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Founded in 2017, MuscleSquad’s mission is to encourage health and make fitness accessible to everyone. Through forging strong relationships with fitness equipment manufacturers, UK-based designs and robust supply chains, MuscleSquad was well-positioned to meet the sudden explosion in demand for home gym equipment when the COVID lockdowns hit – and have been growing ever since.
As other suppliers found themselves struggling to source products – or took advantage of the rise in demand to jack up prices – MuscleSquad stuck to its company mission statement to put the customer first and make fitness accessible to all.
As part of its commitment to accessible fitness, MuscleSquad decided to offer point of sale finance options to customers. One driver behind this decision was to give personal trainers – a key buyer demographic – the ability to spread the cost of setting up their own home gym over a period of 12 months. However, the company encountered some limitations with the provider they chose.
Low credit limits
MuscleSquad’s higher-ticket items, including its popular squat racks, were in the £2000 range – but its finance provider only offered credit of up to £1000.
Low approval rates
Not enough customers were being approved for the amounts of credit they wanted to borrow, which clashed with the company’s mission of accessible fitness and harmed their credit sales.
Low conversion rates
Limits on how much customers could borrow, as well as issues with approvals for higher-ticket items, meant that MuscleSquad was not converting as many buyers as it needed to.
DivideBuy offered MuscleSquad an interest free credit solution with a spending limit of £6000, solving its issue around finance for higher-ticket items. It also provided them with an Eligibility Checker tool, which let MuscleSquad’s buyers run a soft credit search to see if they would be approved for the amount they wanted to borrow. With a credit journey of just 5 steps taking less than two minutes from application to approval, MuscleSquad began to see a significant increase in credit sales.
Higher approval rates
DivideBuy’s ability to make its own lending decision, combined with its soft credit search tool, delivered approval rates of 87%.
Higher average order values
MuscleSquad’s finance provider had been yielding average order values of just £170. DivideBuy was able to deliver average order values of £1097 – and increase of 545%
Higher conversion rates
DivideBuy’s seamless credit journey of less than two minutes, together with its upselling tools and soft search options, deliver average conversion rates of 65%.
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Interest free credit agreements provided by Zopa Bank Limited trading as DivideBuy that are 12 months or less in duration are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Zopa Bank Limited trading as DivideBuy is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, and entered on the Financial Services Register (800542). Zopa Bank Limited (10627575) is incorporated in England & Wales and has its registered office at: 1st Floor, Cottons Centre, Tooley Street, London, SE1 2QG. VAT Number 281765280. DivideBuy’s trading address is First Floor, Brunswick Court, Brunswick Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, ST5 1HH. © Zopa Bank Limited 2025. All rights reserved.