Looking for a hot way to boost conversions? 

The next interview from the #CandleMakerDay event was with Jacob Springer of Sezzle on "How to Increase Conversions and AOV for your Online Store”. 

Sezzle is a payment method that offers a buy now, pay later solution, interest-free. It empowers the shoppers to complete a purchase while still financially responsible for them since they buy the items at no interest and with zero fees!

Village: What is Sezzle?

For those of you that aren't familiar with Sezzle, we're buy now, pay later. It's kind of this new realm of financing, a different way for consumers and business owners to pay for things over time. But we don't charge interest, we don't do credit checks and we don't report to collections. So it's very, very, friendly payment type as opposed to like traditional financing and traditional credit.

Village: Why is Sezzle a recognized B corporation?

Funny story is Sezzle started as a rewards program for debit consumers. 

We went through the B corporation certification process. And that by laws and how we operate, we have to put profit and purpose on the same playing field, right? But we didn't do that because we felt like we had to, we did it because we wanted to. And so we're looking to financially empower consumers, you know, scholarships in, in the US and Canada for first time university attendees, planting trees for new users, climate neutral.

We’re providing our customers with the right cash manage tools that they can have. You know, we understand our customers for the most part, our business owners, entrepreneurs that are looking to grow their product line, grow their market base, and we get it. We understand that, you know, everybody, typically bootstraps their businesses.

Village: How can a merchant decide whether they are a good candidate to use a buy now, pay later system?

The first place I would start is when someone mentions "buy now, pay later." There are many different alternatives available, and they all operate slightly differently. We're especially referring to Sezzle's four payments spread out over a six-week period today. Therefore, it is extremely short term when compared to, say, a regular financier.

Village: Does a buy now, pay later option fundamentally demonstrate your trust in your customers?

From the flip side of the experience, the consumer can go and manage all of those payments with us autonomously. They don't need to call us, they don't need to email us. They generate their own account. They can go in and change payment methods if they need to request extensions for free, if they need to, and facilitate it that way. Especially when it comes to finances. It can be a little bit of a lot of people like to keep their finances private. They don't want to talk to someone that they don't know in order to manage those things.

Village: How does it drive conversions to improve sales?

Look at buy now, pay later as a tool, as a customer acquisition tool. You're gonna be attracting people from both ends of the spectrum that might not have transacted with you before. At the end of the day, it's cash management, whether it's for a consumer or a business. You know, if you're a business, you can buy all the supplies you need from Village Craft and Candle to operate your own, manage your cash that way, and put the extra capital on hand somewhere else it needs to go.

And the same thing for consumers. If someone wants to go and buy new tires for their car, that's a big transaction. They can use the remaining three payments to focus on putting food on the table or getting gas for the car to drop their kids off at school. 

Break up that payment. Over time, the customer comes back, they get what they needed, a business gets what they needed and everybody walks away happy. 

Village: How does this benefit the small business owners?

From a business perspective, if someone's spending a lot more, they're hitting those free shipping thresholds as they more items to their carts rather than coming back and purchasing every single month to get what they need. Maybe they'll purchase three months worth of product in one go or three months worth of inventory in one go, and then you're saving money on your shipping cost because then you don't have to send three different orders at that free shipping threshold, but it's one order.

You get the free shipping threshold and you're saving money from a business aspect as well. That's an important component that, you know, we as all merchants kind of miss sometimes that we only focus on our products, but we don't. There's gotta be an equal amount of focus on the delivery of that product.

Village: How can they find Sezzle?

Sezzle.com is a great place to go. We've got a partner's page as well FAQ page as you name it, or we have a mobile app. Super convenient from a consumer perspective as well, if you're just looking to get involved. The signup process is super simple. We don't take any sort of like social insurance number or social security number. There's no impact to credit, of course, just to create an account and look around. Tthey can also contact us directly, you know, we have 24/7 support through mobile, email, chat, phone, you name it, based out of Minneapolis, both English and French, if there are any French speakers here as well.  I'm happy to help. I mean, as well as feel free to email me jacob.springer@sezzle.com. If I can't help you, I can probably get you in touch with someone.

Key takeaway:

Sezzle empowers its shoppers by way of responsible spending awareness, providing opportunities to build credit, and paving a way to achieving financial freedom regardless of credit score.Knowledge is power, so the better-informed shoppers are about their spending habits, the better equipped they are to reach new heights in personal financial control.