How Daniel Wellington went global with a payments-first approach

In 2011, Filip Tysander launched the now-classic watch brand Daniel Wellington. Just three years later, Daniel Wellington had customers in over 144 countries on every inhabited continent. This amazing growth is no coincidence, and has been driven by a clear strategy. Central to it: Payments.

Our partnership with Daniel Wellington works because of a shared focus on scalability.

"Without Adyen, it would have been less cost-effective to get the global coverage we have today. We would have had to hire more payment experts, and we would have had to spend far more resources on maintaining direct integrations to different banks and payment methods," says Natasha.

Daniel Wellington is not content to just meet consumer expectations, they want to exceed them. And they quickly realised that card payments as the sole payment option would not suffice globally. Most customers, no matter the market, prefer to pay with local payment methods.

"Through our partnership with Adyen, Daniel Wellington has been able to create a scalable checkout with access to the payment methods we need in new markets – all through one agreement and one integration," continues Natasha.

Having implemented local payment methods with custom payment pages in Portugal, Japan, and Australia, Daniel Wellington saw an increase in both sales and customer satisfaction.

Natasha says: "We see that consumers prefer the industry standard for payment and delivery. In the Polish market, the Dotpay direct transfer service accounts for about half of all transactions. It's the same with Paypal in Germany and Multibanco in Portugal. In the Nordics, invoice payments are more popular than direct transfer services. The ability to pay locally is part of an overall trend in ecommerce, where customer expectations are constantly increasing. Fast deliveries and a smooth experience both online and in-store are increasingly valued."

Today, Daniel Wellington is live in more than 50 markets with a variety of local payment methods. Like JCB in Japan, MultiBanco in Portugal, and UPI in India.

Daniel Wellington has made an incredible journey. But it hasn't been without its difficulties. As the company has increased its sales, like many other e-retailers, it has been exposed to payment-related fraud. With the help of the RevenueProtect risk management system, which is part of Adyen's platform, they have minimised these challenges.

RevenueProtect evaluates the whole payment flow and intelligently identifies potential fraudsters who require further scrutiny. This selection criteria is based on a combination of machine learning and pre-defined parameters set by Daniel Wellington.

When a high-risk transaction is identified, additional authentication mechanisms, such as 3D Secure, are automatically triggered. These security mechanisms block fraudsters and allow ordinary customers to continue shopping. The information is stored so that the fraudster can be quickly blocked and legitimate customers are recognised the next time they shop, so they don't have to authenticate themselves every time they make a new purchase.

Thanks to our partnership, Daniel Wellington continues to drive growth through payments.

"In addition to the strong service that Adyen offers, it's an incredibly good company to work with. One of the best things about our partnership is their knowledge – which they are happy to share. Whether it's evaluating new opportunities or dealing with challenges, fast and knowledgeable help is provided," Natasha concludes.