Case study: How Juni + Yapily support ecommerce businesses

Ecommerce has been booming for over a decade, but the pandemic accelerated growth as consumers went online in lockdown. In 2021, total European ecommerce grew 13%, from €633bn in 2020 to €718bn. While an expected growth rate of 11% and a turnover of €797bn was forecast by the end of 2022, the current economic downturn means ecommerce businesses need to adapt in order to maintain growth.

What problem does Juni solve?

Running an ecommerce business is challenging and time-consuming, with small teams having to manage multiple bank accounts with thousands of lines of transaction data, monitor cash flow, track returns on Google/Facebook Ad spend, balance working capital requirements with tedious manual credit applications…the list goes on. All of this distracts business owners from what matters most to them: growing their business.

Powered by open banking, Juni’s platform aggregates data from multiple accounts onto one platform, automating all of these challenges to give ecommerce businesses a complete and accurate view of their finances.

This is especially important because banks are still relatively unfamiliar with ecommerce; it’s still considered a new industry with many unknowns, most notably credit scoring systems. That means getting access to working capital when it’s needed can be a challenge that forces businesses to apply for increased credit lines. This process is time consuming and doesn’t always result in access to the working capital they need to drive growth.

Even when businesses can access business credit cards, they often come with meaningless rewards like air miles that don’t support them in improving their bottom line.

Juni is changing this, actively helping financial leaders in digital commerce scale seamlessly by making working capital* readily available and easy for businesses to access. They also offer tailored benefits and rewards like cashback, that positively impact profitability and even help them get more return on ad spend.

*Credit available for UK companies only, upon eligibility. Terms and conditions apply. Penalties and interest may apply for customers that default on payments. See website for details.

A financial platform built for ecommerce

Juni was founded in 2020 by co-founders Samir El-Sabini and Anders Orsedal who, having come from ecommerce backgrounds themselves, were frustrated by the lack of financial services tailored to their specific needs.

This first-hand experience has allowed Juni to develop a platform aimed at solving the specific pain points of ecommerce operators, including cash flow pressure, the need for working capital, lack of clear financial insights, time-intensive manual reporting, and administrative tasks.

“Juni is a financial platform built for ecommerce. What that really means is we want to take care of the operational burden of managing their finances, so our customers can focus on what matters - growing their business.” - Shelley Havemann, Product Director, Juni

Juni recently raised over $206m to grow their platform and better serve the market, growing their team to over 200 employees in just two years.

Where Yapily comes in

With Juni’s vision to create an end-to-end financial platform for ecommerce businesses, open banking was the natural solution and was embedded into the solution from the very beginning.

As one of Europe’s fastest growing FinTech start-ups, Juni quickly realised they needed a more mature open banking solution which could provide high-quality integrations, broader coverage, and greater access to data in order to deliver more value to their customers.

"Selecting Yapily as Juni’s open banking partner of choice was a no-brainer; the depth, scalability, and reliability of its coverage enables us to meet the needs of our customers, now and in the future.” - Samir El-Sabini, Co-founder and CEO , Juni

Accessing real-time financial information with Yapily Data

Leveraging Yapily’s open banking infrastructure, Juni can gain access to financial information, accept instant payments, and create a better user experience for ecommerce operators. Yapily Data enables Juni to instantly and securely pull information from multiple accounts, giving consenting Juni customers visibility of their finances in one easy-to-use platform, in real-time.

“Yapily’s API provides a smooth and seamless integration working in the background, allowing us to have complete control of the customer experience. From a credit point of view, Yapily also provides a greater quantity and quality of transaction data than other solutions, allowing us to better serve our customers. Prior to Yapily’s open banking API, we could only access customer translation data for up to 3 months, now we have access to 18 months’ worth of real-time financial data, enabling customers to get real-time updates on their account balance and quick access to credit.” - Samir El-Sabini, Co-founder and CEO , Juni

Because Juni has a clear overview of affordability and creditworthiness, they can build and personalise credit lines that meet the exact needs of their customers, and safeguard them from excessive debt whilst mitigating risk. Even better, customers don’t have to apply for increased credit lines when they need them. Juni is able to proactively increase their credit availability in line with their spending patterns, and can even adjust credit in line with seasonal demand, when the ability to scale quickly to meet consumer demand is vital.

Shelley explained, “Instead of them having to come to us, Yapily Data means we can meet customers where they are and offer them a boost in working capital without them even asking. Open banking helps customers feel understood.”

Creating a streamlined payments experience with Yapily Payments

To offer an enhanced customer experience, Juni also streamlines its payments experience with Yapily Payments, enabling users to instantly top up their Juni accounts. While instant bank transfers are offered in GBP, Juni will soon introduce this capability for EUR accounts and other currencies, powered (of course) by open banking.

The impact

Since partnering with Yapily, Juni has:

  • Processed over £2m in open banking payments
  • Seen a huge uptake of their reporting product with a 500% increase in open banking usage since March 2022
  • Increased the number of high-value transactions, demonstrating a growing confidence in open banking
  • Increased account overview from 3 months to 18 months, giving customers greater visibility at a glance, and Juni a more robust credit decision system

Insights

Image description
Industry

Yapily

7th October 2022

3 min read

60-second success story: Arthur + Yapily

Find out how Yapily helped Arthur, an award-winning property management software platform, digitise the tenancy journey and reduce the manual headache of rent payment reconciliation using open banking.

Understand how Yapily helps Comma removed the manual headache of processing bulk payments for SMEs
Payments

Yapily

12th August 2022

2 min read

60-second success story: Comma + Yapily

Understand how Yapily helps Comma remove the manual headache of processing bulk payments for SMEs

Image description
Financial services

Yapily

25th May 2022

4 min read

How can SMEs save 200 hours a year with access to innovative financial solutions

SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy. However, their limited access to financial services has challenged their growth and survival. From cash flow insights to fairer lending and credit, are the financial solutions most needed by SMEs finally becoming more accessible?


Build personalised financial experiences for your customers with Yapily. One platform. Limitless possibilities.

Get In Touch