Adyen Pushes Unified Commerce Experience After Q4 Win

Dutch digital payment firm Adyen pulled off a big Q4 win, with earnings and revenue in excess of analysts’ pre-release predictions.

“We remain focused on learning and adapting in this ever-changing environment, and helping our merchants to do the same,” Adyen CEO Pieter van der Does noted in his call with investors. “Around the world, we have seen the acceleration of long-term trends.” He noted that results of the pandemic include the shift from cash to cashless economies, the increasing share of volumes in global commerce and the convergence of online and offline shopping channels.

Van der Does also noted Ayden’s efforts in helping its merchants make the conversion to a digitally upgraded world, including helping them implement curbside pickup, contactless payments and online ordering  —  and even stepping into “uncharted territory” like the food business. He also highlighted Ayden’s “unified commerce,” which combines the online shopping experience with the physical point of sale — something that the pandemic has spotlighted.

“COVID, of course, still creates wins with the move from cash to cashless. And what we’ve seen in retail, is that if stores are closed and online takes over, the retailers who had a unified commerce strategy really benefited from that,” he said.

Adyen’s full-year 2020 earnings came in at 402.5 million euros ($488.2 million), up 27 percent from a year earlier, beating the 386 million euros expected by analysts in a Refinitiv poll, according to Reuters. Net revenues for 2020 came in at 684.2 million euros last year, up 28 percent from 2019.

Processed payment volume came in at 303.6 billion euros in 2020, a 27 percent increase from the previous year, with a full-year profit margin of 59 percent, up from 56 percent in 2019.

The second half of 2020 was particularly powerful for the company, particularly for the North American region. “With a 70 percent year-on-year increase, net revenue contributions from the region rose to 20 percent of total net revenue in H2 2020, compared to 15 percent in H2 2019,” said van der Does.

The year was not without headwinds, however, as sharp declines in travel diminished the firm’s profitability on the year, though not enough to stop it from being profitable. All in, Ayden’s share price jumped 10 percent to an all-time high of 2,123 euros on Wednesday (Feb. 10) following the release of its 2020 numbers.