Challenge

In 2010, Bellroy launched the Slim Sleeve, a minimalist leather wallet that solved a simple problem for an era of skinny jeans and overstuffed pockets. The Melbourne-based company has since grown into a Certified B Corp selling bags, luggage, phone cases, and travel accessories to more than 160 countries. Its design philosophy has remained the same: remove friction from the objects people carry as they move through the world.

That global reach created a specific set of demands on payments infrastructure. Bellroy supports 13 currencies and nine languages on its website, sells through its own ecommerce store and third-party marketplaces, and is beginning to open branded retail locations. The company needed a payment partner that could support local payment methods across dozens of markets, enable controlled experimentation, and reduce engineering complexity. Each new payment method took months to implement, required coordination across multiple teams, and offered no guarantees the timeline would hold.

Solution

Bellroy chose Stripe for its ability to consolidate global payments into a single platform. Rather than building and maintaining custom integrations for each payment method in each market, the engineering team could build once and immediately gain access to more than 75 of the most relevant local payment methods, including BNPL options like Afterpay/Clearpay and Klarna. New payment methods could be activated in minutes rather than months.

The integration included Stripe Optimized Checkout Suite, which dynamically presents the most relevant payment methods at checkout. Through the Optimized Checkout Suite, Bellroy was able to surface express payment options—including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link—before the full checkout page. That enables customers to check out faster with their preferred payment method. The team validated each payment method or wallet through A/B testing to see which delivered the greatest conversion lift.

Bellroy partnered with Stripe’s professional services team for dedicated implementation support. Stripe provided guidance across Dashboard training, financial reporting, and fraud and disputes best practices, while also helping the team address technical questions throughout the rollout. That hands-on support helped Bellroy launch on Stripe more quickly and with higher confidence at activation.

Once the core payments infrastructure was in place, Bellroy was the first Australian retailer to join the Agentic Commerce Suite pilot. Because Bellroy already had well-structured product data, the engineering work required to participate was minimal. The pilot connected Bellroy's product catalog to tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, making it easier for AI agents to answer detailed product discovery questions directly from Bellroy’s data.

Results

Bellroy processes 100% of Black Friday traffic through Stripe after same-day cutover

Bellroy was already running its 50-50 A/B test with strong performance data when the incumbent payment provider went down during Black Friday. The team made the call to switch to Stripe for 100% of traffic immediately.

“That was the trigger for us to say, ‘A/B test over,’” said Mike Webb, chief technology officer at Bellroy. “We've never looked back.”

Since then, the company has processed all payments through Stripe and completed its full implementation in about eight weeks.

Early results show 5%–7% conversion lift with BNPL in Australia

With the ability to experiment on payment methods for the first time, Bellroy began testing BNPL and local options across its key markets. Early results in Australia pointed to a 5%–7% increase in conversion with Afterpay, alongside increases in cart size. Bellroy saw a similar pattern in Europe after enabling Klarna.

Bellroy cuts payment method activation time to 15 minutes

Because Bellroy built the integration once, adding a new payment method for any market is now a matter of configuration rather than engineering. The process takes 15 minutes. Previously, each method required months of development, testing, and cross-team coordination with no guarantee the timeline would hold.

“From an engineering perspective, you just have to build that once, and then you get access to all of the payment methods that operate in that way, ” said Webb.

Link captures 44% of checkout in Australia

Link captured a larger share of checkout than Bellroy anticipated. For Webb, that result signaled that many Bellroy customers were already part of the broader Stripe ecosystem and preferred the faster checkout experience Link provides.

“We were very surprised by the proportion of customers that were using Link,” he said. “That high share indicates that we're using the ecosystem that customers are familiar with.”

Bellroy connects its product catalog to AI agents as first Australian retailer on the Agentic Commerce Suite

Bellroy had already started seeing referred traffic from tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot, and that traffic was converting at a rate comparable to organic search. The team could see the trend accelerating, and with the effort required to participate so low, joining the pilot was a straightforward decision.

Bellroy uploaded its US product catalog to the Agentic Commerce Suite, allowing participating agents to surface products, pricing, and availability directly to shoppers. Adding new agents requires minimal additional effort.

“These tools allow you to surface the best qualities of your product directly in the places your customers live without you having to have that legwork done by your customer support team," said Webb.