Afterpay's Success Story: In-depth Case Study

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Top Highlights

• We showcase Afterpay’s Marketing strategies, and how  it emerged as one of the most successful financial tech companies today.

• Afterpay offers its users an installment-based payment system,  engaging customers with a ‘buy first, pay later’ approach.

• By taking over the purchase risk, they eliminate the need for the retailers to track and hold stock payments. In return, Afterpay receives a small percentage-based fee for the transaction.

• Users can buy a product today, and choose to pay the purchase amount in 4 separate installments.

• Afterpay also set up an early partnership with payments firm Touchcorp, to get started on the tech side of things. In order to successfully implement its new payment based model, Afterpay had to ensure its system was designed with efficacy and sophistication.

• Touchcorp helped provide support for the entire back end payment system for Afterpay’s products.

• In early 2017, they partnered up with digital agency: Dovetail; a move that kicked off Afterpay’s online presence strategy.

• Dovetail helped design multiple iOS and Android apps, while also looking after the design, development and infrastructure of Afterpay’s web & mobile platforms. Within 3 months, Dovetail delivered Afterpay’s first mobile app. As more and more retailers began accepting Afterpay, the consumer engagement numbers skyrocketed.

• However, with increasing website engagement, Afterpay was also experiencing frequent website crashes. The outdated web application of the company was unable to handle the large volume of customer traffic.

• Dovetail then designed Afterpay’s web application, helping the business scale up with ease.

• It wasn’t long before Afterpay’s platform accounted for over 10% of all e-commerce transactions in Australia.

• Soon after, the company expanded internationally after entering a partnership with VISA group. This enhanced Afterpay’s service offering to support its growth in the US market.

• Afterpay also had to strategically inform customers about how it works, since this system was not commonly known or used before. With data privacy emerging as a serious concern, Afterpay had to reassure its customers about the security of their information. Additionally, Afterpay had to convince retailers about the fulfilling the risk of any payment fallout or defaulting.

• Once this was sorted, they began rolling out funky Marketing to appeal to millennials, who were more likely to use the app’s services.

• A popular ad slogan by the company was ‘Broke AF but strongly support treating yourself?’ This aligned with the main service offering of ‘buy now, pay later’, while incentivising millennials to buy.

• They had the mobile and web app set up, so now it was all about convincing the retailers. In order to incentivise retailers to adopt the payment service, Afterpay added a ‘shop directory’ feature to its app. This was essentially an area that listed all the stores and shops that accept Afterpay payments for customers. This helped direct premium lead traffic to merchants, connecting customers to the retailers. Seeing the new inflow of customers, more and more retailers began accepting the system.

• With customers, Afterpay knew that its unique selling proposition lied within giving customers flexibility over their spending. Customers are always looking to exert more control over their spending, while also migrating to seamless, mobile based payment systems. Afterpay continued to expand its in-store payment options, fulfilling demand from both customers and retailers. The key was to offer the same seamless shopping experience at different touchpoints (online or in-store). As a result, more customers and merchants were becoming aware of how easy and popular this payment system is.

• they ensured to respond swiftly to customer feedback

• variable payment upfront service. This allowed customers to pay extra upfront if they wished to. As a result, Afterpay experienced higher approvals, higher transaction rates and also, less risk.