ChargeAfter EINAT ETZIONI EVP Marketing, ChargeAfter

Einat is one of the most successful tech marketers in Israel. She recently joined ChargeAfter to lead the company’s marketing as it scales its offer of embedding lending choices into omnichannel customer journeys.

Q Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Sure! My background is rooted in the tech industry, where my career spanned various roles before transitioning to marketing. I honed my skills in operations as a COO for several years and as a Managing Director of a subsidiary of a global company. As a marketer, this experience has been invaluable, especially the ability to align marketing initiatives with overall company goals and grasp the impact of marketing on business outcomes.

Last year I joined ChargeAfter, a pioneering force in the Embedded Lending Network domain, to lead the marketing strategy. I’m very excited about how the company is using technology to redefine the role of financing within customer journeys which has lagged compared to other innovations in the retail space.

I’m also active in the G-CMO Forum—an esteemed community of CMOs from global companies, startups, and VCs in Israel. The forum offers a way to contribute my insights and educate myself on the latest developments in SaaS marketing.

As well as my day job, I am a public speaker on various B2B marketing topics. Additionally, I am deeply passionate about championing women in leadership roles and proudly serve as a mentor to aspiring marketing professionals.

Q You spoke about embedded lending, can you explain what it is? How mature is the market?

Embedded lending is when lending products and services are integrated into non-financial ecosystems, like at checkouts where shoppers pay for their purchases, also known as points of sale.

This model of financing benefits the entire ecosystem. Shoppers gain easy and personalized access to credit, merchants benefit from increased average order values and a growing, more loyal customer pool, and lenders expand their customer base through partnerships with merchants.

While the market for point-of-sale embedded lending is relatively new, adoption rates are growing exponentially. Analysts predict the market will reach $32.5 billion by 2032, driven by merchants responding to consumer demand and turning their embedded lending offer into a strategic priority.

Q Can you expand upon why point-of-sale financing is becoming a strategic requirement for merchants?

Unlike other areas of the customer journey which have evolved to enable choice and personalization, point-of-sale financing lags and is a very fragmented experience. The example I like to give is how the role of delivery has changed. In the past, it was retailers who controlled how and when to deliver goods to their customers, now shoppers control how and when to receive their goods.

Compare this to the experience of shoppers applying for financing at checkout. Currently, most retailers work with a single lender, maybe two. A shopper who is declined for a loan at checkout has limited options. They either apply to another lender or abandon their cart. This can be an unpleasant and even distressing experience, especially when it happens in-store. Meanwhile, for the retailer, not only is this a lost sale but a lost customer.

Point-of-sale financing opens the door to financial inclusion. Younger and underserved shoppers are adopting point-of-sale loans as an alternative to credit cards with their high-interest rates and stringent approval requirements. This is compounded by inflation. People who weren’t applying for financing at the beginning of 2022 are doing so now. At the same time, lenders are tightening their credit boxes and approving fewer loans.

By prioritizing point-of-sale financing, retailers benefit from higher conversion rates, more sales, increased average order values, and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Q You mention how the customer journey is evolving. What are the main changes you see and how do they link to the embedded lending experience?

One of the strongest trends I’m seeing is the growing demand for omnichannel experiences. Today, shoppers expect to navigate easily between online and of- customers quick, convenient, and personalized financing choices at the point of sale.

Through our platform shoppers complete a short application and are instantly connected to multiple lenders that cover the entire credit spectrum. The platform matches shoppers to the best financing option/s based on their eligibility through a waterfall approach.

Retailers that integrate with ChargeAfter provide their customers with a seamless financing experience online, in-store, and at every point of sale, successfully providing personalized financing choices to all of their customers, regardless of their credit score

What’s more, retailers easily manage the entire financing process, from early application to purchase, dispute management, chargebacks, and refunds on the platform. It also provides essential data and business insights that enable retailers to optimize their lenders, marketing efforts, and more.

Our approach to embedded lending works!

According to our platform data, applications for consumer financing increased by 62% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year. What might not be so intuitive is that we have seen an increase in approval rates. We believe that this is a combination of two factorsmore applications from shoppers with high credit scores and the strength of our waterfall model and the multi-lender network.

Q Can you explain a bit more about how the waterfall method works?

Sure. When a customer submits a financing application through ChargeAfter, it is checked against prime lenders for approval. If the application is declined, it moves to near-prime or “second look” options for approval, and then to sub-prime lenders, with products such as “lease-to-own”. This entire process is fast, only taking a few seconds, and results in a very high approval rate for applicants, often above 80%.

Q What is the benefit of embedding over 40 lenders onto the platform?

Lenders usually offer specialized financing according to different criteria, such as type of financial product, type of customer (prime, near-prime, subprime), industry specialty, and geography. Our network provides a diverse range of financing solutions for every budget and credit situation, whether the customer has a long credit history or is a first-time buyer. Merchants choose which lenders to integrate into their financing offer.

Each lender has its own set of terms and conditions, interest rates, and repayment schedules, giving consumers a wide range of options to choose from based on their needs and financial situation. There is a wide range of loans and financing options on the platform that cover different products such as leaseto-own, long-term and short-term installment loans, buy now pay later (BNPL), 0% APR, revolving- lines- of credit, etc.

B2B customers are an underserved market with limited POS financing options and extremely low approval rates, so we are focusing on adding B2B lenders to our portfolio to meet that growing demand.

Q What types of retailers use ChargeAfter’s platform?

Our platform is great for retailers who sell big-ticket items such as furniture, home appliances, fashion, and electronics or big-ticket services like dentistry, elective surgeries, and beauty and wellness treatments. These products and services can be out of reach for many customers and even financially resilient customers may prefer to spread out their payments over time instead of paying everything upfront. That’s exactly where ChargeAfter comes in with an easier and more accessible way to purchase these products and services.

As we white label our platform, it is popular with enterprise retailers who can integrate it effortlessly into their brand, as well as mid-size and large retailers.

Q How easy is it to integrate your brand into my brand?

Extremely! Our plugin effortlessly integrates into retailers’ e-commerce and point-of-sale systems. Depending on the needs of the merchant, integration can take a matter of days or weeks. Our experienced and dedicated team is on hand ensuring the process is fast and straightforward.

Q How are banks responding to the rise of embedded lending?

Fintech companies have taken the lead with embedded financing which is currently diverting $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenues away from banks. What’s more, banks are losing key demographics like younger or new-to-credit consumers who are turning to alternative financing options.

Banks are recognizing the need to adapt and provide more flexible payment options to merchants to retain their customer base. Similarly, just like retailers, banks have their own areas of expertise. And embedding their products into customer journeys isn’t one of them. This is why ChargeAfter white labels our platform for banks to provide their lending products to retailers at checkouts.

Q How is marketing ChargeAfter different from other companies you’ve worked at? What are the differences and challenges you face?

As the EVP Marketing, I am excited to play a pivotal role in carving a path to success in this new landscape. I face the unique challenge of educating the market about the benefits of a platform-first approach to consumer financing without being confused as a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) or a traditional lender.

The main challenge is raising awareness around the concept of an embedded lending network and how it can revolutionize the way merchants provide financing options to their customers. This positioning challenge demands clarity in our messaging to prevent any misconceptions and ensure we are recognized as a comprehensive platform solution.

By focusing on the unique value proposition of our platform-first solution, and addressing potential misconceptions head-on, we can effectively navigate the challenge of educating the market and establish ChargeAfter as the go-to provider for embedded lending platforms for point-of-sale financing.