Challenge

ThriveCart is a leading commerce platform for digital creators selling courses, memberships, and physical products. Since launching in 2016, the New York–based company has scaled to more than 75,000 creators who generate over $2 billion in annual sales across more than 10 million annual transactions.

During its first decade, ThriveCart relied on Stripe to provide creators with reliable and secure payment processing. But as ThriveCart’s platform grew, so did creators’ payment needs: they wanted to sell in more markets, accept alternate payment types, offer subscriptions, and experiment with pricing strategies.

ThriveCart noticed that customers would often abandon purchases in carts if a payment page didn’t feel localized, lacked their preferred way to pay, or did not offer buy now, pay later solutions. Creators needed an easier way to accept local payment methods without worrying about a complex setup. In addition, ThriveCart wanted to build automated revenue optimization tools to help creators maximize sales.

“We recognized the need for a deeper solution to work side-by-side with our own data to give customers unique tools and processes to drive conversions higher across their global sales channels,” said Thomas Smale, chief commercial officer at ThriveCart.

Solution

To power its next stage of growth and help creators maximize revenue, ThriveCart began developing ThriveCart Pro+ in 2025, a new platform offering dozens of advanced revenue optimization features.

“Stripe’s ecosystem was the only solution that offered the global reach and developer-centric tools to build this ambitious vision,” said Smale.

ThriveCart Pro+ is built on an updated integration with Stripe Connect and Stripe Payments that gives ThriveCart greater control over pricing and many more payment options. Working closely with Stripe’s team, ThriveCart rebuilt its integration using Stripe APIs, documentation, and technical guidance. The platform continues to use Stripe-hosted dashboards and Stripe Managed Risk for advanced analytics and security.

ThriveCart incorporated Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite into ThriveCart Pro+ to give creators access to flexible, secure payment experiences. With Stripe’s Payment Element, a prebuilt payment UI, creators can enable more than 35 global and local payment methods, including Amazon Pay, Revolut Pay, Zip, TWINT, Swish, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, and crypto. Creators can turn on new payment options with a single click, eliminating the need for complex coding or additional integrations. ThriveCart also added Link, a wallet by Stripe, to enable customers to check out faster by autofilling saved payment details. To further simplify the checkout experience, ThriveCart implemented Adaptive Pricing to display prices in local currencies while using the AI models built into the Optimized Checkout Suite to dynamically display the most relevant payment methods for each customer and transaction.

In addition to offering this improved checkout experience, ThriveCart Pro+ used Connect to combine payment data with internal platform analytics to help creators boost conversions. For example, ThriveCart’s multiple order bumps tool automatically presents relevant add-ons during checkout while its Recurring Revenue Upgrades tool turns upgrades into a one-click process.

Results

ThriveCart onboards 30,000+ new ThriveCart Pro+ accounts in first 60 days, increases successful payment rates by 5.2%

ThriveCart launched ThriveCart Pro+ in April 2025, targeting new creators in time for the busy summer sales season while offering existing customers a powerful upgrade. Within 60 days of launch, ThriveCart onboarded more than 30,000 ThriveCart Pro+ accounts, representing approximately 40% of its existing customer base. Since launch, ThriveCart has seen successful payment rates increase by 5.2% (some as high as 18%) thanks to Stripe’s AI-powered fraud tools that allow more legitimate payments to go through.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Merchants love the ability to turn on new payment methods with a click without any custom development. We’ve seen a direct correlation between the adoption of these new payment options and revenue growth,” said Smale.

Local payment methods such as Affirm increase AOV by up to 333%

By offering 35 payment methods using the Optimized Checkout Suite, ThriveCart Pro+ helps creators reduce friction. For example, the ability to offer buy now, pay later payment methods has led to higher average order values (AOV) in the US. Orders paid with Affirm average 333% higher than other payment methods.

Crypto payments boost conversion by 7%

By adding new payment methods, ThriveCart can help creators give customers a way to pay that feels familiar and trusted, leading to higher revenue and reduced risk of cart abandonment. For example, creators who choose to accept cryptocurrency have seen an average 7% increase in conversions.

18% of transactions made with Link

Since launching ThriveCart Pro+, Link’s accelerated checkout has become one of ThriveCart’s top payment methods, accounting for 18% of all transactions.

“Link’s one-click checkout dramatically reduces friction for returning customers. It perfectly aligns with our mission to ‘sell more, simply’ by making the final step of the purchase journey as seamless as possible,” said Smale.

19% average order increase with the new multiple order bumps feature

ThriveCart Pro+ uses Connect to power the conditional logic for its multiple order bumps feature, which displays up to six dynamic add-on offers during checkout. Creators using this feature have increased average order value by 19%. Meanwhile, its Recurring Revenue Upgrades tool has been shown to increase average revenue for creators by 30%.

“Connect is the engine that makes these powerful, revenue-driving results a reality for our users,” said Smale.