Episode 52 -Payment Plans, the History of Credit and Selling More to Millenials with Charlie Youakim from Sezzle

eCommerce Evolution

When I first met Charlie Youakim the CEO and co-founder or Sezzle I was surprised by a few things he told me:

• Millennials prefer to pay with debit cards

• Only 1 in 3 millennials have credit cards

• Not having credit cards impacts the way millennials shop online and most don’t like the hassle of applying for a card.

Some regulations put into place after the recession in 2008 like prohibiting credit card companies from marketing on college campuses and raising the legal age to sign up for a credit card to 21 instead of 18 have all played into this. Sezzle has put together an interesting product that allows both merchants and customers to get what they want. The interesting thing is that Sezzle didn’t start with their current offering. As a long-time entrepreneur I was fascinated to hear how Sezzle pivoted from their original idea (which just didn’t take off) to its current offering with great success.

• How outerwear company 686 raised AOVs by 22% and increased total sales by 5% by offering payment plans

• How athleisure store Inflow Style raised AOVs by 40% and increased totals sales by 8% by offering payment plans

• How and when to pivot as an entrepreneur

• The 3 ways to grow a business and how payment plans can help with all 3.

• Plus the history of credit cards (call me a nerd, but this was interesting to me)...