Embedded Wallets: Reducing Payment Friction in Health and Wellness

In health and wellness, the first purchase is often just the start of the customer relationship.

Memberships, digital services, and other recurring models are creating more opportunities to engage customers beyond a single transaction. Repeat purchasing has also made the ongoing payment experience more important, since customers may interact with the same business many times. As such, a failed renewal or a difficult refund can interrupt an otherwise straightforward experience with a company the customer already knows.

Businesses built on longer customer relationships need payment infrastructure that supports ongoing interactions without adding friction.

Payment problems can interfere with customer retention

Businesses often focus on removing friction from checkout, where a complicated payment process can prevent a new customer from completing a purchase. For health and wellness companies with recurring revenue, it’s just as important to consider what happens after a customer has been acquired.

A failed renewal can require customers to update their payment information before access continues, even when they still intend to use the service. The business may also need to contact them or provide support, turning a routine renewal into additional work for both sides.

Similar friction can occur outside recurring billing. Returning customers may encounter unnecessary steps when making another purchase, while a refund can generate support requests if there is limited visibility into when the money will be returned. These issues don’t necessarily mean a customer will leave, but businesses should be mindful of adding obstacles to relationships they have already invested in building.

Payment performance can therefore affect retention well after checkout, making it important to identify recurring points of friction.

Payment continuity can reduce unnecessary repeat work

One way to look at this issue is through payment continuity, or how well the payment experience carries forward throughout an ongoing customer relationship. When customers already have an account and securely stored payment information, later transactions can require fewer steps than the initial purchase.

This is especially relevant for health and wellness businesses where customers return regularly or maintain access to a service over time. Maintaining payment continuity can also reduce the manual work associated with recurring customer interactions.

Payouts add another side to the payment relationship

Customer payments are only part of the picture for some health and wellness companies. Platforms that connect customers with trainers or other wellness professionals may also need to distribute funds to the people providing those services, which creates payment activity moving both in and out of the business.

Managing those payouts through a separate process can increase the amount of work required as the platform grows. As transaction volumes increase, processes that work at a smaller scale may require considerably more internal attention.

Operations and finance leaders should consider the movement of funds as a whole, not just how customers make purchases. Connecting more of that activity can reduce the number of separate payment processes employees need to manage.

European expansion can expose a fragmented payment setup

Health and wellness companies expanding across the UK and Europe may find that a payment setup suited to one market does not transfer neatly to another. Customer payment preferences vary by country, adding new requirements as businesses enter additional markets.

Adding individual solutions as requirements arise can leave different parts of the payment journey reliant on separate systems, increasing complexity and manual work.

Technology leaders planning further expansion need to understand whether their current setup can accommodate additional markets without requiring another workaround each time the business grows. Understanding this beforehand can help determine whether the existing infrastructure has enough flexibility for the company’s plans or whether a more connected approach is needed.

How embedded wallets can reduce repeat payment steps

Embedded wallets offer one way to address these challenges by creating greater continuity across payment interactions.

By reducing the amount of payment information returning customers need to provide, embedded wallets can help make repeat interactions more seamless.

For a health and wellness business, the usefulness of this approach depends on how customers interact with the company. A membership business may want to reduce renewal interruptions, while a retailer may prioritize easier repeat purchases or a smoother refund experience. In either case, the value comes from allowing later payment activity to build on an existing relationship.

Embedded wallets may also help platforms connect customer payments and provider payouts within a more unified payment environment.

Review existing payment friction before choosing a solution

Before implementing an embedded wallet, businesses should review where payment problems currently occur and what is required to resolve them. This can help determine whether wallet functionality is suited to the problem rather than adding another payment technology without a clear purpose.

Areas worth reviewing include:

• Recurring payments: Consider how often an otherwise active customer has to intervene when a renewal fails and whether the existing process makes restoring payment unnecessarily difficult.
• Operational workload: Look at payment issues that repeatedly require manual involvement from employees, particularly where staff need to work across separate systems.
• Market expansion: Determine whether supporting another UK or European market can be handled within the existing payment environment or will require another standalone process.
• Returning customers: Review where established customers are being asked to provide information or complete steps that could reasonably carry over from previous interactions.

Payment infrastructure needs to reflect how the business now operates

Health and wellness businesses have developed digital experiences that allow customers to maintain longer relationships with them, but the payment processes supporting those experiences do not always operate with the same continuity. For senior decision-makers, this makes payments worth reviewing beyond checkout, particularly when recurring activity or expansion is creating additional work for customers or internal teams.

Embedded wallets are one option for businesses that identify gaps in how payment activity is handled over time. Their suitability will depend on the company’s business model and whether a more connected payment experience would address a problem already affecting the business.

For a deeper look at how embedded wallets can be applied across health and wellness ecommerce, read Paysafe’s latest report: PaysafeEmbedded wallets and the future of health and wellness ecommerce | Paysafe EN