New Look agrees digital payments partnership with e-commerce startup Primer

Digital payments firm, Primer, has announced a partnership with New Look.

The UK startup was founded by alums of Braintree and PayPal and provides a drag and drop framework for merchants to build online payment stacks.

It says that the tie up will provide the fashion retailer with “an expansive, no-code payment infrastructure that will invigorate its online shopping experience and ensure it keeps pace with the sector’s demand”.

With Primer, New Look will be able to onboard, maintain and automate dozens of new solutions ranging from payment service providers and fraud tools to express checkout modules, wallets, buy now pay later offerings with just a few clicks in a dashboard.

Pedro Carvalho, Head of Sales (UK) at Primer, comments: “Online fashion is a competitive space, with more brands searching for fast and cost-efficient ways to develop a seamless payments experience especially in the current market conditions.”

“New Look is an iconic high street brand and we are thrilled that our infrastructure for payments will allow them to achieve their exact payments roadmap at a fraction of the cost and development time.”

Ian Mahoney, Director of Engineering Platforms at New Look, says: “Partnering with Primer will allow us to scale our payment infrastructure in line with the growth of our digital platform.”

“Not only will the technology allow us to get up and running with new payment providers and services quickly with no code, it will also help us drive conversion across the checkout flow.”

“Making sure that we are providing our customers the best checkout experience is a key priority for New Look and Primer is enabling us to hyperlocalise payments globally by offering our customers their preferred way to pay.”

Job cuts

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that Primer had “cut a big swathe of its staff as part of a restructuring, as it looks to adjust to current market conditions and extend its runway amid what many believe will be a tough year ahead”.

Sources told the publication that some 85 staff had been let go, around one-third of a company which last year raised $50 million at a $425 million valuation from investors like ICONIQ, Accel, Balderton Capital and Seedcamp.

“We can confirm that we did have a reduction in staff,” a spokesperson said.

“Like many other firms right now, we have course corrected heading into the new year given the economic environment and we have taken what we think are appropriate steps to account for the uncertain times ahead.”