TRENDING: Recreational Athletics’ Payments-Powered Assist

What’s the key to a great customer experience? For a growing group of online and mobile platforms, the answer lies in the pursuit of seamless payments.

In the latest Payments Powering Platforms Tracker, PYMNTS explores the latest efforts from industry giants and platform powerhouses around the space to improve their payment experiences and make their offerings more enticing to consumers.

Around The Payment Platforms World

Uber, for example, seems to be hoping that an overhauled payment experience can attract new customers.

The company recently announced it would reinvent its payment experience with Uber Cash, a new product that allows customers to add funds to the stored value in the app’s account and pay for products and services inside Uber’s growing ecosystem. The service will also be used to process payments made via Uber’s gift cards, loyalty and card rewards, redemptions, and other payment offerings.

Meanwhile, eBay is making some payment-related changes of its own.

The eCommerce giant recently announced it would officially begin managing and mediating payments on its platform. The move aims to allow eBay shoppers to complete purchases without ever leaving eBay’s website, and provide localized payment options to buyers and sellers.

Square is also planning to offer new features on its platform.

Sarah Friar, Square’s CFO, recently claimed that the company is considering the addition of savings and stock trading products to its existing payment platform, Cash App. Square has been looking to boost its presence in recent months, announcing it would enter the B2B lending space with Square Capital.

To read more on these stories and other headlines from around the space, check out the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

How Platform Payments Help The Game Go On

Industry giants aren’t the only platform providers betting that a pleasant payment experience will help differentiate them from the competition.

Recreational athletics management platforms like TeamSnap are looking to use a combination of simple payment processing and value-added features to help athletic leagues and organizations deal with the complicated coordination of running a league. The platform is designed to handle everything from organizing athletes into various sports and teams to creating schedules, communicating with players and even collecting league dues.

In an interview for this month’s Payments Powering Platforms Tracker, Greg Ludke, general manager of sports organizations at TeamSnap, discusses how the company looks to take the stress out of organizing with such features as embedded payments, automated invoicing, easy scheduling and more.

About The Tracker

The Payments Powering Platforms Tracker, powered by WePay, serves as a monthly framework for the space, providing coverage of the most recent news and trends, along with a provider directory highlighting the key players that contribute across the payments-integrated platform ecosystem.