moving existing customers
Moving existing customers means getting the customers a software platform already has onto its own built-in payments, in planned groups, at moments that suit them, without forcing anyone. It is the work that turns a payments feature into payments revenue, and most of a platform's payments earnings come from it.
A platform that builds payments into its product and switches it on for new customers has done the easy half. The customers it already has are still paying someone else, on contracts, with saved cards and Direct Debit mandates tied to that provider, and with no reason to change. Moving them is the deliberate work of giving them one.
Why it matters: because the existing customers are where the volume is. A platform adding a hundred new customers a year to a base of two thousand earns almost nothing from payments until the two thousand move. The UK regulator found that merchants rarely switch acquirer on their own because prices are hard to compare and contracts roll over, so existing customers do not move by themselves.
How it is done, in outline: size the payments customers take today, by method and provider; group customers by what they pay now, when their contracts end and what they use the product for; build the payment products that make the platform's payments worth more than the incumbent's; and ask each group at a moment that suits them, such as a renewal, a new site or a feature they want, under the platform's own name. Nobody is forced; the old provider stays available if a customer asks. What to watch: mandates and saved cards. How they transfer decides the plan for every customer that has them.