URBN partners with FinTech giant Stripe to power online and in-person retail payments across its brands
Stripe has announced a partnership with URBN to power online and in-person retail payments for Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie Group, Free People, and FP Movement.
With Stripe as its primary payments infrastructure, URBN says it will introduce a more consistent checkout experience for its customers with the goal of increasing authorisation rates and enabling future innovation.
“Payments are a critical link between our brands and millions of URBN customers who expect checkouts to be as easy as trying on an outfit or adding items to a cart,” says Dave Hayne, Chief Technology Officer at URBN.
“Stripe lets us stay focused on building the best unified commerce experience possible by removing the complexity of payments across our brands.”
With billions in annual sales, URBN is consolidating the majority of its North American payments volume onto Stripe. In doing so, it expects to see higher authorisations, better reliability, more precise data analytics, and greater potential for future payments innovation.
Stripe Terminal will become URBN’s primary in-store checkout option in North America, using BBPOS WisePOS E readers at more than 600 locations and requiring little additional employee training to implement.
URBN is using Link and Stripe Financial Connections to allow online customers to pay with their bank accounts. Customers who have saved their bank account details at any business using Link can quickly checkout without having to reenter their payment information.
In the future, URBN plans to use Stripe’s optimised checkout suite to display the most relevant payment methods to customers based on their device type, location, language, and various other factors.
Under URBN’s fulfilment process, card payments for URBN purchases are only processed when a customer’s order has been shipped or picked up from a store.
It will use Stripe to extend the authorisation window from the time an order is placed to the time it ships, ensuring more transactions are successful even in the unlikely event of a delay.
URBN will benefit from API reliability exceeding 99.999% and authorisation rates that remain high during times of peak demand.
“Without the right payments setup, retailers are leaving millions on the table at a time when customers are even more selective about their spending,” says Eileen O’Mara, Chief Revenue Officer at Stripe.
“Shoppers expect an easy checkout experience and businesses want high authorisation rates. We’re thrilled our partnership will enable both for URBN.”
URBN will use additional tools to power money movement and gather more precise analytics.
It will tap Stripe Connect to facilitate payments between third-party merchants and buyers on its brand marketplaces, which host independent apparel brands.
Additionally, finance teams at URBN will use Stripe Sigma and Stripe Data Pipeline to automate the collection of revenue data and financial reporting for all of its brands.
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