Stripe Sessions 2021

A look at this year’s Stripe Sessions updates

Stripe’s annual user conference, Stripe Sessions, kicked off this week, with keynote and product talks available on demand. The company used the event to recap product improvements and launches since the previous conference, spanning payments, global expansion, billing, verification, and in-person transactions.

Payments and checkout

Stripe reported more than 20 improvements to its hosted Checkout page, including support for over 10 new languages, dynamic tax rates, subscriptions, new payment methods, and Link one-click checkout. The company says Checkout load time is now more than 50% faster. Later this year, a new version of Stripe Elements will let developers enable many payment methods from a single integration. Payment Links, which require no code, allow businesses to sell products or subscriptions by sharing a link.

For developers, Stripe’s React Native SDK is now in public beta for building payment experiences in native iOS and Android apps. On the reliability front, Stripe maintained 99.999% uptime across the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday period, and sustained five 9’s of reliability throughout 2021. Direct integrations with card networks help reduce latency and improve authorization rates, including new direct support for Cartes Bancaires in France, JCB and China UnionPay in the US and other markets, and Discover in Canada and the UK.

Buy now, pay later options from Afterpay and Klarna are available, with Stripe citing over 20% incremental sales for businesses using them. Direct debit support covers Bacs Direct Debit in the UK, SEPA Direct Debit in Europe, BECS Direct Debit in Australia, and pre-authorized debits in Canada. Asian mobile wallets Alipay, WeChat Pay, GrabPay, and Konbini are now supported, along with OXXO and Installments in Mexico and Boleto Bancário in Brazil.

Stripe’s Adaptive Acceptance machine learning, which optimizes authorization messages, recovered more than $3.4B in payments for users last year. Dashboard updates include revamped customer pages, a redesigned manual payment creation flow, and one-click receipt sending.

Global reach

Businesses worldwide can now accept seven European payment methods without foreign incorporation or new bank accounts. Stripe launched in six new European markets—Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta—and in the United Arab Emirates. The company also welcomed Paystack, which processes more than half of online payments in Nigeria. Expansion into Brazil is underway, with Indonesia, Thailand, and India expected before the end of the year.

Improvements to Stripe’s SCA authentication engine help EU users meet authentication requirements while optimizing conversion. By dynamically selecting the optimal version of 3D Secure, Stripe reports up to 15% lift in authentication success depending on the issuing bank. The extended product suite is now available in more regions: Instant Payouts in Canada, Singapore, and the UK; Issuing in over 20 European countries; cross-border payouts to 50 countries; and Terminal launching in more than five new markets this year.

Billing and revenue tools

Stripe Tax calculates and collects sales tax, VAT, and GST in the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand with one line of code or a button click; the TaxJar team has joined Stripe to support this effort. More than 10 enhancements to Stripe Invoicing include multi-currency support, mobile invoicing, and PDF attachments.

Stripe Billing improvements make subscription management easier through a hosted customer portal, with more flexible billing logic via subscription schedules and sub-cent pricing. Soon, businesses will be able to create quotes in the Dashboard or via the API and automatically convert them into subscriptions or invoices. Revenue Recognition will become available to all Stripe users and cover non-Stripe payments, while Sigma data refresh will increase to every hour by the end of the year.

Identity and fraud

Stripe Identity lets businesses programmatically confirm user identities, using biometric verification to match document holders with their IDs and validating SSNs. It collects and verifies ID documents from 33 countries, helping reduce fraud, prevent account takeovers, and streamline Know Your Customer processes.

For fraud prevention, Radar machine-learning improvements reduced disputes for Radar customers by 26% in 2020. Radar for Fraud Teams now offers Risk Insights, which show which fraud signals most influenced each payment’s risk score. New Radar Analytics surfaces estimated false positive rates, blocked transactions, and dispute trends. Disputes Win Likelihood uses machine learning to help prioritize responses by estimating which disputes are more likely to be won. The acquisition of Bouncer supports new interventions, including card scanning verification.

Platforms and marketplaces

Platform partners on Stripe Connect generated over $1B in incremental earnings from embedded financial services in the past year. The Partner Program offers an expanded revenue share to qualifying platforms that reach a $1M run rate. Platform controls for Standard accounts now include co-branded dashboard and onboarding experiences and optional management of user payout schedules.

Multi-party Payment Links distribute a payment between a platform and its merchants without code. A new onboarding and verification flow includes prefillable fields, mobile optimizations, and localization in more than 35 countries and 14 languages. US platforms can send cross-border payouts in local currencies to 50 countries, and automated 1099 tax reporting helps platforms create, file, and deliver tax forms.

In-person payments

Stripe Reader is the company’s first Stripe-designed hardware: a mobile card reader for in-person payments, with accessories for countertop and portable use, and Point to Point Encryption-ready. It will be available in the US later this year. Terminal expands this summer to the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with new reader options in those markets.

Banking capabilities for platforms

Stripe is expanding its embedded finance offerings, letting platforms and marketplaces provide financial services directly within their products. A new integrated solution combines Stripe Treasury and Stripe Issuing to create a Payout Card, enabling platforms to pay drivers, delivery people, or contractors with a card and financial account so workers can access earnings almost immediately.

• Stripe Treasury, the banking-as-a-service API, allows platforms to let customers hold funds, pay bills, earn yield, and manage cash flow.
• Stripe Issuing is now available in 20 additional European countries, including France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and the UK, allowing businesses to create their own cards instantly.
• Stripe Capital for platforms now enables platforms to offer their customers fast, flexible financing to support business growth.

Funding carbon removal

With Stripe Climate, businesses can automatically direct a fraction of their revenue to support emerging carbon removal technologies. Since the program launched last year, more than 2,000 companies have contributed.

For more details on these new products and features, visit Stripe Sessions or contact the sales team.