If you ask any online retailer to tell you their business priorities, increased revenue, more customers and a higher online conversion rate would all feature highly. In the physical world too, it’s safe to say that getting more people to spend more money remains a sensible strategy for merchants.
Is retail finance the silver bullet? It’s not quite as simple as that but when the right finance solutions are integrated to the shopping experience there is little doubt that it can support merchants in hitting their goals opening up their products and services to a far wider customer base.
Yes, buy now pay later solutions can be of great benefit but central to any positive story is application success – meaning that customers not only complete the application process but are provided with a finance solution that works for them at the end of it.
Without analysing and perfecting the route to lenders saying ‘yes’ more often, the finance solution on offer is redundant.
Here, we will look at ways you can help your customers hear ‘yes’ more often…
Smooth application process
Your first task is to ensure customers don’t walk away (or leave your site) before they’ve even finished the application process. Most people don’t enjoy filling in forms but are willing to do so if the end result means they can afford to purchase the new tyres, sofa, lawnmower or whatever it is that they need.
There’s nothing worse for a customer than completing a form only to find that they have been rejected by a lender.
It’s this customer journey that we had in mind when we created the Deko platform and why we ensure that it’s a simple and smooth process for applicants. Rather than completing separate forms for the different types of lender, our users get presented with all the best solutions for them at the end of our simple application.
Mobile friendly
If your current finance process takes too long to load, uses images that don’t fit correctly on the screen or contains forms that are difficult to complete unless you’re on a keyboard, then you’re harming your chances of application success.
We live in an increasingly mobile world, one where shoppers are likely to desert their baskets and leave for a mobile-friendly alternative if their needs aren’t met. An overwhelming 65% of all our applications come from mobiles, which is why the Deko platform was built with mobile in mind.
Keeping customers on the same page
In all aspects of the retail experience, trust is imperative. It’s yet another factor that can impact heavily upon application success. Consumer finance can be a daunting proposition and this anxiety is only heightened if customers are taken to a different website when they qualify for credit limits, which again can lead to uncompleted sales.
Our tech enables consumers to stay on the merchant’s website, reducing both anxiety and the time taken to complete the application process. Are you instilling enough consumer confidence needed to complete applications?
Will I Qualify, for instance, checks credit eligibility in seconds at the start of the customer shopping experience. Why wait until the end? No redirects to other sites, just a fast, efficient decision-making process that drives up application success.
Flexible lending
Customers come in all shapes and sizes and the more flexible your retail finance can be the easier it will be to find a credit / consumer match.
That’s why we are both a multi-lender and a multi-product platform, allowing merchants to offer a service which lets the customer spread the cost of their purchases in a way that works for them. In short, more lending options equals higher application success.
A seamless customer experience with lending options that work for all, presents retailers with the best way of increasing application success. Whether online or in-store – it’s something we’re proud to offer here at Deko.
We’d be happy to talk with you about increasing finance application success, after all we’ve been doing this for more than a decade. Visit our consumer finance products page and answer a few questions. One of our experts will be in touch.
