Behaviourlab Pricing Optimsation – NatWest Case Study

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Innovative Approach 

We used Behaviourlab — our online experiment tool — to measure the impact of pricing and repayment options on BNPL usage. Behaviourlab is an immersive, behavioural approach that replicates a real-world customer experience, in this case an online sales journey. We design different versions of the journey and randomly allocate participants to one version.  

Participants chose to pay for an item via debit card, credit card, or NatWest’s BNPL product. For the BNPL product we tested three levels of monthly fee and three levels of repayment period. We collected 6,300 participants to ensure a robust sample under every combination of pricing and repayment period. 

Contextualised Choices 

Using our customisable Behaviourlab template, we quickly created the look and feel of a website selling general consumer goods. Participants decided what to purchase, and then picked their payment method on the checkout screen. By providing this realistic environment, participants mimic a task that feels natural, leading to behaviour that more accurately reflects real-world decision making. Participant attention is not skewed towards the features that are variable (in this case the NatWest BNPL component), so strategies are compared covertly without biasing participant behaviour. 

Additional Resources 

After the experiment we included scaled-response questions to probe opinions on additional product innovation ideas. We captured demographics so that we could identify the customers most likely to use NatWest’s product. Financial data were collated from the client to facilitate model calibration and margin analysis.