A fresh approach to retail finance

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Deko is a mul­ti-prod­uct, mul­ti-lender retail finance ecosys­tem focused on expand­ing access to retail finance for lenders, mer­chants and cus­tomers. Know­ing that sin­gle lenders will have vary­ing lev­els of sec­tor or risk appetite, Deko part­ners with mul­ti­ple lenders to ensure a per­fect match for cus­tomer, mer­chant and lender. This means that we can con­fi­dent­ly say “yes” to more trans­ac­tions and help cus­tomers access more of the things they love.

What role does retail finance play today?

The terms retail finance and but now, pay lat­er are com­mon in house­holds, with their pop­u­lar­i­ty hav­ing explod­ed over recent years. Sur­veys show four in 10 Brits say they have used a buy-now-pay-lat­er ser­vice when mak­ing a pay­ment.

While the ben­e­fits to con­sumers are clear, the ben­e­fits to mer­chants should not be over­looked. When part­ner­ing with a retail finance provider, mer­chants can increase the breadth of their cus­tomer pool and enable exist­ing cus­tomers to pur­chase more. So as retail finance ser­vices con­tin­ue to grow – and are expect­ed to dou­ble by 2023 — mer­chants are increas­ing­ly iden­ti­fy­ing them as essen­tial in appeal­ing to as large a pool of cus­tomers as pos­si­ble.

In addi­tion, the lift­ing of lock­down sig­nals a more pos­i­tive out­look for the retail sec­tor. It is now a cru­cial time for all busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly SMEs, to ensure they have the capa­bil­i­ty to com­pete in a world increas­ing­ly led by e‑commerce. At the heart of this issue is the fun­da­men­tal need to increase the check­out accep­tance rate of online sales when cus­tomers are mak­ing pay­ments.

How does a mul­ti-lender approach dif­fer from tra­di­tion­al offer­ings?

The main dif­fer­ence is that mul­ti-lender retail finance plat­forms increase the accep­tance rate and bas­ket range that can be cov­ered. With Deko fil­ter­ing lender options and ensur­ing the right lender fit for the cus­tomer, the mul­ti-lender approach deliv­ers high­er con­fi­dence the mer­chant will secure the pur­chase and that the cus­tomer can make the pay­ment. This is what we at Deko iden­ti­fied to be the key dri­ver behind mer­chants see­ing more busi­ness. High­er accep­tance rates are of use to all mer­chants but in par­tic­u­lar to busi­ness­es with a wide prod­uct range, espe­cial­ly those with larg­er than aver­age bas­ket prices.

With a sin­gle lender, if a cus­tomer is not approved then they may be left in the lurch, unable to make the pay­ment and the mer­chant is left with­out a sale. Through a mul­ti-lender approach, we can respon­si­bly increase approvals, util­is­ing dif­fer­ent lender cri­te­ria and also deliv­er larg­er sized approvals. This enables cus­tomers to pay for what they need with­out fric­tion and across a range of bas­ket sizes.

At Deko, we have seen the demon­stra­ble ben­e­fits that flex­i­ble pay­ment solu­tions can pro­vide to our inno­v­a­tive retail part­ners. Many of these busi­ness­es ben­e­fit­ed from up to a 30% increase in sales after inte­grat­ing our mul­ti-lender plat­form into their check­out process. The inte­gra­tion leaves our part­ners well-placed to ampli­fy their rev­enue and dri­ve cus­tomer loy­al­ty in order to cap­i­talise on the poten­tial post-pan­dem­ic rush.

What do you see as chal­lenges for mer­chants to the indus­try in the com­ing year and what are you doing to meet those chal­lenges?

The past 18 months have been some of the most uncer­tain and dif­fi­cult for mer­chants and cus­tomers in the UK. How each of these com­mu­ni­ties per­form in the near future is going to be cru­cial and this is some­thing that we at Deko under­stand and are incor­po­rat­ing into our busi­ness. We under­stand that retail finance will be a key facil­i­ta­tor of this recov­ery, so a greater range of accep­tance as well as a seam­less check­out expe­ri­ence will be even more impor­tant. Most impor­tant­ly, cus­tomers love our ser­vice and con­sis­tent­ly rate us as excel­lent. This in turn moti­vates us to keep push­ing fur­ther and make the ser­vice for our whole ecosys­tem even bet­ter.

Every mer­chant is unique and requires its own unique ser­vice. Retail finance can undoubt­ed­ly improve mer­chant rev­enue, but it needs to be respon­sive enough to the dif­fer­ent needs of mer­chants and con­sumers alike so as to ben­e­fit the great­est num­ber. This is where a mul­ti-prod­uct ser­vice becomes cru­cial. Tra­di­tion­al buy-now-pay-lat­er ser­vices are per­fect for some mer­chants, but a one-size-fits-all approach is not always effec­tive and can be restric­tive depend­ing on the type of mer­chant.

At Deko, our ecosys­tem is built on deliv­er­ing choice. We have a wide range of ser­vices both in the sense of new-era dig­i­tal cred­it accounts, that require one appli­ca­tion and then can be used mul­ti­ple times, as well as the more well-known buy-now-pay-lat­er pay­ment ser­vices and the more tra­di­tion­al big­ger tick­et loan facil­i­ties. This flex­i­bil­i­ty and bespoke offer­ing is cru­cial, espe­cial­ly for small­er mer­chants in more spe­cialised areas that require options for larg­er pay­ments and bas­ket sizes, and can be used as an effec­tive tool for increas­ing cus­tomer loy­al­ty.

What advice do you have for mod­ern retail­ers?

Today, mer­chants can be reliant upon mul­ti­ple dif­fer­ent providers to get the right prod­uct or sec­tor cov­er­age, which is not opti­mal. The key, there­fore, is part­ner­ing with a mul­ti-lender and mul­ti-prod­uct provider who can invest more time in under­stand­ing the best match between a mer­chant and their needs – and deliv­er this in an effec­tive inte­grat­ed expe­ri­ence. The rela­tion­ship between mer­chants and retail finance part­ners requires trust and a part­ner that under­stands your busi­ness. This is what we strive to deliv­er our part­ners who work with Deko — a seam­less, flex­i­ble, retail finance pay­ment ecosys­tem.

To find out more vis­it dekopay.com

Pro­mot­ed by Deko