The Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price is pushing higher this morning following the release of a trading update.
At the time of writing, the buy now pay later provider's shares are up 1.5% to $6.38.
How is Sezzle performing?
Just like we have seen with Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) this week, the month of November was a strong one for Sezzle.
According to the release, November represented the highest monthly underlying merchant sales (UMS) performance since the company's inception.
Sezzle reported UMS of US$113 million for the month, which represents an increase of 188.5% compared to the prior corresponding period.
This means that the company is now operating with annualised UMS of US$1.36 billion, which is well ahead of its target of achieving annualised UMS of US$1 billion in FY 2020.
What were the drivers of its record-breaking month?
Key drivers of this growth were another large increase in active customers, strong merchant growth, and a very positive performance during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Management advised that active customers surpassed the 2 million mark for the first time in November. This means it has added over 1 million active customers since February.
Its launch into Canada has given this metric a boost. Management notes that the business is performing strongly in the country and producing faster UMS growth rates than the United States.
It was a similar story for merchants, with active merchants reaching 24,846 at the end of the month. This is a 164.5% increase year on year.
In respect to its Black Friday and Cyber Monday performance, management advised that it recorded UMS of US$28.5 million for the four-day period. This was a 146.4% increase on the same period last year.
It also revealed that Black Friday 2020 represented the single largest day of underlying merchant sales and transactions from active customers in the company's history.
Sezzle's CEO and Executive Chairman, Charlie Youakim, was very pleased with the month.
He commented: "We set new records over the month of November and the BFCM weekend, with UMS reaching a run-rate of US$1.36 billion (188.5% YoY growth), Active Consumers growing to over 2 million (151.5% YoY growth, and Active Merchants now exceeding over 24,800 (164.5% YoY growth). Our November UMS run-rate of US$1.36 billion is well ahead of our previous guidance of exceeding a UMS run-rate of US$1.0 billion by the end of 2020."
"In addition to our record setting performance in November and over the BFCM weekend, we are extremely excited about the direction of our business, as we recently partnered with GameStop and eCommerce platform Wix. Sezzle is now offered at GameStop's network of more than 3,300 U.S. retail stores, its online store, and in the GameStop mobile app. Our integration on Wix is available to all Wix merchants in the United States, Canada, India and in the future will be available in other regions as Sezzle expands internationally," he concluded.
