One of the UK’s leading food service distributors, Bidfood supplies more than 10,000 products to 40,000 customers ranging from large and efficient catering operations to the small, independent chef-patrons. Whether in a Michelin-starred restaurant, fast-food outlet, hospital, or university, Bidfood products reach a wide range of UK consumers.1
Service excellence is at the heart of Bidfood’s success, and the business pays close attention to every stage of the customer journey. This includes not just providing timely deliveries but also how easily customers can find the products they need, ease of ordering, payments, and post-sales follow-up Ian Moore, Strategy and Digital Director for Bidcorp UK, took some time out to discuss the importance of payment processing to Bidfood’s diverse cast of customers.
“Who are we to tell someone how they should run their business?” asks Ian. “Our job is to help customers order and pay in a way that works for them. There is no point in putting a payment experience in front of people that doesn’t work for them just because it might be the most cost-efficient for us."
Bidfood recognised it needed to provide simple and safe ways to pay for all its customers, from the largest to smallest, balancing risk and customer convenience to ensure the best possible customer service.
“If you don’t offer a customer’s preferred way to pay, or if you ask them to enter their card details on a phone screen, your risk of abandoned baskets is higher,” Ian says. “There’s a good chance customers will go elsewhere.
Initially, Bidfood deployed PayPal through a previous gateway. However, to help improve the overall customer experience and provide the consumer-like payment experience and options expected by its smaller customers, Bidfood upgraded to PayPal Braintree.
“Braintree technology is built with flexibility in mind,” Ian says. “We now have it in 11 different businesses, and, despite the volume and complexity of transactions, it has been easy to integrate and manage.”
“But the biggest step change for us was the gateway itself and how user-friendly it is for customers,” he continues. PayPal Braintree gives customers an easy way to pay using the methods they prefer.
Bidfood also deployed PayPal Fraud Protection Advanced (FPA), which, as Ian explains, “It adds an additional, technology layer of fraud protection that wraps around our payments process where we can create our own rules and build our own protection.
“It was abundantly clear that PayPal was an important payment offering for us to have,” Ian says. “It has massive adoption from a consumer perspective, and there is a proportion of our customers who are sole traders and smaller businesses. It was important to Bidfood to demonstrate that you’re still a valued customer whatever size your business.
"What really sets PayPal apart is the approach – it’s genuine. It’s a genuinely interested and supportive relationship."
- Ian Moore, Strategy and Digital Director, Bidcorp UK
As Bidfood’s business has grown, the volume of transactions through the PayPal Braintree gateway has increased. Driven by Bidfood’s focus on service excellence and PayPal’s streamlined, customer-friendly checkout experience, transaction volume is up by around 313,5%.
“Since day one with Braintree, we’ve not had a bad checkout experience,” Ian says.
Higher transaction authorisation rates since moving to PayPal Braintree have also enhanced the overall customer experience. The business now averages an authorisation rate of over 95%.
PayPal Braintree’s more streamlined checkout experience, supported by the added security of FPA, is also making it easy to attract new customers.
“Previously, most customers needed a credit account before buying from us,” Ian explains, “but with PayPal Braintree we’ve been able to offer an instant account opening process. Customers can open an account, place an order and pay using the Braintree Gateway seamlessly. These are new customers who will, hopefully, become established customers. We couldn’t do that before.”
Summarising Bidfood’s experience Ian concludes, “The nicest surprise has been the culture at PayPal. The team takes time to understand our pain points. They want to understand our business and push forward. The gateway is great, the technology is great but what really sets PayPal Braintree apart is the approach – it’s genuine. It’s a genuinely interested and supportive relationship.”
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