Splitit’s interest-free installment payment solution focuses on Europe

Splitit enables consumers to pay for online purchases with interest-free monthly payments. The fintech startups lets consumers use their existing credit cards and divide the total cost up to 12 payments. Ecommerce News talked to the company, which is now aiming most of the marketing efforts towards Europe.

Splitit gained success in the US market and is now focusing more and more on Europe, where it launched it project in January last year and now has customers such as Compex, Plum Fashion and Vestiaire Collective. It won in the category ‘Card innovation of the year’ and was highly commended in the category ‘Best online payments solution (consumer)’ during the Payments Awards 2016 competition. And it will be one of the exhibitors of the upcoming InternetRetailing Expo, which takes place on 5 and 6 April.

Ecommerce News interviewed Roey Schochat, who works as VP sales EMEA at Splitit.

Could you describe in one or two sentences what Splitit has to offer?

“Splitit is a unique technology that enables consumers to pay for their retail or web purchases using their existing credit cards and divide the total cost up to 12 interest-free payments.”

Why should online retailers offer Splitit as one of the payment methods?

“By using the Splitit solution, merchants can increase the average order value and decrease the cart abandonment rate dramatically. With online sales at an all-time high, it’s imperative that merchants optimize their ecommerce businesses to meet consumer demand, which we have found to be increasingly more in favor of instalment payments over other traditional incentives such as discounts and free shipping.”

Who are your biggest competitors and why are you different from them?

“Splitit doesn’t have a direct competitor. We consider financing solutions such as consumer financing, for example PayPal Credit in the UK, as a complementary service. One of our main advantages is that we are the only instalment payments technology solution with instant approval at the checkout. Our solutions also works on existing credit cards, so consumers enjoy all their regular credit card benefits such as point, cash back and mileage. And using a consumer financing solution can be very risky and expensive. In case of a default the customer will pay a very high interest. And with Splitit, there’s no need for credit checks and new credit applications, such as the one you need to fill for a store credit card application. Most importantly, you don’t take the risk of lowering your FICO.”

You started in the US, but you put your headquarters in Europe, why’s that?

“We have one headquarters in US and one in Europe, so both markets are equally important. But nowadays we are aiming most of our marketing efforts towards Europe. Currently, we are very active in West Europe: the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and so on. Our future plan is to expand to East Europe and enter markets like Russia and Romania.”

What are your thoughts on the European online payments industry?

“There is still growth in ecommerce, and with it increased popularity for payment methods. The European online payments industry is, similar to the industry in the US, very open towards innovative solutions. There are of course also differences between the two payments industries. For example, store credit cards are not so popular in Europe like they are in the US, so we expect Splitit will be the preferred monthly payments solution in Europe.”

You are a Magento Select Partner. Do you partner with other ecommerce software solutions? And what’s the reason behind partnering with them?

“As for now, Magento is our main ecommerce partner. But we are checking more opportunities. The main reason is exposure, awareness, and a better experience to Magento’s merchants. The big ecommerce players are using the Magento platform. Merchants using Magento will now be able to seamlessly integrate Splitit’s payment tool into their checkout process. We also have plug-ins for Shopify, WooCommerce and soon Demandware and SAP Hybris.”

You won the ‘Card innovation of the year’ award and you were highly commended as Best Online Payments Solution during the Payments Award competition last year. What did this do for Splitit in Europe?

“Well, that brought us a lot of leads, of which we successfully convert a major part of them into customers. And as mentioned earlier, merchants are yearning for a better alternative to the traditional incentives such as discounts and free shipping.”

You will be an exhibitor during the InternetRetailing EXPO. What do you expect from this event and when do you see your participation there as a success?

“The InternetRetailing Expo is one of the biggest and most famous ecommerce events in Europe. We want to get exposure and awareness as much as we can. Our main goal from the event is to touch base with big ecommerce businesses and to create and build future relationships with them. Because we truly believe our unique solution can help tremendously increase sales and decrease the cart abandonment rate.”