The Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) share price will be one to watch this morning after the release of an update from the buy now pay later provider.
What did Laybuy announce?
This morning the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) rival announced that it experienced stronger than expected growth throughout the month of November. This was driven by an increasing number of consumers making use of its payment platform.
According to the release, purchases made using Laybuy reached NZ$71 million in November, which represents an increase of 56% on October's gross merchandise value (GMV).
This is also well ahead of the forecasts made with its half year results, which were released just over a week ago. At that point, management estimated that November's GMV would be NZ$61 million.
Laybuy's Managing Director, Gary Rohloff, commented: "The results Laybuy experienced in November is a continuation of the very strong GMV growth we have been experiencing throughout the year, with GMV up 220 percent year-on-year to 30 November 2020. While November is traditionally a strong retail month, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday signalling the start of the Christmas shopping period, the November results far exceeded our expectations."
Laybuy reported a 19% increase in active merchants and a 14% in active customers over October and November. This means that in the past eight weeks, the company has seen 79,300 new customers sign-up and make use of Laybuy.
Growth across markets.
Pleasingly, strong growth was experienced in all three of the markets the company operates in. Though, management notes that the standout performer was the United Kingdom market.
Mr Rohloff explained: "Compared to October, purchases made using Laybuy in the month of November increased by 33 percent in both Australia and New Zealand, while sales surged by a staggering 79 percent in the United Kingdom."
"The growth demonstrates the strong marketing strategy Laybuy is employing in the United Kingdom is having an impact – with recent sponsorship agreements with Manchester United and Manchester City and our partnership with Arsenal, for example, helping increase Laybuy's brand recognition amongst those clubs millions of fans," he added.
The managing director concluded: "At Laybuy we have a goal of creating a global brand and the rapid growth we are experiencing is positioning the company well to be the leading Buy Now, Pay Later provider in the market."
