SMCP: on the cutting edge of customer experience

Established in 2010, the SMCP group is a global leader in accessible luxury, with its four iconic Parisian-chic brands: Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot, and De Fursac.

Olivier Brou is SMCP's Director of Treasury, Finance and Electronic Payments. Having an international customer base puts payments at the heart of his strategy. The group distributes its products across 1,500 stores in over 40 countries, and also has a very strong digital footprint through its e-commerce sites. One of its main challenges is ensuring all of its checkout and point-of-sale processes are homogenised and harmonised for unified customer journeys worldwide.

Four years ago, when SMCP was looking for a payment service provider, its main criterion was whether the partnering company could provide a standard offer suitable for its international presence.

Our solutions are designed for all of its customers and thanks to teams present in all four corners of the world, the company is able to meet all its international development ambitions. For Olivier Brou, the key was to find "a partner able to offer all the payment methods expected in each of the countries where we operate, offering one single type of hardware, one single platform, and for everything to be easy to use and implement". With our own acquiring licenses, Adyen is a one-stop shop, allowing our customers to avoid the complex situation of multiple suppliers and local acquirers.

After four years of working together, our solutions and integration speed have proven their worth. It took just two months to rollout checkout software for integrated electronic payment with Adyen terminals in 13 countries across Europe. Following that, it took just one month for rollouts in the United States and Canada. When SMCP acquired the De Fursac group in 2019, it also became clear how easy it was to integrate another brand, which was quickly and efficiently moved to Adyen by September 2020.

Our technology allows merchants to analyse invaluable transactional data: a wealth of information offering a better understanding of their customers' habits and trends. According to Brou, "Adyen makes it very easy for us to identify all our transactions, quantify them, and classify them by payment method for all of our companies in a simple, unified way."

This means SMCP is able to track all its transactions in real time and analyse them according to payment methods used, purchase value, average shopping cart or time of day. This is a major benefit when it comes to today's changing payment habits, enabling the group to develop the most appropriate loyalty programs for its customers.

Nowadays, retailers must also be able to offer the most modern payment methods and customer journeys possible. With more than 250 international and local payment methods, our merchants can offer the most relevant solutions for their customers. So SMCP can respond quickly and calmly to the rise in contactless and mobile payment methods, anywhere in the world.

"One of our main criteria for choosing Adyen was that we'd be able to accept payment solutions that were innovative at that time, at all our points of sale, and in all the countries where we had a presence: WeChat Pay and AliPay for Chinese tourists, and also more recently Apple Pay and Google Pay," says Brou.

In 2020, our solutions also proved their worth in an unprecedented context. In response to store closures, SMCP was able to roll out Pay by Link in all its French stores, a solution that means a buyer can pay for a purchase online via a payment link. The seller sends the link to the buyer's mobile phone, and the payment can be completed in a few seconds. For Brou, "During the health crisis, the Pay by Link solution has meant we've been able to maintain a very strong connection with our customers."

SMCP needed to find a partner that would allow it to expand wherever it needed to open points of sale and serve its customers. As Olivier Brou says: "We've found a true partnership with Adyen, a really strong offer, great honesty. Also, the fact they are easy to talk to, has meant we can roll out solutions quickly, easily and with a great success rate."

As well as its technological contribution, we provide support on a daily basis for retailers, with teams ready to help in every time zone. Our partnership with SMCP is long term, with a view to supporting the group's international development. It's a productive relationship whereby SMCP has the means to achieve its ambitions and to anticipate payment trends around the world.

One of SMCP's main development areas is sustaining the group's growth in Asia. Our solutions have just been integrated in stores in Singapore, and other countries such as Malaysia could quickly follow suit. The pay by link solution has proven itself in Europe and will soon be rolled out in North America. The group is also thinking of speeding up unified trade, and will be able to count on us to remain at the forefront of innovation, always working on ways to better meet the needs of its customers worldwide.