"One in five customers pays with Afterpay. It’s a new marketing channel."
Luggage and bag retailer Strand on how Afterpay helps grow business.
The Afterpay Advantage
Afterpay offers Strand customers flexibility.
Afterpay customers have a stronger average order value than other payment gateways.
Afterpay campaigns drive sales and customer acquisition.
Afterpay offers exclusive market insights.
Afterpay’s team goes the extra mile.
Afterpay is a trusted payments platform.
After nearly a century in business, Strand is one of Australia’s best-known and most trusted luggage and bag retailers.
So, when it came time to offering Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to customers, the fashion-travel retailer was determined to work with an equally trusted partner. Strand found this – and more – in Australia’s number one BNPL platform, Afterpay.
“Trust was really important to us and we feel that Afterpay came to the table with that,” says Strand marketing director Prue Thomas. “It was also the first Buy Now Pay Later platform that really coupled an incredible product and service with marketing advantages and opportunities.”
"Afterpay couples an incredible product and service with marketing advantages and opportunities.”
Today, not only do one in five Strand customers pay using Afterpay, but Afterpay Day has become an important date on the brand’s marketing calendar, consistently driving an 18%+ uplift in sales.
Meanwhile, the opportunity to draw upon Afterpay’s industry-wide insights has also helped Strand reach new customers. “Being able to leverage audience insights has really improved our ability to market effectively.”
About Strand.
Strand was founded in 1927 and today has 270 stores around Australia and New Zealand as well as a thriving online e-commerce site.
With an extensive range of designer and own-brand handbags, as well as business bags, backpacks and luggage, Strand has the largest market share in travel in Australia.
Afterpay offers customers flexibility.
Afterpay enables Strand customers to spread their payments for luggage or bags in instalments. “Our customers tend to use Afterpay for larger luggage purchases,” says Thomas, adding, “if you’re buying suitcases for your whole family, for example, that’s a big outlay.”
“We partnered with Afterpay to empower the customer with options,” says Thomas. “We could see the rise of Buy Now Pay Later options, so it was a case of listening to our customers. Afterpay offers customers flexibility.”
Today, she says, “there’s an expectation that Afterpay is available to our customers, either in-store or online”. And, she adds, Afterpay customers are valuable.
“We see a stronger average order value among Afterpay customers than any other payment gateway.”
“We see a stronger average order value among Afterpay customers than any other payment gateway.”
Afterpay campaigns drive sales and customer acquisition.
For Strand, Afterpay Day has become a crucial date on the marketing calendar, and drives an 18-21% uplift in sales.
“For us, Afterpay Day sits very comfortably with the Black Friday, Prime Day type moments. Afterpay Day is as important as a Mother’s Day or a Father’s Day,” says Thomas.
“Afterpay Day brings in a new customer to the business who might not have considered us before. It also brings in customers who may have bought from us three years ago and realise they need a new handbag. It’s a sales trigger.”
She adds, “Afterpay is legitimately another channel for us to market with.”
Afterpay offers exclusive market insights.
Thomas says that, for Strand, Afterpay is more than a payments solution; it is a data platform, too. The retailer often turns to Afterpay for industry-wide insights to help them access new audiences.
Recently, when Strand launched a new youth-oriented handbag range, the retailer leveraged Afterpay’s industry-wide data to cross-check and validate its own insights.
“For a business like Afterpay to build up a data platform that’s really easy and self-serve for any business they partner with is incredibly valuable.”
Afterpay’s team goes the extra mile.
“Afterpay is almost like an extension of our team,” says Thomas. “They are incredibly collaborative. Both Strand and Afterpay come to any project with a shared objective and that naturally makes the results better.”
Afterpay can always be relied upon to provide training, she adds. “Our frontline teams are the backbone of the business, so it’s fantastic for the Afterpay team to go in and talk to them and educate them.”
Afterpay is a trusted payments platform.
As one of Australia’s most established retailers, Strand has built a trusted reputation, so when it came to offering BNPL, the retailer was determined to work with an equally trusted partner.
“We’ve been in the fashion travel space for nearly 100 years, and people come back to us again and again. Dependability and trust were really important to us and we feel that Afterpay came to the table with that. It was the first BNPL platform that really coupled the marketing advantages and opportunities with an incredible product and service."
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