The Body Shop x Adyen: A rapid response for UNHCR

In February 2022 the world watched in disbelief as the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine unfolded, causing citizens to flee their homeland for the safety of neighbouring countries and others across Europe. With every day came more destruction and lives affected - something that is still happening now, over a year later.

As people flocked to social media to voice their shock, companies began devising how they could react fast to help those affected by the conflict. One of those was The Body Shop; a brand whose ethos stems from founder Dame Anita Roddick’s belief that business can be a force for good. She even set up her own non-profit charity in 1990, Children on the Edge, which works to support the world's most marginalised children across countries including Bangladesh, Uganda, and Lebanon.

When the beauty giant found out it could instantly enable donations to Ukraine through its in-store and online checkouts via Adyen’s Giving function, it was a no-brainer.

The Body Shop first began working with Adyen back in 2018, processing its in-store payments. Now, nearly five years later, we support both offline and online transactions across over 10 countries.

Over this period the brand has made the news many times for its altruistic choices and positive impact on society. This includes donations to global children’s charity Plan International UK, and gifting over 255,000 essential items to frontline NHS staff who worked through the pandemic.

Given its dedication to supporting those in need, when the war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, decision makers at The Body Shop’s wanted to act fast to contribute to raising emergency funds through its stores and websites.

“Dame Anita Roddick had imbued in The Body Shop itself an absolute reverence for corporate social responsibility,” Peter Hubbard, the brand’s Director of Business Partnering & Service Assurance, explained. “It is absolutely key to everything that we do. Like the rest of the world, we were horrified by what happened in February 2022 when the Ukrainian crisis started and we knew our customers would want to help. So we quickly looked at how we could use our stores and websites to raise crucial funds - and luckily our partners at Adyen were there to help us out.”

A unique solution that Adyen offers its business customers is its Impact initiative, includingGiving. Choosing a charity that is already onboarded with Adyen, a business simply switches on this function and provides several options of amounts to donate. Since this option comes after the payment has been made by the customer, conversion rates aren’t impacted, and both are processed separately. Furthermore, 100% of the donation goes directly to the cause as Adyen absorbs all fees involved, making it the perfect choice for The Body Shop.

“I was told we were going to be putting something new on our terminals to make sure that our customers can donate towards charities, helping those most in need in Ukraine,” Peter added. “Adyen Giving is a smooth and seamless way that our customers can support chosen charities easily and quickly.”

Thanks to a single integration, The Body Shop went live with Giving straight away. By March 2022 - a month after the war began - 18.7% of customers in France and more than 15% of customers in the United States contributed to the cause. Today, over a year later, The Body Shop’s customers and Adyen - who for a period of time matched all customer donations - have together raised more than £1 million globally for Ukraine.

“The response of our customers to the war in Ukraine has been phenomenal,” The Body Shop said. “Our market insights have long told us that The Body Shop customers are more likely to care about the world around them, and this data indicates that they are also generous supporters of essential causes such as UNHCR.”

Furthermore, data showed that the impact on customers was greater with the power to switch Giving on and off, avoiding ‘donation fatigue’ and stronger results.

The speed and success was amplified by the successful relationship between both brands when it came to shared goals and working fast, as Peter added:

“I have to say, it was very smooth and easy working with Adyen. They managed to accommodate our very aggressive schedule, help us perform all the testing, and it went smoothly without a single ripple.”

While customers donate in their masses, The Body Shop can rest assured that the business and its customers are protected thanks to Adyen’s fraud prevention suite,RevenueProtect. Starting this journey in the US and Canada, known for strict measures in risk rules, A/B testing showed that our Machine Learning led to higher authorisation rates versus the previous set of rules.

Now, having implemented Adyen’s Machine Learning 100%, auth rates remain above 90% in both markets. This means that, as The Body Shop continues to use Giving to support the relief efforts after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, payments continue to go through smoothly, with donations having already reached over £43,000.