📍Yesterday in San Francisco, we did something we don't often do: gather a select group of merchants and spend a full day digging deep into subscription strategy.
The
@getVGS Subscription Workshop, led by 20-year subscription and payments veteran and VGS’s Head of Payments Strategy, Melissa Shields, went straight to the details of recurring optimization and how to leave nothing on the table.
A few moments that stuck with us:
🏗️ Is there an architecture for retention? YES. Melissa shared detailed subscription business models, testing structures, vaulting strategy, real-world credential impacts (and use cases), and mapping strategies for leveraging PSP and Network data to ensure you know ‘why’ your transactions are failing and how to solve for it- without exploding your core cost of payment.
🔁 Everyone wants a silver bullet or a how-to guide for failed payments. There isn't one, only years of actual experience layered with intelligent testing methodologies. The room held robust debate, sharing insights and detailed learnings on industry changes, pain points, and what's still out there to capture. CMSPI’s Robbie MacDiarmid, CPFPP, and CJ Brown put a bow on the session, sharing recent test insights on global CIT, MIT, and AIT performance.
⚖️ A healthy dose of perspective (and humor) was then provided by Marc Roth, who provided a look at the latest subscription laws and compliance requirements for merchants, some industry examples, and what to keep in mind for the year ahead.
🤖Finally, the team wrapped up the day walking through the details of how agentic channels and tokens are evolving, concluding with a fun round of 'test your agentic knowledge' trivia!
🙏 Huge thanks to the amazing roster of merchants who made it a packed house and a day we hope provided outcomes, not just talking points.
#Payments #Subscriptions #CardOnFile #AgenticCommerce #PaymentTokenization #Fintech #VGS