Laybuy allows your customers to receive their purchase today and pay later. Increasing your customer’s basket size, improving conversion and removing credit risk – all while making purchases more affordable for your consumers. For retailers, Laybuy eliminates the cash flow impact and administrative requirements of an in-house layby or layaway system. It takes responsibility for customer payments while ensuring the sale is completed immediately. The merchant receives full payment within 48 hours.
With 20 years of banking and 17 years of retail under his belt, CEO Gary Rohloff first thought of Laybuy during his years at Ezibuy, a predominantly online shopping destination. “My son was wanting to buy a pair of jeans and said ‘Wouldn’t it be good if you could Layby online?’,” explained Rohloff. “He was a university student with a part-time job. I thought, why not pursue the idea from my Ezibuy days?” Rohloff spent the next couple of days locked away in his office drawing up a business plan and a financial model. He then rang a friend who introduced him to a business ventures company called Spring who works with start-ups, and from there Laybuy was created.
Rohloff likes to think of his team at Laybuy as an extended family and an immediate family. They have the ability to scale up to 50 people if necessary but has a small core staff, and this has been an excellent way for them to move quickly without the bureaucracy of a corporate environment. Every core staff member has been involved since Laybuy started and knows the business inside out. His core staff include; his wife Robyn who is in charge of brand strategy, human resources and banking, and his two sons – James who is head of marketing and Alex who looks after merchant sign-ups. “Working with family is the greatest and hardest of challenges. Especially when everyone is so invested and passionate about the business,” added Rohloff. “Working with family members who each bring different skills to the table has meant we can be nimble, adaptive and, most of all, brutally honest with each other. In four months, we have done what we thought we would achieve at the end of 2019. We wouldn’t do it any differently.”
Over 800 merchants have joined Laybuy since inception in May. The concept has remained true since day one; creating a system that is simple to use for both merchants and customers, which Laybuy has used as their mantra. They still have the philosophy of not overcomplicating anything, and any obstacle they face they have the attitude that they will find a solution. “The biggest evolution was the pace that we were able to make our in-store solution available to our Merchants. We had planned to make this available in 12 months and in reality, that was done in two months.” Rohloff said it was easy when you are working with the latest technology and had their endgame planned from day one. Their plan from the beginning was to think big. They have no barriers to where they can take Laybuy, and the team has some exciting new additions to their merchant list coming up and some very powerful user innovations for both merchants and shoppers in the works. “We know where we are going and have a very clear roadmap for our future expansion.”
Their audience changes with each retailer they take on. When baby stores join, they get young mothers shopping. When New Zealand designers join, fashion shoppers are using Laybuy, and so on. “As our number of merchants grow in specific categories, we see a whole new shopper audience joining Laybuy.”
Social media has been an extremely powerful tool in growing their brand and generating awareness. “We’ve received an extremely positive reaction from shoppers and merchants, and all we know is that everyone tells us they see us everywhere.” A large number of their shoppers are millennial and have been brought up in the social media and e-commerce era. Rohloff said they are fortunate that they receive social media support from their merchants in addition to relying on their own channels. “This has been highly beneficial. A win-win for all.”
Laybuy was created by retailers for retailers. It is the only New Zealand buy now, pay later platform that operates online and in-store. They have also developed some unique features that no other players in the market can offer. Available to any New Zealand resident over the age of 18 years old, when they sign up to join Laybuy a credit check is done through Centrix, and a limit is created for them depending on their pre-existing credit score, and then the shopper is ready to go. Laybuy has quickly become the payment platform for New Zealand designers. They were even invited to New Zealand Fashion Week because of the number of designers already using Laybuy. “What happens when a designer or retailer joins Laybuy is they become part of a database that is viewed over 900,000 times a month and growing by the day. The exposure to new shoppers for the designers and retailers is huge.”
For more information visit www.laybuy.com or to join Laybuy as a merchant email Alex Rohloff at arohloff@laybuy.com.
