A Northwest European bank saw an opportunity to expand their retail finance offering online but needed to do it quickly and cost-efficiently. With the help of Divido, this bank launched an omnichannel white labelled retail finance solution for their customers.
The opportunity
- Changes to in-house platform were time and resource intense
- High costs to maintain and enhance the in-house platform
- In-house platform was built to offer in-store finance only
The solution
- International white label platform to serve all markets
- Ecommerce plugins and Merchant API integrations
- Platform configured to local markets & languages
The results
- Solution live across multiple markets in six months
- Multiple finance products available to merchants
- Merchants report growth in sales and increased conversion rates
- More than 200 new merchants acquired across markets YoY
- Bank has become a leading finance provider across key verticals
The opportunity
2020 was an explosive year for retail finance. Catalysed by the COVID pandemic, consumers switched their spending online, using digital payment methods like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). It became clear to one market-leading Northwest European bank, with its strong brand and retail lending experience, that its retail finance could be a significant business opportunity. One that it had an edge over on the market.
Prior to 2020, the bank had developed a retail finance business using its own in-house platform to deliver finance at physical stores. The bank wanted to quickly win market share, but its in-house platform had key limitations. Namely, it needed to:
1. Make platform changes faster and more easily
As the market changed, merchants and consumers came with new requirements. However, the bank’s systems were not easy to change and so releasing new features and making simple changes took a long time. The bank needed a way to release updates at speed to win more customers and scale its business.
2. Reduce the complexity of running in-house systems
The bank found that maintaining in-house platforms was more costly than expected and required ongoing engineering work. Onboarding and servicing merchant customers was time consuming, which meant it took longer for them to start selling. Moreover each country had developed its own platform to meet local needs, which escalated running costs.
3. Increase revenue by providing finance for online sales
Merchants were experiencing rapid growth on their ecommerce sites, but the bank’s platforms could only deliver finance in physical stores. The bank needed to deliver a market-leading online solution quickly to win a share of online retail sales.
Further reading
The solution
Divido configured a white labelled checkout finance solution for the bank. Only the bank’s branding is visible to merchants and consumers. Our solution enabled the bank to deliver a suite of instalment finance products to their retailers both in-store and online.
The solution is fully cloud-hosted and maintained by Divido in-line with ISO 20071 security standards. Divido provides ongoing account and product development support.
Finance solutions
Divido configured application journeys and connects seamlessly to the bank’s backend systems and decision engine. This enables the bank to offer instalment finance products that can be embedded at any point of sale for purchases up to €25,000.
The Divido platform enables the bank to seamlessly onboard customers to its revolving credit account products through merchant websites, or pre-approve them before they visit a physical store. Through Divido’s Lender Portal, the bank can view and manage the consumer applicants as required.
Journeys were localised by using domestic ID systems to verify identification and to pre-populate forms with personal details.
Merchant integrations
Merchants can integrate to the bank multiple ways, and the Divido Merchant Portal allows retailers to quickly adopt the bank’s finance across any store.
Ecommerce plugins for major ecommerce platforms enable merchants to easily add finance to their websites within a day (plus contracting and onboarding time). Or, with Divido’s Merchant API, retailers can control where and how they surface finance to customers.
For in-store sales, staff can log into the portal with any device to initiate the finance applications instantly.
Lender tools
The Northwest European bank uses the Divido Lender Portal to manage its retail finance business. This tool enables staff to:
- Onboard and manage merchants
- Launch new finance products and assign them to merchants
- View and manage all applications, and change statuses
- Communicate with consumers and merchants
- Securely sign-in and manage their rights
The results
With Divido, the bank now delivers an omnichannel checkout finance to its customers.
- Solution live across multiple markets in six months
- Multiple finance products available at merchant checkouts
- Retailers report growth in sales and increased conversion rates
- More than 200 new retailers acquired across markets YoY
- Bank has become a leading finance provider of checkout finance in key verticals including home improvement and bikes
