Building trust in a marketplace ecosystem

Founded in 2014, Equippo is a global marketplace for used construction equipment.

On a mission to transform the process of buying and selling used construction equipment globally, Equippo has facilitated transactions to over 140 countries, establishing a network of 130,000+ buyers and sellers.

Equippo is a one-stop solution for the heavy machinery industry by offering an end-to-end online marketplace, online auctions, and innovative Fleet Solutions web-apps. Headquartered in Switzerland, Equippo has offices in Germany, France and The Netherlands, to empower the construction industry to become more efficient and sustainable.

122

Established

15

Countries

130,000+

Network users

Equippo’s challenge

Understanding that payment is a key component of a successful B2B purchasing experience, QLF Brands attempted to expand its successful B2C formula to the growing B2B segment. They have already established a partnership with Klarna in offering a smooth payment experience to their B2C customers, and look forward to mirroring the success in selling to business buyers.

QLF Brands identified a few challenges while assessing the scope of a successful B2B payment experience. Firstly, since QLF Brands is active in 29 European markets, targeting B2B buyers across all these regions requires a consistent and effective approach and therefore they preferred to work with a single supplier. Secondly, they would need a solution that is seamlessly integrated to their Magento 2 webshop to provide a smooth buyer experience and not disrupting their current tech stack. Last but not least, QLF Brands want to ensure highest customer satisfaction by providing high acceptance rate for orders, instant approval, and localized communication.

Realizing that building a custom solution was not desirable for QLF brands, they decided to search for a trustworthy B2B payment solution provider that could handle the process quickly, effectively, and securedly.

The solution

Sprinque’s “Buy now Pay later” solution solves this problem. By integrating Sprinque into their payment processes, Equippo can now pay suppliers first while giving buyers the flexibility to pay after 30 to 90 days, which usually is after delivery, giving the highest possible level of control to buyers. Simultaneously, the marketplace is worry-free about risk, debt collection, or using their working capital. This addresses the buyer's need to physically inspect the machine and facilitates a seamless transaction process. Sprinque's real-time fraud and risk assessment played a pivotal role in mitigating risks and ensuring the reliability of each transaction.

Some of the highlights of how Equippo benefits from Sprinque include:

The buyer is not the person who pays

In most companies (especially those with more than 10 employees), purchasing is done by procurement, while payments are made by the financial department.

Accounts payable processes

Finance processes usually require invoices to be uploaded to the ERP or accounting system for payment. This process can take anywhere from 7 - 30 days after purchasing.

Cash flow management

Businesses like to be able to first sell their products, before having to pay their suppliers. Or at least have some flexibility.

Results

Equippo now meets buyer expectations for physical inspections and secure transactions and has more resources to focus on its global growth. Upon the first month of integration, 25% of all deals involved Sprinque, and a month later, Sprinque already covered 77% of all transactions on the Equippo platform.

25%

Sprinque covered deals

in the first month

77%

Sprinque covered deals

after one month

An Example

Bill from South Africa, who runs a specialized rental company providing mining operators heavy equipment in the North Western province, had long been wanting to benefit from the lower European price level but struggled to find an easy and trustworthy way to purchase from Europe. Once he had the import permission in place, he was able to order a suitable unit in a direct online transaction from a French rental company, via the Equippo marketplace. It was as easy as checking the shipping rates on Equippo’s website, placing an online order and selecting Sprinque as his payment option. Now, Bill is able to enjoy the benefit of a lower price point, and can pay easily after physically inspect his orders.