Stripe and Urban Outfitters Owner URBN Launch Payments Partnership

Financial infrastructure platform Stripe has launched a payments partnership with retail group URBN.

The collaboration, announced Tuesday (April 16) will see is designed to offer a more consistent checkout experience for customers making online and in-person payments at retailers including Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and FP Movement.

“Payments are a critical link between our brands and millions of URBN customers who expect checkouts to be as easy as trying on an outfit or adding items to a cart,” Dave Hayne, chief technology officer at URBN, said in a news release provided to PYMNTS.

“Stripe lets us stay focused on building the best unified commerce experience possible by removing the complexity of payments across our brands.”

The partnership will see URBN consolidate the bulk of its North American payments volume onto Stripe, a move the company says will bring about higher authorizations, improved reliability, more precise data analytics, and further potential for future payments innovation.

The Stripe Terminal will become URBN’s primary in-store checkout option in North America, while URBN is also using Link and Stripe Financial Connections to allow online customers to pay with their bank accounts.

Eventually, the release says, URBN will “use Stripe’s optimized checkout suite to display the most relevant payment methods to customers based on their device type, location, language, and many more factors.”

It’s a setup that will help URBN avoid becoming one of the retailers who “are leaving millions on the table at a time when customers are even more selective about their spending,” said Eileen O’Mara, Stripe’s chief revenue officer.

“Shoppers expect an easy checkout experience and businesses want high authorization rates. We’re thrilled our partnership will enable both for URBN.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown that 50% of consumers weigh the ease of a merchant’s checkout process when deciding where to shop.

“This suggests that businesses need to prioritize streamlining their checkout processes to attract more customers and improve their competitiveness in the online market,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year. “Ensuring a smooth, hassle-free checkout experience can enhance customer satisfaction and potentially lead, in turn, to increased sales and customer loyalty.”

Further data from “How Preferred Payment Availability Can Reduce Cart Abandonment,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Adobe collaboration, found that 70% of shoppers see the availability of their preferred payment method very or extremely influential when determining which online merchant to purchase from.