Dot and Bo to Launch Financing Tool Geared Toward Millenials

September 22, 2016  by Jane Chero in Business Strategy, Industry   

The service functions as a loan that allows shoppers to pay for a purchase in installments rather than paying in full upfront with a credit card.

The decision to incorporate the feature was intended to increase customer satisfaction and offer more payment options to its shoppers, especially millennials according to founder and CEO Anthony Soohoo who says, 60% of Dot and Bo’s shoppers are under 45. More than one-third of Affirm’s users are millenials.

Affirm charges retailers 3.3-3.5% for the service, which includes Affirm taking on the risk of the loan. According to senior vice president of retail, Len Eschweiler, most of its clients see a return on investment in the financing tool. For every dollar that a retailer spends, it will receive $30 back from consumers spending more than they typically would have on a product or from simply buying the product at all, says Eschweiler.

Dot and Bo ran a month long test with Affirm which revealed a “statistically significant” portion of consumers saw the payment option and gave it positive feedback according to Soohoo. He also said, although consumers leave the Dot and Bo site for the credit approval process the company did not see increases in cart abandonment rates or bounce rates.