Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP) shares are in focus as buy now, pay later (BNPL) companies look to improve their businesses. Block Inc (ASX: SQ2) shares are also in the spotlight as the company plans for growth.
Different businesses can reach in different ways, as they think about the best way to traverse the difficult economic situation that is happening with inflation and rising interest rates.
As reported by my colleague Mitchell Lawler, Zip is working on its 'Operation Blue Sky' plan. This looks to reduce business costs and make Zip economically viable without needing external capital.
What are the goals of this plan?
They include "the removal of $30 million in employee costs, stepping back global expansion, conducting more stringent lending scrutiny, and holding off on new product launches," as my colleague put it.
How is Zip going with profitability?
In the fourth quarter of FY22, Zip said its cash transaction margin remained "strong" at 2.4%. This is up from 2.3% in the third quarter.
The company has been focused on improving its unit economics. It's been taking action to deliver better credit outcomes across credit decisioning, portfolio management, and collections.
In the United States, Zip's actions have helped it trend towards short-term targets despite "further deterioration in consumer confidence and the external environment".
Zip US saw loss rates decrease to 2.7% of total transaction value (TTV). It exited the quarter with an expected loss rate of 2.2% for the late June cohort.
Management expects continued fine-tuning and optimisation will mean losses go below the target of 2% on a cohort basis before the end of 2022.
In Australia, the company experienced "a peak" in losses, with previous actions taken now "positively" impacting performance. This has resulted in a decrease in arrears roll rates, which is a forward indicator of losses. Zip expects the losses to trend down over the course of FY23.
Zip also decided not to go ahead with the acquisition of Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) so it would reach breakeven faster and earlier than anticipated.
Profitability could be important for Zip shares to regain some of their lost ground in 2022.
How does Block plan to deal with this environment?
For Block, which owns Afterpay, the business has three areas of focus. These are designed to allow Block to both grow and be resilient through what's happening.
Block chief financial officer Amrita Ahuja explained:
There's three top strategic investments for the Square business for some years now and into 2022. [These] are growing up market with larger sellers, who we've seen generally have greater resilience through macro volatility, growing our omni channel capabilities, which obviously again helps us navigate shifts in spending patterns across channels; and growing globally, which enables us to see a broader range of sellers, including outside of the United States.
And ultimately, it's that breadth of these systems, including the Square ecosystem, which has enabled us to be resilient through macro changes as we've seen, even during the pandemic, which obviously impacted the Square business particularly, and has enabled us to grow at a pace faster than the broader industry.
Foolish takeaway
Zip shares are down 75% in 2022. Time will tell whether the BNPL player is able to recapture investor positivity.
Zip is working hard on improving its profitability, so we'll see how successful it is at that.
Zip will report its full-year FY22 results on 25 August.
