FastSpring, a software service company, has released an improved interface for the company’s platform.
In an announcement on Thursday (May 7), the Santa Barbara, California firm said its new product promises to deliver a full-service eCommerce platform for companies selling software and digital products.
“This is a major step forward for FastSpring,” said Kurt Smith, vice president of product and strategy in a statement. “Our ultimate goal is to help our customers grow faster, and this improved user interface brings the full potential of FastSpring into a more intuitive, easy-to-use platform.”
FastSpring conducted customer surveys and market research to understand the needs of software providers in the global eCommerce sector, the company said. These findings led to a series of upgrades, including a more contemporary look and feel, a vertical left-hand navigation bar for increased usability, improved product catalog layout and navigation, more intuitive product configuration menus, and subscription pages to help sellers accomplish tasks faster.
In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster last month, FastSpring CEO David Nachman said the software business is being taken over by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or cloud-based subscription models, in which buyers pay for 24/7 access instead of for a single product download.
“We’ve seen a dramatic shift toward subscriptions – last year was the first year we crossed over to where the majority of our transactions are subscription-based, as opposed to one-time download,” Nachman said. “And we’re seeing that if even they haven’t yet done it, they’re talking about it. When we surveyed our customers, we saw that close to 70 percent were looking to make the transition in the next 12 months. We expect that number to continue to go up in the years to come.”
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The software service sector is crowded with competition. Among the top ones are Chargebee, Cleverbridge, Chargify, 2Checkout, Stripe Billing, Recurly, Paddle, Shopify, WooCommerce, Digital River, Zuora, MyCommerce, BigCommerce, Sage Intacct, Salesforce CPQ, Square eCommerce, Miva, FinancialForce, Financial Management, Braintree Direct and Magento Open Source, according to G2.com.
