Challenge

Businesses expanding internationally can face a maze of payment, tax and regulatory complexities. Reach was founded in 2012 in Calgary to help e-commerce and SaaS businesses overcome these challenges and quickly unlock global business opportunities by offering merchant of record solutions. As the merchant of record, Reach takes legal responsibility for the sale of goods and services to customers, which can include accepting payments, managing global tax compliance and ensuring compliance with all financial and regulatory obligations.

To create the best service for its customers, Reach knew it needed the right technology partners to help streamline important processes that come with running a global business. For example, managing the complexities of global payments would require partners with payment solutions that supported multiple currencies and payment methods, and could be easily configured to accommodate different businesses, products and target markets. And because global operations expose businesses to different fraud risks, Reach sought partners that could provide advanced fraud prevention tools that work equally well across geographies and business types.

At the same time, simply processing global payments wasn't enough. Reach also needed partners that could automate tax collection and reporting in accordance with regulations that vary widely by country, state and even city.

Solution

In 2017, Reach began a strategic partnership with Stripe to help its clients enter new markets faster and with more confidence. By integrating a range of Stripe products into its global commerce tools and services, Reach could offer customers a consolidated solution that addressed a range of billing, payment, fraud and tax needs.

"When we consider a one-stop shop for a solution, pointing to Stripe is usually an easy win because Stripe is innovative and technology-forward. They've already solved what major enterprise merchants need to be successful globally," said Melissa Pottenger, vice president of payment operations at Reach. "Add the Reach solution on top of that, and it's easier to implement and super easy to manage from the Stripe Dashboard. Our clients can grow revenue without worrying about the intricate details of implementation or monitoring."

For example, Stripe Payments gives Reach access to a flexible, scalable payments infrastructure that can handle more than 135 global currencies and more than 100 payment methods. Because every market and audience has its own preferred ways to pay, Reach works with its clients to review the available payment methods on Stripe and decide which to enable based on their fit for the business' products, customer base and target geographies.

Stripe's ongoing innovation in payment technology also helps Reach and its customers stay ahead of global shopper expectations. When appropriate, Reach recommends that customers offer Link, a digital wallet by Stripe, to help simplify their checkout process.

Stripe Billing helps Reach support SaaS clients with flexible subscription options that include traditional recurring billing models and usage-based pricing. Stripe Billing's support for coupons, free trials and add-ons allows clients to experiment with pricing as they enter new markets, while built-in features like Smart Retries and automated reminders make it easier for Reach customers to improve revenue capture and reduce involuntary churn.

As merchant of record, Reach is accountable for managing fraud risk for a variety of different business types across the globe. For that task, Reach often uses the advanced fraud detection and management tools available in Stripe Radar for Fraud Teams. This solution automatically detects and blocks fraud using AI trained on data from millions of companies around the globe while allowing fraud teams to fine-tune how Radar operates for their unique organisation.

To automate tax compliance for its clients, Reach utilises Stripe Tax in some instances. Stripe Tax simplifies tax calculation, collection and reporting across more than 100 countries and 600 product types.

Kagi, a global internet search engine, illustrates how businesses can benefit from Reach's partnership with Stripe: already an existing Billing user, Kagi faced challenges with global tax compliance as it expanded internationally. By working with Reach, Kagi was able to incorporate Tax into its operations, saving significant time and resources. Removing its tax headaches, Kagi can be more efficient when expanding into new markets by avoiding delays or setbacks related to tax issues.

"When we needed an enterprise-grade solution for global tax compliance, we turned to Reach, which was already integrated into Stripe Billing," said the Kagi payments lead. "By activating Reach as our merchant of record, we kept our trusted billing system while avoiding the complexity of global tax compliance, with no additional technical lift and no disruption to our business."

Results

Reach helps global brands expand into new markets

By integrating Stripe solutions into its intelligent routing engine, Reach gives clients the solutions they need to enter new markets faster and more effectively. Global retailers and SaaS companies can launch into a new market via Reach and Stripe in as little as two days.

Link improves the customer checkout experience for Reach businesses

Link's accelerated checkout experience is gaining traction quickly among buyers when Reach users enable it as a payment method. Reach has seen Link payment volume double over the last 12 months. For Reach customer Kagi, Link is now one of its top three payment options selected at checkout.

"Stripe is constantly investing in its offering. That investment doesn't just drive loyalty and conversion for our brands, but continues to progress global payments in the direction shoppers expect in terms of reliable, fast, safe and low-friction payment experiences," said Pottenger.

Reach uses Billing to boost revenue for clients up to 3.6%

Reach's top 2 Billing clients used Stripe's payment optimisations to increase revenue by up to 3.6% in the first half of 2025, generating more than $380,000 in additional income for those clients. In some cases, Reach has seen clients boost revenue by more than 5% after implementing payment optimisations like Adaptive Acceptance, network tokens and card account updater.

Radar helps Reach mitigate fraud for clients around the globe

Radar's advanced capabilities allow Reach to automate fraud detection across its customer base, while still providing granular control for specific transitions. For example, Reach used Radar to create custom rules for 1 client that helped prevent more than 3,800 fraudulent transactions in the first half of 2025.

"Stripe has built a robust and highly customisable fraud engine, one that doesn't require technical expertise to manage," said Pottenger. "This adds value to the equation by allowing our risk team to focus on research and data analysis while helping us lower costs and reduce exposure."

Reach automates tax compliance with Tax

By integrating Tax within its technology platform, Reach can automatically calculate and collect taxes on behalf of its clients across jurisdictions, reducing the need to manually manage the process while improving tax reporting accuracy.

"Compared to many other providers, Tax can be easily configured and managed right from your account. You don't need to be a developer or a tax expert to tap into the value of Stripe's tax capabilities. And that's really important for our business because we move fast and getting a client set up to process successfully and doing that in a compliant way with tax is critical," said Pottenger.