With buy-now-pay-later, Ravate stores boosted conversions by 30%

By integrating the Alma payment solution, one of PrestaShop's partners, the Ravate Group not only increased sales but also improved its retention rate. This leader in the trade of capital goods on Reunion Island is committed to customer service, and offering installment plans has proven to be a strategic growth lever.

For 70 years, Ravate has been a major player in trade on Reunion Island. The story began with hardware stores that gradually gave way to non-food big-box stores and a first ecommerce platform in 2012. Today, in addition to building materials and DIY items, the brand offers a wide range of household appliances, electronics, home accessories, toys and discount products. The group now has 60 stores and 2 ecommerce sites.

This success can be explained, among other things, by Ravate's ability to innovate and meet its customers' expectations. Continuing in this spirit, Mickael Trecant, Ravate's Ecommerce Product Owner, set up a new BNPL solution with Alma.

BNPL adopted by 42% of French people

The payment-in-installments market, or buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), has experienced strong growth in France and Europe since 2020. A real alternative to traditional credit, this payment method makes it possible to meet consumers' demands to make managing their day-to-day expenses easier. In 2022, BNPL represented 4.5 billion euros and is expected to reach 25 billion euros by 2025.

"In 2023, 42% of French people made an online purchase using buy-now-pay-later, and 10% use it regularly[1], and this is even more true for the equipment sector." Lionel Quellery, Alma Solution Consultant.

BNPL improves the customer experience

The rise of BNPL pushed the Ravate group to review its existing solution, deemed unsatisfactory: a restricted offer only allowing for payment in 3 or 4 installments, a lack of data to analyze the customer journey, minimal changes to the service offer, and especially, a low conversion rate.

"In the French overseas departments, payment methods are an important lever to facilitate purchasing. Our module was not up to par and offered only a limited number of monthly payments. We wanted to upgrade to a simple and effective solution. BNPL is a key conversion lever. Choosing our partner was therefore strategic." Mickael Trecant, Ravate's E-commerce Product Owner

Simple and efficient implementation

After conducting an in-depth analysis, Ravate chose Alma, the French leader in installment payments. Alma already serves over 16,000 stores in 10 European countries and offers a wide range of solutions to meet the specific needs of each vendor. These solutions include payment in 2, 3, 4, 10 installments or pay-later online, simple integration with PrestaShop, omnichannel solutions, a clear and speedy customer journey, and fallback options for payment failure.

"Alma seemed to meet all the criteria in my original benchmark, especially in terms of support and an efficient digital journey. So we decided to try it out, and the results exceeded our expectations." Mickael Trecant, Ravate's Ecommerce Product Owner

An active and committed partner

Ravate not only appreciated the ease of implementation and integration with PrestaShop but also valued Alma's personalized support. Alma's commercial and technical contacts demonstrated a strong partnership by providing tailor-made development to meet the group's specific needs.

"For example, we wanted the due date for the first payment to be triggered at the time of shipment rather than the time of order. We communicated this to Alma, and they developed the feature for us." Mickael Trecant, Ravate's Ecommerce Product Owner

This partnership with Alma is long-term and includes the deployment of the solution in physical stores starting in early 2024, aligning with Ravate's omnichannel strategy.

Immediate results

Immediate results were achieved by Ravate through A/B tests conducted based on Alma's recommendation. These tests were done for one month to validate different options and optimize the configuration before the production launch.

Thanks to the reporting tools co-built with Alma, Ravate can now analyze all conversion steps from its homepage, ensure smooth customer journeys, and maintain a high level of customer experience, which the group highly values.

"In the first year, we saw a record-breaking 30% increase in revenue from buy-now-pay-later. Additionally, customer feedback has been very positive, with many rave reviews." Mickael Trecant, Ravate's Ecommerce Product Owner

These impressive results have already contributed to a significant increase in customer retention.

Thanks to:

• Mickael Trecant, Ravate's Ecommerce Product Owner.
• Lionel Quellery, Alma Solution Consultant.