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Limelight Online are happy to announce we can now offer our Wordpress e-Commerce clients a point-of-sale alternative payment option that helps improve conversion rates with no delay in payment.

What is Layby?
We’re all familiar with the traditional lay-by option – the customer pays a deposit for an item, makes scheduled payments then receives the item when it is paid off in full. A New Zealand company, Laybuy have turned this old model on its head and are offering a 21st century version of lay-by that is proving very attractive to e-commerce merchants. 

Their modern take on lay-by lets customers purchase and receive a product in the usual delivery time frame, but pay it off over six weekly payments. Merchants make a sale and receive full payment within 48 hours of the transaction. Laybuy charge a small commission fee on each purchase. By offering this new payment option to all of our WordPress e-Commerce clients, Limelight Online have been able to negotiate an attractive commission rate normally only available to larger merchants.^[1]

Five ways Laybuy benefits merchants
The layby option benefits merchants in multiple ways plus Laybuy (the company) assumes any credit and fraud risk and takes care of all the heavy lifting involved in offering a lay-by service.

1. Increase basket size
   Your Laybuy-equipped e-commerce website displays a message alongside a product’s price reading ‘or 6 payments of $XX with Laybuy’. Attaching the alternative payment method literature to products can help increase basket sizes and resulting sales. Laybuy report an average order value increase of 50%.
2. Attract new customers and improve conversion rates
   This new option is designed to help customers smooth their purchase costs over six weeks, and Laybuy have reported an increase in new customer acquisition by up to 60%. An interest-free option with no booking fees or transactional costs, the purchase is designed to be more attainable for customers, resulting in improved conversion rates for merchants. Laybuy state that repeat customer purchases are made at a rate of 86%.
3. No further action required after set-up
   Because Laybuy deal with the customer’s payment schedule, the merchant’s business operates as per usual following integration. When a customer chooses to ‘Pay by Laybuy’ at checkout, the merchant receives the full payment (less commission) within 48hrs of the purchase and often the same day as they would with a normal purchase. This means merchants don’t have to manage the traditional administration, ongoing payment collections or storage of lay-by stock, and can be completely hands off if they so wish.
4. Merchant Account allows tracking
   Merchants using Laybuy are given a Merchant Account they can easily access for tracking and reporting purposes. Detailed Laybuy purchase data is fed to Merchant Accounts in real time, allowing merchants to download transaction reports as CSV files.
5. Social media and online shop
   Laybuy are heavily invested in social media marketing and feature their merchants’ products on their Instagram and Facebook accounts, helping them reach a wider audience. Laybuy also feature merchants on their website’s Shop Here page, which Laybuy reports receives more than 750,000 views per month.

How it works on your e-commerce website?
We offer the Laybuy option to our WooCommerce clients via an API. The integration with merchant websites is seamless and robust, so there’s no need to worry about site-wide changes that may impact page load speeds, functionality or security.

Your products will display the Laybuy logo under the price, with text showing the price divided into six weekly payments:

Clicking on the ‘What’s this?’ link makes a small pop-up window appear, explaining what Laybuy is:

And an option to select Laybuy is also offered at checkout:

Reputable merchants who use Laybuy
We’ve chosen Laybuy as an alternative payment method to recommend to our WordPress e-Commerce clients due to the NZ company’s strong business background, focus on merchant benefits and creation of a clean, hassle-free product. Testament to this are the household names already using Laybuy like Glassons, Hallenstein Brothers and Stirling Sports. Its also important to us to support NZ business and Laybuy are currently one of only two Kiwi owned companies offering this service.^[2]

Considerations
Choosing to offer your website visitors a layby option on their purchases is a business decision that only you can make. Here are a few things you should consider before proceeding – some financial modelling might be in order:

• What is the cost of not offering it if your competitors are? Will prospective customers choose to shop elsewhere if you don’t offer them the option?
• Do you get a good volume of sales or is your average sales order value high enough to warrant the commission fees? The reported larger basket size and higher conversion rates and customer acquisition figures would need to be factored into your decision making.
• If you have enjoyed repeat business from an existing client base you need to consider that they may now choose the layby option - you’ll suddenly be paying commission fees for purchases that you didn’t previously.
• So that you can make informed decisions about sales attributed to the layby option you’ll need to make sure your website analytics is set up to accurately record conversions.
• Finally, even though Laybuy manage the credit control for purchases, if your customer forfeits on payment and either ends up paying additional fees or has their credit rating affected, you’ll need to consider the potential ramifications for your brand if the customer doesn’t understand the distinction between your company and Laybuy’s role in the purchase process.

Next steps…
If you are keen to get this set up on your Wordpress e-Commerce website the first thing you will need to do is visit www.Laybuy.com to learn more about the company and we suggest you read the Shopper FAQs so that you understand what your customers will experience. If you decide to proceed you’ll then sign up as a Merchant and Laybuy will be in touch to give you all the information you need to get started. Note, you deal direct with Laybuy yourself and we implement the necessary code on your website to allow Laybuy to appear as an option in your cart. Be sure to mention that you are a Limelight client to get the preferential commission rate.

If you’d like more information you can drop us a line – we’d be happy to help.

_Footnotes: 

[1]  Limelight Online do not have any affiliation with Laybuy and don’t make any revenue from offering their service to our clients. Limelight clients must satisfy themselves that the Laybuy service offering is appropriate for their requirements.

[2] Although we are recommending Laybuy there are a number of other online layby services available such as PartPay and AfterPay and we can work with any that offer support for WordPress WooCommerce.