Ford has signed a five-year deal with fintech giant Stripe, aimed at bolstering the automotive giant’s e-commerce strategy. This agreement is seen as a move to accelerate the easy payment experience for the customers.
Ford Credit, the financial services arm of Ford, which provides financing options for car buyers has agreed to this deal with fintech giant Stripe to scale its e-commerce business. This was announced by Stripe on the 17th of January 2022, and the deal will enable a seamless digital and e-commerce experience for customers and offer dealers an improved payment acceptance experience. With this, Ford Customers can carry out transactions using the payment system provided by Stripe. Stripe, which acquired the Nigerian Company PayStack in 2020 would handle the commercial customer funding of Ford in addition to vehicle ordering, booking transactions, route customer payments from the company website to the nearest local Ford or Lincoln dealer.
In a press release by Stripe, Marion Harris, Ford Motor Credit Company CEO, stated that Ford and Stripe have been working together to reimagine e-commerce payment infrastructure. He said that “Stripe’s platform will help Ford deliver simpler, outstanding payment experiences in any channel customers choose and scale improvements faster,”
Together, Stripe and Ford will grow the online payments infrastructure serving customers and dealers in markets across North America and Europe. Their work will deliver enhanced, reliable online commerce experiences for users, dealers, and the company. Stripe also will enable Ford Pro FinSimple solutions for commercial customers. With products like Stripe Connect, Ford will be able to scale new services that require a robust, reliable e-commerce backbone. Connect lets businesses create a platform to facilitate purchases and payments between third-party buyers and sellers. Ford will use Connect to facilitate a customer’s payments to a correct local Ford or Lincoln dealer.
“During the pandemic, people got comfortable paying online for groceries, health care, even home haircut advice from barbers. Now, they expect to be able to buy anything and everything online. Ford is making e-commerce possible, too, and scaling that strategy with Stripe’s help,” said Mike Clayville, chief revenue officer at Stripe. However, the rollout of Stripe technology is expected to begin in the second half of 2022, starting in North America. This deal is part of the Ford+ plan for growth and value creation,
About Ford Credit
Ford Motor Credit Company LLC is the financial services arm of Ford Motor Company and is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford Credit also provides commercial financing and lines of credit to dealerships selling Ford Motor Company products.
About Stripe
Stripe, Inc. is an Irish-American financial service and software as a service company dual-headquartered in San Francisco, United States, and Dublin, Ireland. The company primarily offers payment processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.