“Afterpay completely changed everything”
Sales surged by 30 per cent when fragrance and beauty retailer City Perfume offered Afterpay.
The Afterpay Advantage
Afterpay increased sales by 30%
Afterpay enables customers to access luxury, niche fragrances
Afterpay enables customers to purchase entire skincare regimens upfront
Afterpay helps City Perfume reach more customers
Afterpay alleviates the need to discount
For more than two decades, City Perfume has brought some of the world’s most luxurious and sophisticated scents to Australian shores.
In that time, the retailer has steadily expanded from one store to three and launched a thriving e-commerce business. But in 2017 when City Perfume began offering Afterpay the business saw a marked increase in growth.
“Since [partnering with Afterpay] we’ve increased our average basket size by about 30 per cent,” says General Manager Steven Haskas. “Afterpay has boosted sales significantly.”
Today, he says, one in four City Perfume customers pays with Afterpay.
“We started with Afterpay when it was quite new…. And it completely changed everything in retail.”
About City Perfume
City Perfume is one of Australia’s original perfumeries, having first opened in 2002. Then, as now, it offers niche and luxury fragrances, as well as a range of beauty brands. As a speciality perfumery, City Perfume prides itself on its knowledgeable and experienced staff.
“Our staff are considered fragrance specialists. [At City Perfume] we spend a lot of time with our customer, and we do a lot of master classes in store and online.”
Afterpay has grown sales by 30 per cent
When City Perfume began offering Afterpay, Haskas was unsure what to expect. “It was quite intriguing. I was familiar with the concept of layby, but [Afterpay] allowed customers to take the product home and pay later.”
Haskas says the effect of Afterpay was immediate. “When Afterpay came in, there was a 30 per cent instant increase in basket size, which has made a massive difference.”
Not only that, says Haskas, but Afterpay helps with cashflow by providing payment upfront, even though customers pay in instalments.
Afterpay has grown sales of high-end perfumes
Offering Afterpay has enabled City Perfume to expand its high-end, niche fragrance category.
Traditionally, these products, which retail for more than $500, “require more time, more explanation, and more [sales] experience for a customer to make a purchase.”
However, Haskas says: “Afterpay makes [the sale] a little bit easier because it breaks the $500 up into easy, fortnightly payments. [As a result], we’ve needed to start bringing in more niche brands and really expand that market.”
Afterpay helps City Perfume reach younger customers
Haskas says that Afterpay has also helped City Perfume expand its customer base.
“Afterpay has changed our demographic. It has definitely helped us tap into a younger market. It has made products more accessible to them. It’s given them more financial freedom and allowed them to budget a little bit better.”
“We used to focus on age groups to have an understanding of spend, and now we don’t. We focus on personalities, because now our customers can be anyone from 16 to 60.”
Afterpay drives customers to City Perfume
Over the past year, Afterpay’s Shop Directory has sent more than 11,000 referrals to City Perfume’s online store. “It’s fantastic,” says Haskas. “And we’ve found that referrals that come from Afterpay tend to come to us with a high intent to purchase.”
Traffic from Afterpay’s Shop Directory has become so valuable that Haskas describes it “another avenue of marketing”.
Afterpay alleviates the need to discount
To ensure the quality of its fragrances, City Perfume buys products direct from the local headquarters of international brands and doesn’t import from so-called grey-market wholesalers.
As a result, City Perfume’s margins are lean, which has made discounting challenging. “However, Afterpay has helped with that because it’s alleviated the need to discount. Buy Now Pay Later has become the offer by making niche products more accessible.”
Afterpay allows customers to experience product benefits earlier
Along with fragrances, City Perfume also offers skincare products, and Haskas says that Afterpay enables customers to purchase an entire set at once. “We used to have a lot of customers come in and maybe start with the face mask, and then come in the next week or the next month and take the moisturiser and then the serum.”
With Afterpay, customers are increasingly comfortable purchasing their entire skincare routine at once, he says.
Not only does this increase basket size for City Perfume, but it allows customers to see results faster. “All the products function together, and you need them all for it to work.”
Overall, Haskas says that Afterpay is easy for the business to use, and easy for customers, too. “Everyone knows what it is. Everyone knows how to use it. It’s fantastic.”
He says he would “absolutely” recommend Afterpay to other business owners. “In fact, I’d say, ‘Why don’t you have it already?”
All references to any registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Afterpay does not endorse or recommend any one particular supplier and the information provided is for educational purposes only.
Source: All data referenced throughout this case study has come directly from City Perfume.
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