How Path59 used invoice finance to close cash flow gaps
Path59 is a consultancy that helps companies in traditional industries get to grips with digital transformation. They look at human interactions in both the customer and employee experience to identify which parts could be helped by technology – and how. We caught up with Merje Shaw, founder and MD, to chat about Path59’s journey so far and her plans for where the business is going.
Beginnings of Path59
Originally from Estonia, Merje started her career in Customer Support at Skype before going on to look after Usability at their London office. A few years later, ready for her next challenge, Merje took on a Senior User Research Consultant role at LBi (now part of Digitas). At this global marketing and technology agency, she worked with major brands including M&S, Etihad Airways and Disney.
“And then I had a baby. And of course, every sensible person starts a business when they have a baby,” Merje laughs. “It’s the best time: you’re not getting any sleep and you don’t have any money!”
Path59 began as a joint venture for Merje and her husband, Mykal, to freelance in their respective fields of UX Research and Creative Direction. In time, as that freelance vehicle grew into an agency, they decided to separate out the creative services side of the business.
“It made it easier for me to crystalise what I do,” Merje explains. “It made sense for us to focus on our separate offerings because our customer bases are actually quite different. Where Mykal works mostly with start-ups and smaller companies, I work mostly with the FTSE100 and big housing associations.”
Part of what Path59 does is to help established companies to think like start-ups. Although Merje jokes that she joined Skype long before start-ups were cool, she has never forgotten the customer focus and lean ways of working that she experienced in that environment. She uses this to help clients question procedures, think differently and be innovative in what they’re doing.
Long payment terms
Working with the FTSE100 means that Path59 often get paid on very long payment terms. Merje tells us: “I complained bitterly about it so they’ve come down now but at first they were working on 60-day terms. That’s a really long time, especially if you have to pay staff. I can pay myself on peanuts but it’s not their company so I don’t expect them to live off thin air.”
Path59 employs a small number of full-time staff and uses a pool of expert freelancers for research and consulting. For Merje, it doesn’t make sense to keep a smart cities expert, for example, on the payroll when she might only need them a few times a year. She also prefers to work with experts that have the exact niche skills that she needs and explained to us that you can’t keep amazing people like that to yourself.
Using Kriya's invoice finance
With staff and freelancers to pay and long payment terms putting pressure on cash flow, Path59 came to Kriya for funding in July this year. They now use invoice finance to unlock cash from outstanding client invoices to cover wages or one-off costs like large VAT bills.
“Cash flow to any new company is an absolute killer,” says Merje. “But with Kriya, we can fund an invoice at any point throughout the month and pull cash from the future. It’s money now instead of money in 30, 60, 90 days which has helped a lot since we came on board. It keeps us going.”
Knowing that the facility is there when she needs it means Merje can spend less time worrying about cash flow. That frees her up to focus on the things she’s really passionate about. On top of running Path59 and being a mum of two, Merje also has a successful side hustle called Scandiscapes. It’s an online store for in and outdoor garden decor that combines her business acumen with her love of nature and Scandinavian design. Where Path59 is concerned, she has big plans for the next 12 months:
“We’ll increase our visibility through speaking platforms and articles on specific key subjects like AI, for example, and the impact that it’s going to have on just about everything. We’ll also increase our focus on Housing Associations because we strongly believe we can help them with the challenges they are currently facing, particularly when it comes to adopting digital solutions.”
“We expect our B2B revenues to double as a result of providing Kriya’s flexible payment terms to our trade and business buyers.”
Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
Halfords is the UK’s leading provider of motoring and cycling services and products. Its customers shop across over 1,750 fixed and mobile locations including, Halfords stores and garages, as well as its website, halfords.com.
Today, around a quarter of Halfords turnover is business-to-business. They sell to organisations of all sizes including SME businesses, garages, and workshops, offering discounts on automotive parts and tools with their Trade Card, as well as directly to larger commercial and government customers that buy in bulk.
However, like many well-established enterprises, Halfords found its future growth was challenged by the legacy processes of its past. Find out how they’ve teamed up with Kriya to remove the friction from their B2B commerce.
Halford's challenges
“The exam question” says Halfords’ Head of Financial Services, Stuart Zissman, “was how do we make selling to business and trade buyers less labour-intensive?” Having already overseen a successful consumer finance proposition at Halfords, it was clear to Zissman that their B2B offering had potential to grow by introducing a simple and effective credit solution.
1. B2B buyers expect payments terms
“All successful B2B propositions have some sort of financial support” Zissman explains. Whether large or small, Halfords’ business buyers want to be invoiced on payment terms. This is especially beneficial for garages and workshops, which thrive on efficient working capital cycles, allowing them to source parts upfront and defer payment until they have received compensation for their services.
Halfords recognised the opportunity to enhance their offerings by providing scalable trade credit, which was previously untapped. As Zissman says, "offering payments completes the circle."
2. Manual, unscalable processes were holding back growth
Halfords' hands-on approach to B2B processes presented an opportunity for greater scalability and growth. Wholesale orders, managed via account managers, involved manual quotes and purchase orders, which added complexity.
“We’d like to say yes to every single customer that wants to order from us,” says Head of Trade Card, Chris Millan. However, processing these detailed orders for existing buyers took time, limiting the retailer's ability to proactively attract new business and expand their account base.
What Halfords sought was a way to make their B2B offering more accessible and achieve a better economy of scale.
“We work with sole traders, business customers and government entities. Kriya is the only supplier that could support all three.”
Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
The search for a solution
Recognising the need for change, Halfords set out to find a way to modernise its B2B offering. With Kriya's 12-year track record and willingness to collaborate on a solution for their unique requirements struck a chord with Halfords.
A solution for all B2B buyers
Halfords has a diverse buyer base and needed B2B payment terms that could be offered to limited companies, government entities and sole traders.
Multichannel
With trade customers already purchasing online and in-store, Halfords needed a solution to offer payment terms holistically across their sales channels.
Risk expertise
With their focus on Motoring and Cycling, Halfords sought a partner with strong expertise in finance and payments, including robust credit and fraud detection capabilities, to help onboard their buyers.
“We are experts in motoring and cycling, and to ensure exceptional service for our customers, we decided to partner with Kriya, specialists in B2B payments and lending decisions.” Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
The B2B vision
Halfords partnered with Kriya to transform their B2B offering. By integrating Kriya PayLater with their Trade Card, the retailer is combining trade discounts for B2B buyers with the ability to pay on account for online and in-store orders.
Adopting an eCommerce-first model has a number of advantages. Firstly, providing online buyers with highly-demanded payment terms expands the businesses they can sell to. Secondly, much of their offline business can be shifted to a self-serve, online checkout. Not only does this provide a smoother buyer experience, it also frees up the Halfords team to focus on the customers where their expertise has the most impact.
The near-infinite scalability of the Kriya solution means Halfords can not only improve their overall B2B customer proposition and experience, but they can also see financial benefits through the partnership too.
“Offering trade credit through payments makes it much slicker. It’s something buyers are familiar with from the consumer world.”Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
Wholesale change
Halfords have kicked off their payments transformation with their wholesale offering.
Business buyers come to the Halfords wholesale team to place bulk orders and request custom details, such as branded bikes and accessories. Before Kriya, this fully offline sales channel required multiple teams and processes to transact each order. This process led to delays and hampered conversion, such as inventory becoming unavailable during the order, or customers purchasing elsewhere.
By streamlining the entire wholesale workflow into Kriya Merchant Portal, Halfords now have a single, automated flow for processing orders.
Wholesale buyers are first onboarded into Merchant Portal. This screens for credit and fraud risk, directly providing their sales team an instant spending limit decision for the buyer. Orders can then be placed on payment terms and invoices are automatically generated for the buyer. Additionally, Kriya assists with credit control by managing payment collections too.
“We needed a way forward that was less hands-on because the whole process was very, very manual.” Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
How it works
The buyer places a wholesale order with Halfords
Halfords onboard the buyer into Kriya’s Merchant Portal
Payment terms selected and purchase complete. The buyer pays at the end of the following month.
Partnering for growth
Reflecting on the journey so far with Kriya, Zissman says “It’s that personal touch and relationship that makes the difference to the product we’re building together.” For Zissman, it's not simply outsourcing the expertise to a third party. “It’s more like we’re onboarding Kriya into Halfords and by extension they’ve become part of our team”.
There’s a busy roadmap ahead for Halfords and Kriya, with plans to bring the whole multichannel offering to market by the autumn of 2024.
We're very excited about this development,” says Millan. “Introducing payment terms to our Trade offering eliminates barriers that previously slowed us down and unlocks opportunities with a vast number of businesses we haven't historically engaged with.”
