Dott is on a mission to transform how people travel across Europe by making micro-mobility available for all. It operates over 40,000 e-scooters and e-bikes in key cities across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The company is at an exciting point in its journey. It has ambitious plans to expand into more markets and offer multimodal services. And to ready itself for scale, it’s working with best-in-class partners to deliver exceptional experience and value to its riders.
Sam Boukhiam, Checkout.com, spoke with Dominick Fuchs, Product Operations Manager — Payments at Dott, to learn more about its mission, how payments are central to its ambitions, and why it partnered with Checkout.com to expand its business across Europe.
Sam Boukhiam: Dott spends considerable time and effort focusing on the experience it offers its riders. Why is that?
Dominik Fuchs: Our research shows that people use a micro-mobility service like Dott because they want to get from point A to B quickly. That means we must remove friction for customers wherever possible, allowing them to unlock the e-scooter, complete their journey, and pay for their ride with no hassle.
Getting this right could not be more critical. We’re competing with entrenched forms of transport. And we will not change the habits of people without offering them a superior experience.
Sam Boukhiam: From a payments perspective, what is it that Dott focuses on to create that superior experience for its riders?
Dominik Fuchs: The payment flow has to be seamless, super fast and efficient. So our acceptance rate is our most important metric. And it's something we're constantly working to improve. As I always say: if our riders can't pay, they can't ride.
Managing the cost of payments is another important consideration. We're a high-volume, low-value business — the average ride costs between €2 and €3. So any costs we incur from retrying failed transactions or dealing with chargebacks hurt our bottom line. And this prevents us from making our services more affordable.
Sam Boukhiam: Dott recently began working with Checkout.com as one of its payments partners. Why have you chosen to work with us?
Dominik Fuchs: Dott is entering a period of rapid growth in many markets. After a few years with Stripe, we decided to look for a partner with a deeper integration in our European markets.
Checkout.com stood out as a strategic payment partner that could work with us to innovate and grow our business at scale. It had an excellent track record of success in all our key markets with its domestic acquiring licenses in mainland Europe and the UK.
Checkout.com’s footprint, combined with the flexibility of its unified API, meant we could enter new markets quickly and without the complexity of integrating into third parties. This is a game-changer for our business and allows us to take advantage of growth opportunities when they arise.
Sam Boukhiam: How has your experience been since going live with Checkout.com? Where are we adding value to your business?
Dominik Fuchs: It’s been an excellent experience. Checkout.com is a true partner that’s available when we need them. Their dedicated customer success team is proactive, working with us to identify opportunities for optimization and innovation.
They’ve worked hard to support us with the rollout of Strong Customer Authentication and the transition to 3DS2. We expected this would be a painful experience, but with Checkout.com’s expertise and insights, it’s been straightforward.
We’re also impressed with the granular level of data we get from the Checkout.com platform. It’s offering us a deeper understanding of the performance and cost of our payments.
These insights are allowing us to prioritize initiatives that have a positive impact on our business. For example, we’re working with Checkout.com to evaluate where we process locally versus where we process cross-border to optimize our authorization rates and lower costs.
Sam Boukhiam: What's next for Dott and how will Checkout.com allow it to achieve its objectives?
Dominik Fuchs: Dott is an incredibly ambitious business with aggressive plans to expand our services across Europe. And we see Checkout.com as a critical partner on our journey. It will allow us to achieve our goals by providing a seamless payment experience for our customers everywhere.
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