Challenge

Wellness brand TENTIAL creates a range of products manufactured based on scientific principles to enhance overall health and agility, including lightweight apparel for freedom of movement and recovery wear that boosts circulation. The e-commerce site is designed to prioritise the entire customer experience, from product awareness to purchase and delivery, with a secure and convenient payment process.

Previously, TENTIAL faced challenges with other payments platforms due to incomplete documentation. Despite attempts to improve the situation through a detailed “plan, do, check, and act” (PDCA) process, organisational initiatives to enhance customer experience stalled.

“Then we found Stripe, which has gained traction among startups,” says Hitoki Wakugawa, manager in the platform department at TENTIAL Co., Ltd. “The payment experience was excellent, and the documentation was perfect for our implementation needs.”

Stripe is customisable to adapt to changing currency conversion rates and provides clear checkout steps with user-friendly input design. It met all of TENTIAL’s requirements, down to minute details like saving shopping carts and storing addresses.

“Payment failures lead to lost sales opportunities,” says Ryosuke Sakai, COO of TENTIAL Co., Ltd. “Although we were initially concerned about migrating our payment platform, we were confident that Stripe would simplify the process.”

Solution

Stripe uses the key metric that conversions drop when payment processing time exceeds 30 seconds. After implementing Stripe, TENTIAL’s e-commerce site now completes payments in just 27 seconds.

“Introducing Stripe allowed us to access the required data via an API and customise forms easily,” says Wakugawa. “Both development and improvements were straightforward. The support we received was ample, enabling us to address all our challenges and implement our entire list of features. The administrative dashboard is user-friendly, and our customer success team has praised the ability to confirm purchase statuses and address issues efficiently.”

Results

Stripe can quantitatively visualise various statistics, starting with payment success rates. After implementing Stripe, TENTIAL maintained a remarkable payment success rate of 98%–99%, above the global average of 90%–95%. TENTIAL’s previous payments platform lacked these analytics. Implementing Stripe led to increased revenue and enhanced management of refund rates – significant advancements for TENTIAL. Understanding the link between failed payments and customer retention is important for achieving growth, and helps define strategies to address these issues.

While convenience is vital, high levels of fraudulent payments can result in substantial losses. With tools like Stripe Radar, which employs machine learning to block high-risk cards, TENTIAL was also able to establish its own fraud prevention rules. Consequently, TENTIAL was able to prevent around 200 million yen in fraudulent transactions in the first 6 months after Stripe’s implementation. Unlike the trend of increased fraud with rising revenue, TENTIAL experienced a decrease in fraudulent transactions alongside its revenue growth, significantly reducing the burden of fraud management.

“From a different perspective, a key advantage of Stripe is the speed of deposits, which sets it apart from other payment services,” says Sakai. “This enhances our cash flow and positively impacts our finances. Stripe is also poised to be a vital partner as we strengthen our global e-commerce operations and expand into Asia and North America.”