Challenge

Kurashino Market allowed consumers to compare and request businesses online, but the marketplace could only facilitate cash transactions. This placed more of a burden on the customers as well as the business owners, who had to pay service fees to Kurashino Market. Minna no Market saw a need to expand the marketplace’s methods of payment to improve the overall experience for both customers and business owners.

Solution

After considering a variety of payment service providers, Minna no Market selected Stripe in 2020. In addition to having the right infrastructure for an online marketplace to implement card payments, Stripe Connect also addressed other payments needs that were unique to home services. It allowed customers and businesses to pay fees in a lump sum, adjust service amounts on-site, and deposit work payments.

“Payments are the lifeblood of any ecommerce business, so we couldn’t afford to make mistakes when choosing our solution,” said Tadashi Yoshioka, Director and CFO of Minna no Market. “We were convinced that Stripe Connect was the right fit.”

Results

After introducing Stripe Connect, the card payment rate improved. Increasing the number of payment methods also instantly improved the customer experience. Business owners on the platform shared that same-day payments have made their lives easier, as they now save on additional fees. Integrating Stripe Connect allows Minna no Market to quickly respond to issues such as price fluctuations and cancellation fees. Stripe also offered the right level of operational support for a platform that is predicted to expand quickly as the home service industry becomes an even larger market in Japan.