Transcription
Really exciting webinar. I know some of you would have been on some of our recent webinars. We're really lucky to have Asha Meltzer from Stripe with us today. Um, we actually have Stripe sessions, which is the big Stripe conference coming up next week. So getting Asha out of that for 45 minutes is great. Very much appreciate his time today. Uh, and then we also have Ismile, the CEO of Thrive Kart, who's joining and they'll be co-presenting. Uh, and today they're going to be talking about the exciting new partnership we have with Stripe and our proprietary new product and partnership called Connect Plus. Uh, and also our new product that Thrive got launched on the 22nd of April called Pro Plus, which I know many of you have upgraded to already as well. Uh, and if not, hopefully you'll learn a little bit more about it today. Any questions you might have will hopefully be answered as well. Um, so we have a lot of people coming in. Um, we are going to get started now and get to questions. I can see all of your questions coming in. So, please keep them coming. Um, so I'm gonna hand over to Ismmail first, and then Ismael's going to hand over to Asha. Uh, said any questions, keep them coming. Cool. Thanks.
Well, Ismael, over to you.
Excellent. Thank you very much for the introduction and welcome everybody. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. Asha, thank you for, uh, co-hosting this with us as well. Um, yeah, for those of you who don't know, I am the CEO of Thrive Kart. I've been in the seat for just over a little over eight months now. So, Pro Plus, uh, builds on Connect Plus, is kind of the first real thing I've had a chance to get out the door. Um, I say that it's the team. Uh, they—I'm taking credit for a lot of work that's been done, uh, you know, over many, many quarters to get to this point. So yeah, I'll walk you through, um, you know, some of those bits at a high level on Thrive Kart where we are at the moment before handing over to Asher, who will, um, go through lots of great things about Stripe and, you know, things that can really help your business, uh, you know, going forwards. Um, so yeah, I will I'll start there.
Um, so to give like a quick sense of where we are today, um, because often, you know, this data, u—you know, can get lost a little bit, um, but Thrive Kart represents approximately 1.5% of the global creator economy, um, in terms of payments processed. So, um, what that means for us—lifetime, we got about 65,000—you lots of sixes here—65,000 users on the platform, approximately 6 billion in lifetime sales at this point, and we've sold just over 68 million products, um, you know, well, customers on our platform have sold just over 68 million products. Um, that is scaling though, um, so in the last year—so 2024—um, during the year that I, I, you know, came into the role, we added 8,300 users, around $2 billion in sales, and sold 7—oh, facilitated 7.8 million, uh, you know, products being sold on the platform. So the platform has been expanding in terms of usage. Uh, it's been, you know, certainly something that, uh, you know, we always wanted, uh, you know, taking over the business and kind of scaling it from here. Um, that said, obviously there was a lot of work that needed to be done to kind of refactor, uh, you know, the databases, make sure the business could continue to scale seamlessly, and that's really kind of why we've been working with Stripe so closely over the last, you know, year and a half to build a platform that's custom-built for uh Thrive Kart and can really help us get to, you know, at least 10 billion dollars before kind of touching the size in any great context. So, um, you know, what that's meant on our side over the last year is—2023, 2024—a lot of refactoring of databases. We've had around 500, um, you know, individual optimizations that have gone on in the background, and, you know, very, very pleased to report now that we are, um, seeing about 99.99% uptime, uh, as well. So that's really kind of something that's been important. Uh, we've been investing very, very heavily in that, and, and something that, you know, we knew that needed to be done, um, to keep the the platform kind of very stable and give us that, you know, ability to to take things to the next level.
Um, so what does that mean for Thrive Kart now going forward, you know, 2025 and beyond? Really, it means we can get back to innovating. Um, and I'll kind of talk through some of the things that you see, you know, on the slides here, but Pro Plus is kind of one of the first things. Like I said, it's built on the Connect Plus platform, which is custom-built integration, uh, and kind of platform with Stripe. You know, specifically for Thrive Cart. So, it is, you know, really purpose-built and really something we can stand behind. Um, and that really gives us the confidence and the ability to go off and do lots of other things, uh, you know, with the platform now too. So later on—and you know this is in no particular order—you know, that you see on your screen here, but we are working on bringing uh webinars into the platform. We acquired a company called Stealth Seminar, um, last year that we'll be bringing in, so that will be kind of top of the funnel, middle of the funnel; that will be in the LMS, the Learn Plus as well. So that is going to be coming in. Uh, we acquired another company called uh Pictochart, which is, uh, you know, second only to Canva. Uh, very big gap between number one and number two, admittedly. Um, but that's going to bring a lot of great AI designs, landing pages, ebook builders, uh, you know, lots of things, you know, that you'll be able to design, you know, using AI, your your kind of ads and creatives and everything going there. So that'll be coming in as well. Um, and then we're going to obviously have upgrades to the LMS. You know, hosting is going to come in there. It's going to, you know, be completely refactored. There's going to be a consumer-facing app as well. So you have to be able to give that to your students; they can log in, see multiple of your courses. Uh, bringing a lot of conversion tools, rebuilding the affiliate engine, launching a virtual uh webinar platform, uh, yeah, sorry, a virtual event platform too. Um, and really kind of diving in and focusing a lot on BI as well. Um, obviously we don't process your payments; Stripe, uh, Stripe amongst others process the payments, but we sit on a huge amount of data, and we want to be able to give that to you in a way where you can, you know, actually use that—those intelligent insights—to help build and grow your business, uh, you know, over time.
So lots of great things, um, that we have here that, you know, in terms of innovation, and you know, Pro Plus was the first one, and so far we've—we've, you know, seven days since we launched it—it's been a, you know, fantastic reception. We've had over 11,000, uh, you know, customers move across the platform. Um, and the reviews have just been fantastic. So, again, you know, huge, huge thank you to the the team at Thrive Cart for everything they've done. Huge thank you to Stripe for working with us, uh, you know, for such a long time and so diligently to be able to get, uh, you know, this out the door, uh, as well. And yeah, it is built on a completely new engine, um, which is, uh, you know, something that we're we're very, very proud of.
And, um, to give you a quick snapshot for those who who haven't, you know, seen too much about it yet, lots of features, uh, it's all over our, you know, our resources and websites and everywhere else. But yeah, we're bringing, you know, lots of revenue, um, you know, revenue upgrade, revenue-generating, you know, things to the platform. So, multiple bumps. I know that's been one that's been wanted for a very, very long period of time. Um, we have recurring revenue upgrades in there. We have crypto payments through USDC. That's actually a really good one because you don't need to hold any crypto yourself. You don't need a crypto wallet. There's no additional—as far as, as far as we're aware, there's no additional, uh, you know, tax reporting, anything that goes like that because Stripe automatically settles that in US dollars. So, um, very, very seamless, you know, as a merchant, but then, you know, opens up quite a lot of opportunity for additional sales, um, and that is, uh, you know, the uplift there, you know, we're seeing about 7%, uh, you know, there too. Um, tax-inclusive pricing—a huge one in Europe, uh, you know, Australia, other regions as well, you know, very, very big reason for kind of people abandoning carts, um, so, you know, that's in there now too, um, and QR checkout codes for people who are running, you know, maybe uh in-person events, virtual events, uh, you know, lots of webinars; that is, you know, a really good tool to use, plus a huge amount, you know, more in terms of data and tracking. So, uh, you know, lots of of new reports coming in, and we'll be releasing new reports almost on a a weekly or kind of bi-monthly basis, too. So, you'll see a huge amount of kind of new updates coming out, um, you know, for those on the Pro Plus platform.
Um, but there's more to come. So, you know, obviously touched on some of the roadmap items there. Um, but we are going to be doing more, um, you know, with Stripe, getting to this idea of kind of circular payments. So, and I know this is one that a lot of people have requested over time. Uh, you know, Stripe are working very, very hard with us to build this as an exclusive. Um, but we will be bringing affiliate payouts via Stripe. So, no longer the need to use PayPal unless you pay—use PayPal business and if you absolutely want to. Um, that will be coming, uh, you know, to the platform later in the year. As well as the ability to, you know, keep money uh in a treasury function, use issued cards, uh, you know, issued debit cards to, you know, pay business expenses; that will tie to our rewards program and you will give you like lots of discounts on on things like ad spend and those type of things we'll be bringing into the platform too. But the idea is we just want to make payments very, very simple, uh, you know, going forwards. So, ult—you know, like I said, lots of innovation that that's going to be, you know, coming to the platform going forwards too.
Um, obviously the the the big thing here is Connect Plus, which again, you know, is is, uh, you know, you do need to be on Pro; you do need to, you know, have a Connect Plus account. Uh, we've made that as seamless as possible in terms of upgrading. Uh, we have a legal entity sharing tool in there. So if you have a a newer enhanced account, it should just port everything over. A couple of clicks and you're done. Important to note, it does work with all your existing products, all your existing funnels. You do not need to rebuild anything. You can certainly add things, multiple bumps and those kind of elements, but, you know, not the case that you need to, uh, you know, go through and kind of, you know, rebuild any landing pages, products, or anything like that. So it's completely backwards compatible with everything that we have. Um, it's just a case of, you know, switching, you know, to with a new sub account under your master Stripe account. Um, so it's all in there, and, you know, very, very easy and seamless, and yeah, goes without saying, but all the new technology, uh, that we're going to be bringing out is going to be on the the Pro Plus platform. So yeah, hopefully a few kind of nuggets in there, um, of kind of exciting stuff. I mean, personally the affiliate payout thing is something that I'm really excited to see, but lots of other innovative, you know, things are on the roadmap there. But obviously none of this would be possible, uh, without the kind of collaboration and support of Stripe. So I have Asha to kind of go through some of the things that they're working on. Uh, you know, super interesting in terms of, you know, both the innovation, uh, but also ways that, you know, their platform can be used today to enhance and augment and increase sales, uh, you know, for everybody using Thrive Kart. So, um, Asha, over to you.
Great. Thank you so much. Um, great to meet you. My name is Asher. I've been at Stripe for about four and a half years now. Um, and have, have had the good fortune to work alongside, um, Thrive Kart, uh, and a lot of other fantastic, uh, platforms, uh, over the years. Um, we, we've been working, uh, with the team at Thrive for a few years now, and frankly have been really excited to unveil this new offering, uh, in Thrive's Connect Plus. Uh, so what we'll discuss today showcases not only the kind of advanced capabilities that you guys can now access, uh, and offer to your end customers to ensure this kind of best-in-class, uh, checkout experience, uh, but also, uh, a little bit more around like what payment methods you should be offering, a deeper dive into BNPL, and then I'm kind of excited to to answer a few questions as well, uh, if we have time.
So, uh, I won't spend too much time on this as I'm cognizant that a lot of you will already know, you know, who Stripe is or or what we do. But for those that don't, uh, Stripe is a technology company focusing on payments infrastructure for the internet. And broadly, our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, which is this pretty audacious goal. Um, but today we now process around $1.44 trillion dollars annually, uh, which is, uh, insane. But I think the the most, uh, important call out of the of the of this slide is that whilst we have 8,000 employees, more than 60% of them focus on product innovation and R&D. Um, and what that means is that, you know, every day we're constantly iterating our product, and we're working alongside the likes of Thrive to ensure that they can offer you best-in-class features, um, as and when they are available. Um, and it's not without this sort of collaborative effort, uh, that these features become available because what you need, what Thrive needs, uh, we listen to, uh, and and subsequently, uh, can can ship.
So, as I'm sure many of you have experienced, um, uh, payments are inexplicably hard. Uh, they are heavily regulated. They are nonlinear. They're complex. They're, you know, slow-moving. Um, and like a two-edged sword, it can kind of either be this make or break in meeting your revenue goal, meeting your revenue goals or or falling short. So, Stripe exists to reduce that friction, that friction that stands between the idea of execution, um, and uh uh between your customers successfully kind of completing a purchase. We've come to learn that payments experience is synonymous with customer experience. So making payments personal and effortless is a real kind of key to attracting and retaining customers and then also to grow revenue. Uh, we've engineered uh our payments products to include a huge array of optimizations across the entire customer journey, from uh dynamically uh presenting best-fit payment methods. So when your customers want to pay, they're actually seeing the payment methods that are most relevant to them as an individual buyer, uh, to ensure that uh real-time card validation occurs to ensure uh fraud protection is enabled and then allowing you as uh as a account holder, uh, to A/B test to understand, you know, what methods work better than others. Um, so these features make up the Stripe OCS uh suite, Stripe's optimized checkout suite, and Thrive Connect Plus has been launched uh with OCS to ensure that you can benefit from these features. Um, and on average, uh, these features, uh, see an increase in revenue of around 11.9%, uh, due to these optimizations either through uh improving card abandonment or reducing fraud. Um, so it's a a really, really powerful product that that you guys will be able to now tap into.
And we know that, uh, nothing else really matters if you guys can't actually accept the dollars that your customers want to pay. And that is why we obsess over this idea of reliability and uptime. Stripe holds this, uh, very closely to our core, and we're really proud to say that we have five nines of uptime; that is 99.999%. Uh, which effectively means that no more than 20 seconds of downtime in any given month. Um, so whenever your customers want to to pay you as a creator, uh, they can ensure that there are no issues in making that payment. Um, Stripe serves both ends of the customer continuum, from uh large uh creator platforms like Thrive Kart that we've worked closely with, uh, to smaller startups that are looking to accept their first dollar on Stripe to a creator like yourself. So, uh, serving both ends of the continuum, uh, actually, uh, works in a very net positive way, uh, for the the offering because we're ensuring that as your as your, uh, or as a business grows, we're ensuring that there the there is uh feature parity, uh, as your demands or your your needs change, um, as you utilize a a uh suite like OCS and like like Stripe.
Okay, cool. So, um, this is, uh, more along the lines of payment methods and and what you can and can't offer through uh Thrive's Connect Plus, but we have seen this idea of like consumer behavior rapidly changing, and it's kind of resulted in this explosion of payment methods. So, cast your mind back to, you know, the 50s and 60s. Uh, I'm not sure, uh, uh, if all of us would have been around, but uh in the 50s and 60s, there are certainly a few payment methods, uh, that that you could uh engage in commerce with. Um, then now this has exploded into present times where uh consumers expect to see their most preferred payment method on offer. And in fact, a 2022 study that we did found that 85% of consumers will actually abandon their purchase if their preferred payment method isn't on offer. And so this is especially important as businesses seek to grow in new markets where localization is is really important, um, and consumer preference is is really important. Uh, but as well as that, offering multiple payment methods brings a lot of kind of complexity, uh, across, you know, integrations and and maintenance in different regional preferences, and that's kind of where Stripe comes in and where this new OCS suite comes in with Thrive Connect Plus. So payment methods can be classed into eight clear categories. Uh, we've got the kind of dominant player, which was cards and and largely still is the dominant player. Then we've had the rise of wallets. So, uh, Apple Pay, Google Pay, um, bank debits, uh, bank debits still very common for B2B transactions, not so relevant in in maybe this space. And then more recently, BNPL, buy now, pay later, which has seen this, you know, meteoric rise amongst the younger generations, um, and a payment method I'll go into, uh, at a more granular level shortly. Um, but Stripe's OCS suite includes access to about 125 plus payment methods, and we partnered closely with Thrive to ensure all Connect Plus users have access to the most impactful, uh, high-use payment methods to ensure that you can offer the kind of best, uh, experience to to your end customer. So in this integration that has been rolled out in Connect Plus, you will be able to create a frictionless checkout experience, uh, with reduced complexity and at the click of a button add a new payment method. Uh, you'll be able to reduce card abandonment by offering BNPL. You'll be able to increase conversion by dynamically presenting, uh, the customer's preferred payment methods. Uh, there's a huge amount of advancements that come along with this Connect Plus integration that you'll see as part of the, uh, new and improved, um, OCS suite integration.
Um, we can kind of skip through this, but really this was to reiterate, uh, that through this new integration you could see, um, an increase of 11.9% in revenue. Um, this is, uh, based on similar businesses that have, um, uh, turned on Stripe's OCS suite, uh, and, um, uh, is a a very positive, positive metric. Um, but then also it's to kind of reference that you could be leaving money on the table by not offering more payment methods. Um, we actually find that the more payment methods that you present and the more relevant and localized payment method that you present, you'll reduce card abandonment, and you could also, uh, improve revenue that way because, uh, of how loyal some customers are to certain payment methods, such as, you know, Klarna and Affirm have very loyal, uh, network effects and and and customers in their networks.
Um, so one awesome feature of our OCS suite that you can access through Connect Plus is Link. Link is Stripe's very own, uh, native express checkout experience. Link has tens of millions of consumers. Um, and any consumer who has saved their payment details with a Link account can check out in just seconds across any merchant that has Link enabled. So we will automatically detect when a customer has, uh, their details saved with Link, um, or when we recognize a customer. We'll then dynamically populate the checkout suite to, uh, have Link as a, uh, presented payment method. Uh, Link is really amazing. It allows customers to check out in less than, uh, 6 seconds, which is 3x faster than a non-Link payment method. Um, and then moreover, for businesses that have already enabled, uh, Connect Plus, Link has been the most popular non-card payment method, driving 10% of all transactions, uh, which is a a a really, really kind of momentous figure. Um, was touched on a little bit at the start of the call, but uh stable coin or or crypto payments—Connect Plus users that are based in the US can now offer crypto payments, or more aptly can offer USDC stable coin. Um, I know what a lot of you are thinking, and I was thinking this myself. You know, I know nothing about stable coins, and and and that's totally okay. By offering this payment method, your customers who might be crypto-savvy or have balances in USDC, uh, you know, can now pay for your services, uh, or or your courses in USDC, and in the background Stripe handles all of that complexity, all of that logic, and we're just settling to you like any other payment method in USD to your bank account. So there's no additional uplift required by you. Uh, this is just a nice additional payment method that you can enable to target a broader range of of customer that might not necessarily want to pay in in traditional means. So it's not about being a crypto expert. It's about offering, uh, you know, uh the most kind of preferred payment, um, payment methods that that your customers want to to engage with. Uh, and and this is really just to highlight some of the, uh, powerful features of the Connect Plus OCS suite. One really awesome call out in my opinion is, uh, in the middle there you have this ability to customize payment method rules. Um, so if you want to, uh, have some smarts around only enabling, call it Klarna, on transactions over $500, you can configure those rules within your dashboard. But not only that, you can actually run your own A/B tests. So you don't need to be a software developer or, you know, someone with a data science degree to run these tests. You can run these tests yourself within the dashboard and say, I want to show Klarna on 50% of transactions and Affirm on the other 50% of transactions and start comparing and contrasting your own results. Um, and this is just if you want to go that extra step deeper and having that control, uh, in your your payment suite. If you just want Stripe to handle that logic and Stripe handle that smarts, the, uh, um dynamic payment methods function that exists through this Connect Plus integration will, uh, seamlessly and automatically showcase, uh, the most, um, relevant payment methods already. But if you are wanting to add an extra layer of control, you can do that as well. So that is a really neat feature that now exists with the Connect Plus integration.
Okay, cool. So BNPL, um, this, uh, is is one of my favorite topics and something I I now specialize in at Stripe. Um, so I think we've seen this tectonic shift in consumer spending habits, uh, you know, I said before, credit cards are once the dominant way to pay, uh, both online and in person, and then as a byproduct, either, uh, due to the environment we live in, uh, whether maybe it was the the pandemic
If it's economic uncertainty, or if it's changing, um, sentiment towards credit amongst the younger demographics, we have seen this rise in BNPL, um, and a shift towards BNPL having a permanent, expected placement in one's checkout suite.
Um, we're not just seeing BNPL used for high-ticket items, although that is a really ideal use case for BNPL. Uh, but we are also seeing BNPL be used for lower-ticket items. Uh, DoorDash recently launched BNPL, and now people are, uh, are buying, you know, uh, burritos or their meals, uh, on, on, on Cler.
Um, BNPL's growth in popularity has largely been underpinned by the younger generations. So a disproportionate skew between millennials, Gen Z, and uh, Gen X. And these are the, the generations that, you know, uh, are starting to have more money to spend and uh, have been known to have more expendable income. Uh, so a very important generation to, to cater to.
By 2026, uh, BNPL is expected to reach 24% of global e-commerce spend, and that is up from 9% in 2021. Uh, so it is, is, uh, growing exponentially. Uh, we kind of like can see this uh rising trend in BMP, BMP, BNPL as uh assessed in those uh first two slides. Uh, but in terms of the kind of brands that are most commonly used, I guess these are the, the largest players in the space, uh, so the likes of Affirm and Cler would be the largest players, mostly, uh, closely followed by Afterpay.
I think a really important call-out around BNPL is these brands have really enormous network effects, really loyal customer bases. So Affirm has 31 million customers, uh, largely located in, in North America. Cler has 150 million uh, customers, uh, that are largely global, and Afterpay has 20 million uh, customers that are also global, uh, both, you know, largely in America and, and the likes of, of Australia and New Zealand. But all of them have very similar, um, product offerings. So, uh, most of them have, uh, or both service 0% interest options and then also have interest-bearing options. So on the Affirm side, they offer pay in four and monthly installments, and then on the Cler side, they have pay in three or four monthly installments, pay later, and pay now.
Um, we have started seeing this uh trend that, uh, you know, if a BNPL isn't offered, um, you know, a consumer might not follow through with the checkout flow, uh, even if another BNPL is. And that's because, as I said, they're loyalists. They stick to Cler, or they stick to Affirm. Very rarely will they kind of rotate between both.
Um, Stripe conducted a study last year, and we uh, looked at 150,000 checkout sessions. Um, and, and we can send through this study to you guys as a, as a follow-up link, but more than 2/3 of uh, BNPL sales are net new. And that is to say that they don't broadly kind of cannibalize other payment methods, which was, uh, you know, uniquely interesting to, to unearth or uncover. Uh, brands that enable BNPL saw a 14% increase to their cart sizes, and then BNPL as well, uh, uh, increased conversion by up to 10%, or in other words, you know, reduced uh, cart abandonment.
This is probably one of my favorite slides and probably something that is the uh, most surprising, but when we talk about enabling BNPL, we believe it's really important to offer multiple BNPL payment methods, not just one or not just a singular. Um, you might be limiting your reach otherwise. Connect Plus uh, uniquely kind of unlocks um, consumer audiences from Affirm, Cler, and Afterpay in their single one integration. And this is uniquely important as each one of these BNPLs have a unique customer base. So, um, each additional payment method accounts for 90% uh, consumer coverage, and the consumer overlap here between each of these BNPL players is around 5 to 12%. So it's really driving home that, you know, they have very uh, unique customer bases.
So if the intent for, for you as a, a creator is potentially to, to go global or, or to service multiple markets, it becomes a necessity to ensure your customers, um, have their most preferred BNPL available at checkout. Um, and you know, through the advancements of the integration uh, and through the deep dynamic payment method that exists as part of Connect Plus, you know, if you guys have these methods enabled, we're just going to surface the most prevalent method uh, based on that consumer once we start to see and learn more of that data anyway. Um, or as I mentioned, you can have a little more hardcoded uh, approach to surfacing what payment method you want to offer and when.
Um, and yeah, I think I, I, one maybe like fun remark about BNPL, uh, is uh, during the recent uh, Coachella sales, um, BNPL accounted for 60% of all purchases for tickets, which is a pretty uh, crazy, crazy stat. But that wraps up my, my spiel on BNPL, uh, on uh, the capabilities of Connect Plus. And I'm happy to answer some questions if we have time.
Yeah, thank you for that. And, and it's hugely impressive, you know, everything there. Um, and yeah, that stat of 11.9% uplift, you know, stacking that on top of the uplift that we expect, you know, merchants and users to be able to uh, see from things like multiple bumps and tax-inclusive pricing and other things, it, it really starts to make a meaningful difference, especially if it's in an almost set-and-forget way. Although, like you said, you can go in and hard code bits there, but that's what we love about Stripe. Just so much, you know, that goes into R&D, and you know, a big thing with Connect Plus I would say now is that we, you know, this is an obviously a direct thing that's been, you know, we've built, uh, you know, built together, um, it gives us the ability to, you know, have some exclusive things like we will be the first in the world to have affiliate payments, uh, you know, when they come out, for example. We are, we are the company designing that with you, Stripe, so that's amazing, um, but it also means that, you know, just latest and greatest will come, you know, first or very soon to, to being first there, uh, you know, on the platform when available, and everything's just tighter in terms of integration and how things work together, and, um, and yeah, really excited to see, you know, what people can do on this new platform, thanks, you know, huge part to all the, um, you know, all the kind of R&D work and, and things you've been rolling out.
My pleasure. I think it's a, a testament to, to both teams. I wish I could take credit for, for all of the exciting features that were released or announced.
Cool. Oh, thanks guys. Um, I have a bunch of questions. So, thanks Devon for sending in questions. I think if we answered all of them, we'd probably be here for the rest of the day. So, I'm going to go through some for Asha while we have him. Uh, and again, very grateful Asha can join with the Stripe big conference coming up next week. The entire Stripe team are really busy. So, very grateful of uh, time for anyone. If we do not get to your question, we will either follow up with you afterwards or be some form of follow-up because quite a few of you have uh, one-on-one questions that make most sense via email, but we'll, we'll follow up personally with you afterwards.
Um, so, Ash, I'm just going to go through some of the questions that have come through. So, uh, first one, how does currency impact buy now pay later and other payment method options?
Uh, yeah, it's a, it's a really great question, and I wish there was a, a straightforward answer. Um, but, uh, depending on the payment methods available, uh, such as BNPL, there are kind of different currency requirements around like, uh, uh, different currency requirements that have to be adhered to for the payment method to, to be offered. So, for example, a US-based uh, Connect Plus account will only be able to offer Cler if the customer is based in the US and the currency is USD. However, a Thrive Connect Plus account located in the UK, uh, will be able to offer Klarna and transact with customers in the UK, in Switzerland, and in all EA countries where Cler has a consumer offering, uh, as long as the currency presented matches the currency of the customer's country. Uh, so, uh, that is all to say that it varies. Um, but I guess one of the benefits of Connect Plus and of using, uh, uh, dynamic payment methods is we're going to handle a lot of that complex logic anyway around what payment methods we present to your end customer. So we're not going to present a payment method to an end customer where it wouldn't be supported, uh, you know, um, as an example. So we wouldn't be presenting, um, as an example, uh, Cler in USD to a, uh, you know, UK-based, um, customer if your account was in the US.
Cool. Thanks. Yeah, that, that all makes sense. Uh, we have another question which is an easy one and I can probably answer myself. So quite a few of you asking how do you claim the Pro Plus upgrade? Hopefully in a couple of seconds if this all works correctly, you'll see a link just down the bottom left of your screen pop up. So for those of you who haven't got it, there we go. You should see it now. Just click on that link and you'll be able to claim the upgrade.
Um, and then some other questions related to support like we're more than happy to help you. We have to Ismail's point over 125 people in the team. Pretty much everyone is solely focused on Pro Plus and Connect Plus at the moment. So we'll help you get set up. So feel free to send in a ticket or, or reach out.
Um, so back to Asher. Um, one of the questions here, if I don't want to show a payment method, how do I disable it?
Um, well, first things first, it's completely possible to disable a payment method. You know, you're not locked in to, to offering a payment method if, if, if you know you're, uh, don't want to or, or against it. You have end-to-end control over the payment methods that ultimately are presented to, to your end customers and have that autonomy. Um, and so this autonomy, uh, and function is handled through your Stripe dashboard, your Connect Plus dashboard. Um, and uh, it can be accessed through the payment method settings. Um, given the DPM uh, feature previously discussed, um, we do kind of recommend not disabling payment methods because we're kind of already going to handle a lot of that logic around what to surface and when based on the customer and based on the data that we, we have of that customer. Um, but then again, if you do want to control that, you can. Uh, and that can be disabled in the payment method settings of your Connect Plus Stripe dashboard.
Cool. Yeah, thanks. I think a lot of people had similar questions around that. So, I tried to find the most appropriate one of all of those.
Um, another one that's come up quite a lot as well is how long does it take to get approved for Klarna or Afterpay?
Yeah. So, so businesses can generally uh, have uh, enable these payment methods in minutes without kind of additional, um, you know, additional, um, information required from these partners or, or, or from Stripe, um, on the assumption that the kind of MCC code of that business or of that creator is uh, supportable by, by the, by the BNPL partner. Um, each of these partners have varying, um, varying, um, eligibility requirements, uh, and MCC codes that they do support. Uh, but for the most part, um, you know, if your MCC code is supported, it's a flick of a button within the Stripe dashboard, and it should begin to surface within the checkout flow for your end customer. Um, really a lot of the kind of like requirements around, um, you know, whether it will show as well, uh, kind of comes down to also the, you know, consumer and, um, whether or not, you know, they, uh, you know, have an account with these partners or whether or not the transaction size is too little or too large. There's a bunch of variables that might dictate whether or not the payment method is showed, um, or if it isn't. And from our side, I would just add as well the way we've set up Pro Plus and definitely worth going in and checking, uh, what once you upgrade, uh, to, to Connect Plus, but it's been set, you know, all instant payment methods including BNPL have been set to auto on. Um, but yeah, definitely worth going in and having a check of that as well.
Yeah, thanks guys. That's really helpful clarification. Um, Asha, this might be a difficult one, but with the ThriveCore audience, very diverse. We have people all over the world. To Ismail's point, we're selling tens of millions of products per year or our users are, uh, who are also based all over the world. So, one of the questions is, uh, what new countries do you expect to get BNPL in 2025? And if you can't answer that directly, like any information around it, it'd be really helpful.
Yeah, I, I probably can't commit to any firm timelines on additional regions that we'll be expanding BNPL into. Um, but like one commitment I can make is that whatever region, uh, BN, BNPL, um, player has a consumer offering in, i.e., We spoke about Cler having, you know, an offering in the UK, in the EA, in, in Switzerland. Um, in any region where, uh, a partner has an offering in, uh, we will endeavor to ensure par so that we can also offer it on the Stripe side. Um, and I think as well, uh, there, you know, there is hope that we can begin to enable like cross-border for BNPL a little bit more broadly, um, you know, this is something that is often requested, um, and it's not, you know, readily available across the board just yet, um, but it's something that we, we hope to roll out, you know, this year, um, but I think kind of a follow-on from, from that question is really like something I want to highlight regarding like this partnership is we do our best when we listen to you and like we, we, uh, you know, working incredibly closely with, you know, Thrive, um, to, you know, have an incredible kind of Connect Plus product. Um, but what makes that product great is the feedback that we get from you. So if you have a market that you, you want to be unblocked or you have a feature that you like rolled out, you know, pass that feedback on so that we can actually then ingest that into our, uh, processes that we have in place to, um, to kind of prioritize feedback, and we can then actually start making a step forward to, to unlocking some of those requests.
Yeah, thanks. That's really helpful. I think for everyone's reference, for those of you who have spoken to support recently or in the Facebook group, you would have seen last week we had over a thousand comments in the Facebook group and significantly more one-on-one support tickets. We do read absolutely every comment that gets posted, and anytime there's feedback, we amalgamate it on the back end, and then we have a direct line through to Asha and many of the other team at, at Stripe, and we'll feed pass that feedback on directly. So, if you guys tell us what you want, like we're here to build the things that will you need to help grow your, your business. So, we're all committed to that. Please send in questions. Even if you feel like we can't build it immediately, we definitely do think about it and put things on the road map.
Um, I know Ashley, you've gone through a lot of data already, but do you have any more data, any specific data around conversion rate improvements, some adding buy now, pay later?
Yeah. Um, I, I, I think I, uh, I don't want to like give you a specific number because I think like broadly it does depend on, uh, the industry. It does depend on the products being sold at what price point. Uh, but what I can say from that study I highlighted was that, um, BNPL, uh, improved, uh, conversion for both small and large dollar value transactions. On the smaller side, that hovered around a 10% improvement on conversion, and then on the larger side for transactions between I think it was $500 to $1,500 that conversion increase was actually to the tune of 30%. So it was like exponentially larger. Um, and that's just because the larger the AOV or the cart size, the more of a, a hurdle or financial hurdle it often is for an individual. Um, and so where the BNPL is offered, it reduces that hurdle and, and makes, you know, um, that purchase a possibility, and as you said, you can switch that, right? So depending on the value, you can, you know, show different off different, you know, options you want to offer as well.
Correct. And, and I think why the kind of lower value transactions don't see as high of a conversion comes down to that kind of, um, uh, you know, uh, hurdle of, of, of being able to actually afford the, the, the, um, the item that you're, you're purchasing.
Yeah. And I think one thing to add from a, a marketing team perspective is we use Thrive Kart to sell Thrive Kart. We were the first user of Connect Plus. So we've been testing pretty much every payment method we offer you. We've been testing ourselves, and anecdotally or even just like looking at our data, it shows that buy now pay later, particularly for our higher price products or like a bundle tends to convert at a higher rate than, than without it. So for those of you who haven't tested it before, definitely worth testing if it's available in your, your market.
Um, I think I promised you Asha we would run 45 minutes because I know you're pretty much jumping straight on a plane very soon to Stripe sessions. So we very much appreciate you joining. Um, I apologize to everyone where we haven't been able to get to your question. We are going to have a look through the questions after the webinar. Someone in the Thrive Kart team, um, will reach out. But very grateful for everyone's time. I know you're all very busy running your, uh, businesses. Thank you very much.
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