Turning dreams into reality with inclusive finance options
How Snap opened the checkout of one of the UK's most-loved sleep brands to financially underserved shoppers — without ever compromising on responsible lending.
The opportunity
At Snap Finance, we know that for retailers, customer confidence is what converts demand into sales - especially for considered, needs-based purchases in home and furniture retail.
To build that confidence, many customers turn to retail finance when they ask, "can I afford this?". Done well, it's a powerful asset for brands, empowering customers, enhancing their purchasing power, and unlocking demand.
Today, however, millions of UK adults remain cut off from traditional retail finance and with mainstream credit tightening, it's a growing challenge.
Simba Sleep wants every customer to benefit from its innovative products. Snap offered the ideal solution to enhance its retail finance offering.
About Simba Sleep
Since it was founded in 2015, Simba has emerged as one of the UK's most recognisable sleep-technology brands and holds a coveted place among the world's most highly-reviewed five star companies.
Best known for its mattresses and Hybrid® range, the brand harnesses data-driven design — drawing on body-profile information from 10 million sleepers and 180 million data points. Simba's expertise reaches well beyond mattresses, into award-winning pillows, bedding, duvets and toppers, each engineered to solve a common sleep problem.
Alongside its ecommerce operation, Simba sells through major retailers like Bensons for Beds, Land of Beds, Barker & Stonehouse and John Lewis — making its products more accessible nationwide. Its growth into a multichannel leader has been fuelled by innovation and a commitment to excellence, paired with ethics and responsible business, reflected in its B Corp status, a smaller carbon footprint and responsible sourcing.
350k+
Five-star reviews ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
+100
Industry awards 🏆
What Simba needed
Mattress purchases are rarely taken lightly. Customers come to Simba for its dedication to engineering the perfect night's rest, and increasingly, they expect payment options that help them spread the cost.
Simba recognises the importance of point-of-sale (POS) finance by adopting a multi-lender approach to offer customers a range of credit options depending on their preferences and financial circumstances.
These include interest-free options to spread purchases over 3, 6 or 12 months alongside interest-bearing options for longer repayment lengths up to 48 months.
Access to finance couldn't become a barrier for the customers Simba had worked so hard to win.
Importantly, this also includes making its products accessible to millions of financially underserved adults and those who struggle to access credit from mainstream providers.
To achieve this, Simba needed a retail credit provider which specialises in offering broader access and a second chance through responsible, inclusive lending.
Alongside approving more credit applications, Simba Sleep needed an alternative POS lender that didn't also mean a big price tag for financially underserved customers, effectively making the brand inaccessible. The brief not only reflected Simba's sales strategy, but its position as a brand which prides itself on ethical, responsible practices.
They needed a retail finance provider that puts people first.
How Snap broadens access
Our award-winning Income Portal
Rather than leaning on a single credit score that locks people out, we utilise traditional and alternative data sources.
Snap’s Income Portal combines multi-bureau data with Open Banking and is the first in the UK to bring Universal Credit and HMRC data into a fully digital income verification journey.
Fairer, individual pricing whitespace
Risk-based pricing with dynamic APRs, tailored to each customer's risk profile rather than a static rate.
That means fairer, individualised pricing for customers and higher approval rates with sustainable sales growth for retailers.
Wider access, done responsibly
Snap's award-winning use of Open Banking data across affordability verification, income verification, and score enhancement moves credit decisioning beyond a one-size-fits-all approach — delivering a more accurate, current view of each customer's true financial circumstances, and widening access responsibly.
A second chance, built into the checkout
Snap worked with Simba to onboard our solutions into its checkout to offer a fully integrated, digital journey for customers struggling to access mainstream credit.
Our solution has also enhanced customer choice as they consider, plan and evaluate their purchases.
If the lending options from Snap are better suited to customers' financial circumstances, such as if they have previously been declined by other lenders, customers have the choice to pay with Snap at the checkout without having to apply elsewhere first.
Designed to complement - not compete
Snap gives customers who have been declined by a primary lender a second chance at accessing retail credit through second-line lending, picking up sales that would otherwise be lost.
With Simba, Snap sits directly at checkout through their seamless Shopify plugin, giving customers more choice at checkout. Plus, Snap also operates as a second-line lender - using advanced credit decisioning and market-leading affordability assessment to approve eligible customers declined by the primary lender.
The impact and results
50%
higher average order value than site norm
10x
higher acceptance vs previous second-line lender
17%
of first-line declines now approved by Snap
Alongside great feedback from customers, since partnering with Snap, Simba has been able to approve 17% of first-line declines.
This represents a 10x higher acceptance rate compared to Simba's previous second-line lender. In tandem, Simba has experienced a 50% higher average order value (AOV) than the site norm, reflecting the increased confidence customers feel to fill their baskets and expand their spending decisions to access the essential, quality products they need to improve their everyday lives.
The additional value when partnering with Snap
Snap has also collaborated closely with Simba across our customer-facing marketing channels, teaming up on customer competitions. Simba contributed a standout prize of a Hybrid Luxe bundle worth over £2,600, and the competition was promoted through Snap’s existing customer emails and paid social campaigns. The results were impactful with over 6000 entries in 4 weeks, 56% of entrants being brand new to Snap, and 32% opting in to third-party contact, opening the door to future engagement for Simba.
Simba also features regularly across Snap's website, email, and social content - reinforcing the strength and visibility of the partnership.
Collaborative customer competition results:
£2,600
standout prize
from Simba
6,000
entries in under
4 weeks
56%
of entrants were
new to Snap
32%
opted in to third party
communication
