Giorgio Moretti [Scalapay]: «We have reached 13 million users across Europe»

On June 18th and 19th, we traveled to Milan to attend the first edition of The Visionary Exchange, the innovative international event organized by Scalapay. This new event format brought together leading executives and experts from retail, fashion, and culture to discuss the evolution of leadership and consumer behavior.

In this context, we had the opportunity to speak with Giorgio Moretti, VP France & Iberia at Scalapay. With him, we took a close look at the key pillars of its Buy Now, Pay Later model, its omnichannel strategy, and the differentiating value that has established the company as a benchmark in Europe.

Before anything else, let us set the stage a bit. Tell us who you are and what you do at Scalapay, Giorgio.

I am Giorgio Moretti. I have been working at Scalapay for seven years, and I am currently Scalapay’s VP France & Iberia. I started in Italy, overseeing the entire commercial side of the business, and then, as we expanded into more countries such as France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, I moved to Barcelona to manage all of Southern Europe. However, for a little over a year now, I have been focused exclusively on managing Iberia (Spain and Portugal) as well as France.

As you can see, our focus is Europe, and in particular we try to concentrate on the four most important countries for us, which are Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal. At the end of the day, if you think about it, our job is to offer credit to customers, and if you want to do that really well, you need to know your users extremely well. That means we need to understand our customers in each country and have precise information.

What is this event? What is The Visionary Exchange by Scalapay 2026?

We have tried to create an event that is a little different, one that is not only about business, but also about people. We want to put people at the center and give them the opportunity to share both their professional and personal growth experiences, while also building relationships among C-level executives from different companies.

We decided to get closer to people’s challenges because it is true that we always talk about companies, but ultimately, people are behind every company. That is why The Visionary Exchange is a somewhat different kind of event, also inspired by TEDx, where each speaker can talk about their career, their experience, and from there build connections with everyone attending the event.

Within Buy Now, Pay Later, what would you say you specialize in? Which niches do you stand out in?

We started by offering a three-installment payment option, and then we also introduced the four-installment formula, which is very popular. Likewise, among our products, in addition to BNPL, we also offer immediate payment and 12- and 18-month financing, both internally and through external partnerships. For example, in Italy we work with Deutsche Bank, and in Spain with BBVA.

Another very important strategy for us has been our omnichannel strategy, which has worked very well, especially considering that we launched the company in 2019 and then COVID arrived in 2020. But 2020 was actually a very important year, because beyond the strong online focus, customers later returned to physical stores, which made our omnichannel solution perform very well and turn into a key strategic bet.

And I can say that from the beginning, our vertical focus has been both Fashion and Beauty, where average order values tend to be low to mid-range and purchase frequency is high. That said, over the years we have expanded into more verticals, for example, Travel, which is currently the fastest-growing vertical at the European level, across all countries. Today, we are not only active in retail, but also in consumer services: dental, clinics, veterinary practices, and more.

In terms of marketing initiatives, where are you currently focusing your efforts?

I would say that at the beginning, of course, most of them were concentrated in Italy, where we are leaders. But it is true that the markets where we are growing the most right now are France and Iberia (Spain and Portugal), and that is where we are investing more heavily.

On the other hand, we work with both brands and end customers. Investments are usually made in both B2C and B2B. We target the end customer by letting them know they can shop in our merchants’ stores through our offers marketplace, which directs traffic to the advertiser’s website, where the final transaction takes place. In this way, our goal is to increase sales and reduce the cost of acquiring new users for eCommerce businesses.

In addition to this, we also build partnerships. For example, we have been working with Deporvillage for several months, and now we are investing together in marketing to communicate to the end customer, whether they already use Scalapay or not, that they can use our solution to shop easily on Deporvillage. And, for its part, Deporvillage also promotes us.

At the marketing level, in general, the goal is always to find a solution where both parties can win. We can communicate with our own user base, which currently totals 13 million users across Europe. On top of that, we are growing by 350,000 new users every month in Europe.

It is also important to point out that these are verified accounts. In other words, when you send a newsletter, the email address is not always correct. In our case, it is, because when you make a purchase, the email address you provide is 100% accurate. So it works, and the conversion rate works as well.

And who ultimately pays for the BNPL mechanism? Does the user pay through a higher price, or is the retailer charged through a lower sales margin?

In buy now, pay later, the business model works in such a way that the company pays a percentage to Scalapay or to the BNPL provider.

In our case, what we have done is offer a three-installment payment option that is free for the customer, and another four-installment option, where there is a small extra percentage that you pay directly in the first transaction. The most interesting thing is that, in Spain, customers prefer to pay that extra fee and use the four-installment option. Approximately 60% of our customers use the four-installment payment option instead of choosing the free three-installment option.

What would you say is Scalapay’s differentiating value compared with other BNPL options?

From the consumer side, I would say the most important thing here is the purchase process. I mean, if you can offer a process that is faster or involves fewer steps, that obviously helps. So, as a customer, if you are used to a fast process, you will want to go with Scalapay, since we have fewer steps compared with other players in the market.

And speaking from the business side, I think our approach is that we are the second-largest player in buy now, pay later in Europe. But our main differentiating value is that we are the only player that allows you to operate in several countries with a fairly strong presence. In other words, we have a robust URS (User Requirements Specification) across all countries, while at the same time maintaining an excellent understanding of the local market.

What can you tell me about fraud or non-payment in these types of models?

At Scalapay, we have a fairly sophisticated internal risk algorithm that, in simple terms, every time a customer enters the funnel, takes multiple data points into account and determines the risk.

As for the fraud rate, when you enter a market you have less knowledge of customers, so it may be higher at first. But it always decreases over time and with experience in that market. Again, the most important thing is to have strong market penetration, know your customers extremely well, and have a very broad business portfolio, because that allows you to offer a better product, reduce the fraud rate, and execute strong marketing, which is also essential.