Ford and Stripe partner to advance automotive e-commerce

Source: Economic Reference Daily Qin Tianhong

According to foreign media reports, on January 17, local time, the US mobile payment service provider Stripe announced that it has reached a five-year cooperation agreement with auto giant Ford, and stripe will provide auto consumer e-commerce strategies and services for Ford in the future.

Ford Motor Credit, a financial services sub-company owned by Ford Motor, will use Stripe's technology to process digital payments in North American and European markets. Stripe helps Ford handle a variety of payment transactions, including consumer bookings and official orders for cars, as well as a variety of auto consumer credit bundling services Ford offers consumers. This is expected to improve the efficiency of processing e-commerce payments, such as car ordering, booking, digitization and charging services.

Mario Harris, CEO of Ford Auto Credit, said in a statement that as part of the Ford Plus transformation plan, the company is making strategic decisions, including recruiting suppliers experienced in specific areas to provide consumers and customers with differentiated, always-on services to peers. Stripe has strong expertise in user experience that will help provide Ford's customers with a simple, intuitive and secure payment process.

Founded in 2010, Stripe is one of Silicon Valley's most valuable startups, valued at $95 billion. The company sells software that makes internet payments simple for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and Stripe charges a fee for every mobile payment a business implements. The company has a large number of customers in the tech sector, including e-commerce company Shopify, cloud computing enterprise Salesforce and food and beverage delivery platform Deliveroo.

Analysts pointed out that Ford is one of Stripe's largest enterprise payment customers to date, and this cooperation is also an important part of Ford's strategic transformation plan.

On Jan. 13, Ford Motor Corp.'s market capitalization topped $100 billion for the first time as more investors bet on the Detroit automaker's electrification strategy. At present, Ford's market value has surpassed its rival General Motors and the new electric vehicle power rivian, the latter two current market capitalization of about $88.61 billion and $77.8 billion, respectively, but far lower than the electric vehicle industry leader Tesla, Tesla's market value has exceeded $1 trillion.

Ford's plans to increase production of electric vehicles helped boost stock prices, including the Mustang Mach-E crossover and the upcoming F-150 electric pickup. These are all part of the "Ford+" transformation plan led by Ford CEO Jim Farley. Farley, who took over as CEO of Ford in October 2020, pledged that Ford would invest more than $30 billion in electric vehicles, including battery development, by 2030.