How did Lemonway help make the ESF marketplace a success this winter season?

Established in 1945, ESF has emerged as a key player in the world of mountains and high altitudes. Across the five French massifs, its 220 ski schools unite over 17,000 instructors who impart their environmental and technical expertise, ensuring safe skiing practices.

This organisation has recognised the strategic importance of establishing a marketplace for several years. As a natural progression from the traditional e-commerce model, this structure fosters a virtuous cycle between the marketplace operator and its vendors. In fact, marketplaces are expanding at a rate 6.5 times quicker than traditional e-commerce sites.*

MseM: Book your mountain holidays with the ESF marketplace

The ESF (French Ski Schools) Mon séjour en Montagne (MseM) marketplace has been launched to bring together all the players in the sector. It offers holidaymakers a complete range of services to help them organise their stay in the French mountains. 

It was against a backdrop of a change of payment solution that the ESF chose to place its trust in Lemonway for its marketplace. Working alongside Payplug, Lemonway orchestrated the migration of all MseM payment accounts. This collaboration meets a dual challenge: preserving the existing offering and acting quickly to meet the challenges of seasonality.

This marketplace was set up with several strategic objectives in mind

• Deploy new products to better meet the different needs of buyers: for customers, the added value lies in being able to compare and buy everything they need, all in one place.
• Build customer loyalty: increase customer satisfaction with an expanded catalogue and obtain a better response rate to their searches.
• Diversify revenue streams: receive commissions on third-party products or services that were not previously sold on the platform
• Innovate and stand out from the competition: the marketplace allows you to test and offer new services to stand out.
• Maintain a position as a national leader in it's business sector.

• Support and protect the local economy: protect local retailers and business providers from increased international competition

   

Leveraging modularity to meet the project’s challenges

Lemonway adapts to the specific challenges of marketplaces with a tailor-made offering. As a Payment Service Provider (PSP), Lemonway covers the entire process, from Pay-In to Pay-Out, including KYC and payment account management.

Moreover, Lemonway's offering is modular, with specific, separate building blocks. As a result, it can focus on specific aspects such as Pay-In, management of sequestration accounts and fund protection, KYC, or Pay-Out. This modular approach is ideal for platforms already equipped with a payment solution. 

In the case of MseM, this modular offering has been put in place. Payplug still manages the acceptance and acquisition (Pay-In), while Lemonway handles KYC, payment account management, funds protection and Pay-Out to sellers.

This modularity has enabled a tailor-made approach, capitalising on the expertise of two complementary players, to best adapt to the needs and challenges of the MseM calendar. The key benefits of this approach are: 

• An agile solution: an adapted flow chart, modular functional bricks, and new payment methods rapidly integrated.
• Onboarding and management of sellers: A smooth and adapted migration of all existing payment accounts thanks to the responsiveness of the KYC team and the agreement with a third-party bank means that some merchants of this bank do not have to go through the verification stage again. Lemonway manages the entire coordination process, from collection to validation.
• A tailored commercial offer: prices in line with MseM's fair commissioning policy.
• An open and relevant ecosystem that includes players with shared values: surpassing oneself, team spirit and commitment to excellence

The results: meeting targets to stay on top

Thanks to its modular architecture, speed of integration and expertise in compliance, Lemonway enabled the Mon séjour en Montagne marketplace to achieve its objectives while keeping costs and migration times under control - in just six months!