Ford and Stripe have signed a five-year agreement to scale the automaker’s e-commerce capabilities faster and to deliver an always-on experience for Ford and Lincoln customers.
“We have been working with Ford to reimagine our e-commerce payment infrastructure. Stripe’s platform will help us deliver simpler, outstanding payment experiences in any channel customers choose and scale improvements faster,” said Marion Harris, Ford Motor Credit Company CEO.
The two companies will grow the online payments infrastructure serving customers and dealers in North America and Europe. Their work will deliver enhanced, reliable online commerce experiences for users, dealers and the company. Stripe also will enable Ford Pro FinSimple products for commercial customers.
With products like Stripe Connect, the automaker will be able to scale new services that require a robust, reliable e-commerce backbone. Connect lets businesses create a platform to facilitate purchases and payments between third-party buyers and sellers. Ford will use Connect to facilitate a customer’s payments to a correct local dealer.
“As part of the Ford+ plan for growth and value creation, we are making strategic decisions about where to bring in providers with robust expertise and where to build the differentiated, always-on experiences our customers will value,” Harris said. “Stripe has developed strong expertise in user experiences that will help provide easy, intuitive and secure payment processes for our customers.”
As Ford develops e-commerce offerings across product and service sectors, Stripe’s platform will be a key part of the tech stack. For dealers offering digital payment services today, Stripe’s service is expected to drive new efficiency into processing of e-commerce payments, such as vehicle ordering, reservations and digital and charging services.
Mike Clayville, chief revenue officer at Stripe, said: “During the pandemic, people got comfortable paying online for groceries, health care, even home haircut advice from barbers. Now, they expect to be able to buy anything and everything online. Ford is making e-commerce possible, too, and scaling that strategy with Stripe’s help.”
The rollout of Stripe technology is expected to begin in the second half of 2022, starting in North America.