For most retailers, the path to an increased basket size has traditionally run through one of two places: discounting or credit. Both work in the short term; however, discounting erodes margin, and credit introduces risk – for the business, and increasingly, for the customer.
Top T Tiles, a South African retailer, took a different approach. By integrating LayUp’s interest-free payment plan platform, they gave customers a structured, debt-free way to buy more considered purchases over time – without extending credit, absorbing financial risk, or compromising on price.
The results tell a story that is becoming harder to ignore: when you remove the barrier of upfront cost without replacing it with debt, customers don’t just buy more. They buy better, commit more fully, and come back.
The Challenge
Top T had a challenge familiar to most retailers operating in South Africa’s middle-income market: customers wanted higher-value items but were reluctant – or unable – to pay for them in a single transaction.
The store already ran a manual lay-by book. But paper-based lay-by is administratively heavy, prone to disputes, difficult to track, and offers customers no flexibility once a plan is set. Fraud risk is real. Staff time is wasted. And the customer experience is far from seamless.
Top T needed something that could:
- Lift the average basket size without requiring a credit licence
- Remove administrative burden from store staff
- Reduce – not increase – default and fraud risk
- Give customers a modern, digital experience that they can manage from their phones
ALSO READ: Overstretched and Underpaid: How Financial Pressure Is Reshaping How South Africans Pay
The Solution: LayUp
LayUp is a pre-payment platform that lets customers pay off purchases in flexible, interest-free instalments – entirely without credit. It operates through a terminal app in-store, digitising the Lay-By process end-to-end.
For Top T, the implementation was straightforward. Staff were trained directly by the LayUp team. Terminals were deployed across stores. No integration costs, no custom development, no disruption to existing POS systems.
From the customer’s side, the experience is three steps:
- Sign up in-store – free, instant, no credit check.
- Pay off the balance over time via SMS reminders and a self-service portal.
- Collect the item once fully paid.
The Pilot: 25 Stores, 7 Months
LayUp was rolled out across 25 Top T stores over a seven-month proof-of-concept period. The results exceeded expectations across every key metric.
1. Customers Spent Significantly More
The average LayUp order value was R4,323 – more than double the typical in-store basket. This isn’t a marginal uplift. It reflects a qualitative shift in purchasing behaviour: customers who previously would have bought a single item were now building larger, more considered purchases when freed from the constraint of paying in full upfront.
The largest single order captured during the pilot was R37,000 – a transaction that almost certainly would never have occurred through a traditional cash or card payment.
The average LayUp order was R4,323 – more than double the typical basket. The largest single transaction was R37,000.
2. Default Rates Were Lower Than the Manual System
One of the most counterintuitive findings of the pilot was around repayment behaviour. The LayUp default rate came in 5% lower than Top T’s existing manual lay-by system.
This is explained by design. LayUp sends automated SMS reminders before each instalment is due. Customers can manage and make payments remotely – from home, from work, whenever is convenient. The friction of having to physically visit the store to make a Lay-By payment is removed entirely. The result is better repayment behaviour, not worse.
3. Staff Time Was Freed, Not Consumed
Manual lay-by requires staff to maintain books, track payments, handle disputes, and reconcile records. LayUp replaces all of this with a digital system that manages itself. Staff feedback during the pilot was consistent: “Easy to use, saves time on admin.” Managers reported that the administrative overhead of running a lay-by book was effectively eliminated.
4. Customer Satisfaction Was High
Customer response centred on two features: the SMS reminder system, which customers found helpful rather than intrusive, and the flexibility to pay from anywhere. The ability to check their balance, make payments, and track progress without visiting the store was a meaningful quality-of-life improvement for customers managing tight monthly budgets.
Why This Works: The Psychology of Pre-Payment
LayUp occupies a fundamentally different position in the financial landscape from buy-now-pay-later or retail credit products. Where credit gives customers access to money they do not yet have, LayUp gives them a structured way to commit to purchases using money they will have.
This distinction matters enormously for the customer relationship. There is no interest. There is no credit check. There is no debt. There is no risk of a customer becoming overextended. For the retailer, there is no credit exposure, no debtor book, and no regulatory complexity.
The result is a customer who is more financially comfortable with the purchase, more likely to complete it, and more likely to return – because the experience was positive rather than stressful.
ALSO READ: Your Customers Want to Buy. So Why Are They Leaving?
Conclusion
Top T’s pilot with LayUp produced outcomes that should give every South African retailer pause. Without discounting a single item, without extending a single rand of credit, and without adding meaningful administrative load to their stores.
Lay-by is not a legacy concept. It is a growth strategy – when done digitally.
Activate LayUp in your stores. Speak to the LayUp team: [email protected] | layup.co.za
LayUp – Simple. Smart. Instalments.
