French Bedroom makes luxury furniture affordable with Divido’s retail finance solution

French Bedroom has brought traditional French-styled furniture to homes across the UK since 2006.

The luxury e-commerce business has built a brand on creativity, craftsmanship and innovation, and is recognised for delivering an exceptional experience to its customers. 

In 2016, French Bedroom saw a major shift in consumer behaviour at the checkout. Credit card payments were the preferred method in the UK, but Buy Now, Pay Later providers were beginning to enter the market. Their customers started to demand more flexibility in their payment options as a result.

With many of their products retailing for upwards of £1000 – and with no physical store for to view the furniture – French Bedroom were looking for a way to support their customers to complete their purchases.

It was clear there was an opportunity to integrate retail finance into their checkout. French Bedroom just needed to find the right solution. One that allowed them to offer flexible tier-one lending, uphold their brand prestige and customer relationships, and easily integrate with existing systems.

Offering finance to our customers who want to make major purchases lets them pay in a way that works better for them, and so we see an increase in conversion.”

Ben Cons, Director at French Bedroom

Divido’s white label platform was the answer. Our solution enables French Bedroom to:

1. Maintain access to a tier-one lender

Through Divido, French Bedroom can offer finance through a reputable and responsible lender. Finance options range from 12 to 60 months, and 0% APR to 12.9% APR, which provides their customers with the flexibility to choose the finance that suits their situation. 

The Divido Network also offers resilience. After starting out with one lender, French Bedroom were able to switch to a different tier-one lender on the platform that was better suited to its business needs.

2. Maintain control over their brand

French Bedroom’s ethos is to present exquisitely photographed, high quality bedroom furniture and furnishings to consumers across the UK. With Divido, French Bedroom has full control over when and how they embed finance at points of sale. From the monthly price indicator on a product page, to the Divido Calculator that lets customers explore finance options –  French Bedroom’s trusted brand takes centre stage, while ours is completely invisible.

3. Swiftly integrate retail finance into their ecommerce platform

Through a single integration, French Bedroom was able to connect its Magento platform to Divido and go live within weeks, saving considerable time and effort on engineering.

French Bedroom now access our best-in-class application journeys and tools, such as the Divido Calculator. The Divido Merchant Portal lets French Bedroom easily view and manage customer’s applications, including activating, cancelling and refunding applications. 

Divido’s software is clean and easy to use. The Divido Merchant Portal gives us visibility on applications so that we can continue to build great experiences.”

4. Access a dedicated support team

With our ongoing technical support, French Bedroom can rely on Divido to take care of the technical infrastructure, systems, and integrations of their retail finance solution. Divido’s support portal and regular catch-ups ensure these are maintained and well-oiled. The close collaboration also extends to the visibility of product roadmaps and feature development.

Divido gives you a level of sophistication you wouldn’t get if you partnered with a lender directly.”

The results

Despite difficult trading conditions, French Bedroom continues to grow and outperform their industry peers, delivering an exceptional customer experience rated 4.9 on TrustPilot. By offering finance to customers at checkout, French Bedroom has boosted conversion rates, sales and average order values, and they’ve unlocked a larger audience by making their products more affordable to more people. 

Eight in ten
accepted

Around eight in ten of the French Bedroom’s customers are accepted for finance by our tier-one lender

Massive 
growth

Finance volumes have grown 40% year-on-year

French Bedroom and Divido have been working together since 2016, and it has been a great partnership. We always want to eliminate points of friction. Anywhere the customer experience may dip is a missed opportunity for us. Divido helps us to provide frictionless finance and deliver on our promise of quality experiences.”