SEZZLE SAVE

Sezzle empowers young adults to save money for future expenditures or finance their current Sezzle installments. The platform offers a variety of features, including the Sezzle Points program, which creates an innovative space for young adults to shop from expertly curated collections of merchants using

their earned Sezzle points. Sezzle's mission is to promote financial empowerment for the next generation by fostering a sustainable cycle of mindful spending, responsible budgeting, and savings. This approach enables customers to establish strong financial habits.

This project is to revitalize Sezzle by developing a new platform. In collaboration with Cornell Tech students, we conducted comprehensive research to analyze the company, identify challenges, and propose solutions that have the potential to elevate the brand's presence and impact.

DATE                  Jan 2022 - May 2022
‍
TAGS                  UI/UX, Product Studio

INSTRUCTOR    Josh Hartmann
‍
DESIGNER         Jialin Huang     ‍

(About)
(this)
(project)

Research

BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) Insights

The BNPL industry is rapidly evolving with emerging competitors and changing market dynamics, central to which are consumers, retailers, and financial institutions.

Types of Providers:

  • Direct Providers: Offer BNPL services directly to consumers at the point of sale. E.g., Affirm, Klarna.
  • Retroactive Providers: Allow consumers to choose financing post-purchase. E.g., American Express, Chase.
  • Facilitators: Traditional payment companies that now offer BNPL solutions, like Mastercard and Stripe.

Platform Analysis

Sezzle's Performance & Demographics:

  • Target Audience

Gen Z.

  • Growth Metrics (Q3 2019)
  • Revenue: Rose by 78.8% to $28.5 million.
  • Active merchant accounts: Climbed by 112.5% to 44,400.
  • Active customers: Grew by 77.8% to 3.2 million.
  • Merchant sales: Increased by 101.9%, reaching $460.7 million.
  • Social Responsibility Initiatives
  • Environmental: In partnership with Trees.org, Sezzle provides new users an opportunity to contribute to tree planting.
  • Financial Empowerment: Sezzle promotes and aids users in building sustainable financial habits. accounts: Climbed by 112.5% to 44,400.
  • Industry Concerns
  • Ethics: BNPL is sometimes equated with payday loans, giving rise to ethical concerns.
  • Data Security: Public trust has been shaken due to high-profile data breaches at companies like Solarwinds and Equifax, highlighting the paramount importance of robust information security measures.

Competitive Company

Interview

I had the privilege of interviewing seven individuals: six students from Cornell Tech and Parsons School of Design, and a product manager from Sezzle. The aim was to dive deep into the user experience of BNPL services and gather insights from both user and designer perspectives.

// Solution

After my ideation, I make a questionnaire and receive 159 responses based on their interested in BNPL and Sezzle Save program. By studying their daily consumption behavior. I got the result below:

  • Practicablity of a spending habit tracking tool
  • Helpfulness of personalised recommendations
  • Inclination towards having anonymized data on spending habits shared it with partner merchants for discounts/Sezzle points
  • Using a “help you build you” model to save while purchasing something
  • Preferred percentage of savings if inclined towards doing so

// AB TESTING

01.

Add item to shopping cart

We initiated offline testing for two scenarios, simulating a checkout interface to evaluate the practicality of the 'round up' feature for our test group.

02.

Enter shipping address

Users input their shipping address.

Experiment A

Sezzle Safe after checkout

Introducing Sezzle Safe after the checkout process, directing interested users to the Sezzle website for more information.

Experiment B

Sezzle Safe during checkout

The Sezzle Safe round-up feature automatically transfers 5% of the total purchase price to the user's Sezzle Wallet. This functionality promotes financial empowerment by encouraging responsible spending and saving habits.

// Results

75% of respondents, they expressed a preference for seeing the Sezzle Save option during the checkout process. Some respondents mentioned that they tend to exit the checkout interface swiftly after completing their payment, resulting in little attention paid to any advertisements displayed after the transaction is approved.

// Prototest

Login and select the items you want to buy

Select items through filter

Make purchases using Sezzle save

Introduce to Sezzle Save

Welcome to Sezzle

Introduce to Sezzle Save (Desktop Website)