniel Burton and get the From Vertical SaaS to Agentic roadmap.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning payments into a strategic advantage.

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What determines whether a transaction is card present or card not present? The answer involves more than whether a physical card is in the room.

In this episode of Payment Pulse, Noelle and Joe explain how payment credentials are captured and why that distinction matters. They cover common card-present transactions, such as tap and chip payments, as well as card-not-present transactions made through online checkouts, virtual terminals, invoices, and payment links.

You’ll also learn why card-not-present payments may carry different fraud risks and processing costs, how manually entered transactions are categorized, and what businesses can do to accept remote payments more securely.

Whatever way a customer decides to pay, understanding these transaction types can help businesses choose the right payment experience for each situation.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning payments into a strategic advantage.

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Your customers are telling you what they want. But are theirfeature requests pointing you toward the right problem?

In this episode of Payment Pulse, Shannon and Michelle sharehow SaaS platforms can separate a customer’s requested solution from the underlying challenge they’re trying to solve.

You’ll learn:

• How to uncover the need behind a feature request
• What turns isolated feedback into evidence of a broader problem
• Why adoption challenges may stem from positioning, onboarding, enablement, or the customer experience
• How Marketing can contribute to customer listening before a product launches
• How to evaluate opportunities using a simple Problem, Evidence, and Value framework

Listen to learn how better customer listening can lead tosmarter roadmap decisions.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning paymentsinto a strategic advantage.

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AI is reshaping product strategy, organizational structures, customer workflows, and the way founders think about long-term enterprise value. 

Daniel Burton, VP of Payments at Xplor Pay, is joined by Mark Passifione, SVP of Integrated Payments at Xplor Pay, and Luke Sophinos, founder of Vertical SaaS Group. Together, they discuss how vertical SaaS leaders can determine where to invest next and why listening to customers is only the beginning. 

They cover: 

• How AI is changing product development and organizational structures  

• Why simple, scalable solutions often create more value than feature-heavy products  

• The growing potential of agentic workflows  

• When embedded payments should become part of a platform’s strategy  

• How payments can help fund a platform’s evolution from a single product to an end-to-end solution  

Listen to practical perspectives on building a vertical SaaS platform that can continue adapting, differentiating, and creating value. 

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning payments into a strategic advantage. 

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Customers have more ways to pay than ever, from contactless cards and mobile wallets to online checkout, self-service kiosks, and payment links sent by text or email. As these options become part of everyday life, they’re also changing what customers expect from businesses.

In this episode of Payment Pulse, Noelle and Joe discuss how payment flexibility can improve the customer experience by making checkout faster, simpler, and more convenient.

You’ll also learn why businesses don’t need to offer every payment technology available, and why the right options should make operations easier for employees as well as customers.

Tune in to learn how reducing friction at the final stage of the customer journey can help businesses deliver a better overall experience.

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning payments into a strategic advantage.

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Launching embedded payments involves much more than completing a technical integration. It requires cross-functional alignment, thoughtful planning, customer education, and a long-term strategy for driving adoption. 

In this episode of Payment Pulse, Shannon speaks with Hannah, Senior Director of Payments for the partner channel at Xplor Pay, about what happens after a SaaS platform selects a payments partner. 

They discuss how launch teams coordinate product, development, sales, marketing, and customer success; why every launch plan should reflect the software provider’s unique business; and which common mistakes can slow adoption.  

Whether you’re evaluating embedded payments, preparing for implementation, or looking to improve an existing program, this conversation offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to launch successfully, and to continue growing after launch day. 

🎧 Subscribe to Payment Pulse for more insights on embedded payments, SMB growth, and turning payments into a strategic advantage. 

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