If we had a Genie, we would wish all your SaaS problems to go away!

But as Bill Murphy Jr says - "The best entrepreneurs are willing to endure the agony of uncertainty and take bold action when the time is right."

So, here’s our two cents to help ease your agony a little

As mentioned in our previous post, here are the solution to the problems faced while building a SaaS application

1️⃣ Choosing the right payment gateway:

• Evaluate features like recurring billing, subscription management, global payment support, etc. These are crucial for a SaaS model.
• Compare pricing models - Pay-as-you-go, tiered pricing based on volume, monthly fees, transaction fees, etc. Calculate total anticipated costs.
• Check for reliability and uptime - You want minimal downtime that could impact payments. Look for a proven track record.
• Assess integration options - API, plugins for platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, etc. Ease of integration is important.
• Reporting and analytics - Choose a gateway with robust reporting on payments, failures, disputes, and refunds. Critical business insights.
  
  

2️⃣ Handling refunds:

• Have a refund policy that is fair but deters abuse. State terms clearly on your website.
• Make it easy for customers to request and receive refunds to prevent frustration.
• Leverage gateway APIs to programmatically issue refunds upon approval. Automates the process.
• Log all refund data - customer, amount, reason, etc. Helps you identify patterns of abuse.
• Use refund data to improve policies and pricing strategies to reduce refund rates.
  
  

3️⃣ Coupons & Discounts:

• Allow admins to quickly create coupons with custom discount %, expiry, limits, etc. to incentivize trials.
• Integrate coupon codes into the checkout process. Automatically validate and apply discounts.
• Limit coupon reuse to prevent abuse. Associate codes with user account upon redemption.
• Create short-term discounts to reduce the churn of existing customers.
• Analyze coupon/discount metrics - redemptions, revenue impact, etc. Refine strategies accordingly.
  
  

4️⃣ Referral Rewards:

• Reward successful referrals with extended trials or account credits to encourage referrals.
• Track referral data - who referred who, referral conversion rate, etc. Identify your best evangelists.
• Set limits on rewards per user to prevent exploitation.
• Require referred users to sign up and be active for a period before giving out rewards.
• Promote referral programs prominently within your app and website. Make it easy to share.
  
  

5️⃣ App Store Publishing:

• Study app store guidelines closely and ensure compliance, especially around UI/UX, content, privacy policies, etc.
• Work with an experienced mobile app developer or consider hiring an outsourcing partner who is familiar with the publishing process (Check out our post on how to hire the right outsourcing partner here)
• Allow plenty of time for the review process which can take days or weeks.
• Be responsive to reviewer feedback requests - delays in responding can extend the process.
• Have a comprehensive testing plan to catch issues beforehand. Test on actual devices too.
  
  

6️⃣ Scalability:

• Use horizontal scaling to easily spin up additional instances on Kubernetes to handle more load.
• Implement auto-scaling rules to automatically add resources based on metrics like CPU usage, requests per second, etc.
• Continuously monitor performance - requests, latency, memory usage, etc. Profile for efficiency.
• Set up alerts for key metrics like system errors, traffic spikes, resource exhaustion, etc.
• Do load testing to establish baseline metrics and limits for auto-scaling.
• Ensure scaling works across critical system components/tiers - app servers, databases, caches, etc.

The road ahead is long, but take it step by step. Mind the gaps, bridge them creatively, and the winds of success will lift your sails. Cloud nine awaits!