We hope you’ve been staying cool and enjoying your summer. We've been hard at work with new ways to improve your subscription experience with Recurly.

Read on about the Recurly August Product Launch or check out our video for your viewing pleasure.  

1. Introducing JSON Webhooks

Have you met our new best friend, JSON? If you are using the Recurly AP, you can now choose from XML and/or JSON Webhooks as your data interchange format. JSON, short for JavaScript Object Notification, is an open-standard file format that uses human-readable text for storing and transmitting data objects. JSON webhooks require less coding and are smaller, making it faster to process and transmit data.

You can decide to receive lightweight JSON webhook payloads and can select the specific subscription lifecycle events (new subscription, cancellation, add-on, etc.) to monitor for webhook notifications. Plus, you can configure individual webhook endpoints to receive either XML or JSON payloads.

Why it matters

• Receive near real-time alerts of lifecycle events and changes within your Recurly account
• Decide to receive only the notifications you deem necessary, reducing unnecessary system load
• JSON offers a high-level facade and is easy to read and write via a straightforward syntax
• JSON is fast as it consumes less memory space and provides support for all browsers

2. Tag emails with timezone designations

You may have customers all around the globe, and communications that include time-sensitive data may be confusing for customers to interpret. So, we figured the time was right to allow you to specify the local timezone to reference in the message body of all customer email communications (like new subscription confirmations), sent by the Recurly platform.

Why it matters

• Configure the timezone at the Site level and on individual customer accounts for more precise alignment with the geographic location of customers
• Provides a more accurate timestamp of pertinent email communications (think subscription expiration dates), eliminating potential customer confusion
• Offers a more personalized (and accurate) experience for customers in different regions

3. Support for Google Pay

Google says more than 150 million people in 42 global markets use Google Pay every month. Now your customers can join them! Start accepting payments through the Google Pay payment method, providing customers and prospects with yet another option. Customers can conveniently pay with Google Pay in Chrome or using their Android device. When a customer pays with Google Pay, they choose the payment method stored in their Google account and don’t have to enter their payment details on the checkout page. At the moment, we support Google Pay only on the Stripe gateway.

Why it matters

• Expand your target market by enabling a popular new payment method
• Acquire more new customers by diversifying the available payment methods
• Improve authorization rates by providing a seamless checkout experience through the Google Pay payment method

4. China UnionPay

UnionPay is China's first financial-level pre-authorization service for secured transactions–and it’s now open to your customers through the Recurly platform. Adding support for China UnionPay provides you with access to one of the world’s largest payment networks (and its customers…).

Why it matters

• Improve checkout conversion rates and payments authorization rate
• Potentially reach more than 1.5 billion new customers
• Increase checkout conversion rates

5. Persistent dashboard filters

You asked for this one. Now, you can set up filters, click the button at the bottom of the page to open that dashboard, and save it for easy access later without needing to redo the filters next time.

Why it matters

• You no longer need to reset the filters to achieve your desired result every time you bring up a dashboard

6. Customized dashboard sharing

Here’s some more love for the Recurly dashboards. Now, once you set the filters how you like them, you can share that dashboard–with that specific view–with anyone else that has access to the site. Share the link generated as you click the button at the bottom of the page.

Why it matters

• Quickly show team members or curious executives the data and visualizations they care about

7. Refunds added to subscriber retention dashboard

Refunds are now available in the calculation of Subscriber Retention by Cohort to allow you to better understand the effectiveness and lifetime value of the customer.

Why it matters

• If your brand uses refunds as part of its acquisition strategy, this allows you to see the impact of refunds in a single click

8. Expanded Monthly Recurring Revenue Dashboard

We know that Advanced Subscription Analytics is on your mind, so here’s something to think about: the Recurly Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Dashboard now offers new detailed views for four components:

• Discounts: The number of payment discounts (configured in the Analytics setting)
• Failures: Invoices that are uncollected after retry (configured in the Analytics setting)
• In Dunning: The amount of the current period’s MRR that remains in the Recurly revenue collection process
• Expected MRR: The amount of MRR in the daily, weekly, or monthly period that remains to be collected

And if that isn’t enough, the new views allow for a drill-down into account-level detail for each component.

Why it matters

• Gain a granular view of MRR data to understand better how specific subscription elements are performing
• The one-click account drill-down allows you to see the specific customer accounts for further analysis or resolution

We’ll be back next month with another list of new features and improvements designed to help you keep a good thing growing.

Questions about this month’s release? Contact us at product-management@recurly.com.