How Upway powers European expansion and eliminates payment friction with Mollie
Ecommerce
Partner: Webshop
volume growth
average transaction value
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“It is great to have Mollie as a single point of contact to manage all our local payment methods, which collectively represent a third of our volume. ”
Thomas Thewissen, Strategy & Operations Lead, Upway
Buying a refurbished e-bike is a commitment. Even with discounts of up to 50%, a premium bike often costs over €2,500. For a customer in Germany or the Netherlands, it’s a significant financial decision.
At that price point, the shopping experience needs to be more than functional. It has to be localised, seamless, and, above all, trustworthy.
When high-ticket retailers scale across Europe, payments quickly become complicated. Every country has its own payment habits and preferences. In Germany, a single typo in a bank transfer means the bank bounces the money right back. In other markets, strict card limits might reject a €2,500 checkout entirely. And many shoppers simply walk away if shops don’t offer trusted local options like iDEAL | Wero or Bancontact. A basic card setup often fails because crossing a border changes how people expect to pay.
Upway, as one of the fastest-growing marketplaces for refurbished electric bikes, knew they had to dismantle this barrier to scale. They needed a way to make international payments feel like a familiar, local experience.
About Upway
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Paris, Upway is on a mission to make electric mobility accessible to everyone. They started the business because new e-bikes are incredibly expensive, yet millions of used models change hands across Europe without any safety or quality guarantees. By professionally refurbishing e-bikes and offering them with a one-year warranty, they’ve created a sustainable, affordable alternative to buying e-bikes.
Upway has rapidly expanded its footprint across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and the US. Operating exclusively on Shopify, they provide a premium digital experience that matches the quality of their bikes. But as they entered new markets, they realised that a one-size-fits-all payment strategy was the biggest roadblock to their internationalisation goals.
“We want to make electric mobility more accessible and more affordable to many more people.”
Thomas Thewissen, Strategy & Operations Lead, Upway
The challenge
Selling a refurbished e-bike requires total buyer confidence. For Upway, the biggest hurdle was the trust wall associated with high-value cross-border sales. In Germany, customers prefer Girocard and PayPal. In the Netherlands, iDEAL | Wero remains a staple, representing 45% of transactions.
But traditional bank transfer infrastructure is rigid. If a customer made a tiny typo in a reference number, the bank would simply bounce the money back, cancelling the order and blocking the bike in the warehouse.
This created a significant operational burden. If a payment contained incorrect information, the customer was automatically refunded after five days. The purchase was cancelled, and the bike was blocked for 24 hours before it could return to stock. The Upway team was spending an hour every single day chasing these pending payments and cancelling failed orders.
Beyond the manual admin, there was a trust gap. Customers making large transfers often saw an unfamiliar third-party name on their banking app instead of Upway. Additionally, because these are expensive items, customers often hit their credit card limits, causing legitimate payments to be rejected. Thomas knew that to convert these shoppers, he needed to offer alternatives such as bank transfers, local payment methods, and instalment options.
“We see big differences in payment habits across countries, so we really want to offer the local payment methods that make sense for customers. That’s why we partnered with Mollie to make sure the customers can pay with the methods that they prefer.” – Thomas Thewissen, Strategy & Operations Lead, Upway
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The solution
Upway worked with Mollie to overcome these barriers, using a combination of Shopify-native integrations and branded virtual IBANs.
Now, when a German or Dutch customer chooses to pay via bank transfer, they receive a local IBAN in Upway’s own name. The experience is reinforced by Verification of Payee (VoP). A green checkmark appears in the customer’s banking app, confirming the account belongs to Upway. This removes the ‘Who am I paying?’ friction that often leads to abandoned carts.
Behind the scenes, Mollie replaced the bouncer logic of traditional banks with a concierge service. Instead of automatically rejecting payments with minor reference errors, the funds land safely. Mollie’s smart reconciliation API then notifies Upway via webhook, allowing their team to match the funds instantly.
Upway also integrated Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options to provide the financial flexibility high-ticket shoppers need. In Germany, Klarna accounts for about 20% of payments, while PayPal remains dominant at 45%. In France, however, shoppers show a clear preference for Alma. Having a single point of contact to manage these fragmented preferences across Europe has simplified their entire operation.
“Anything plug-and-play, that can be turned on with a few clicks, saves a lot of time. This is very important for our expansion. It has allowed us to add local payment methods in those smaller markets without consuming tech resources.”
Thomas Thewissen, Strategy and Operations Lead, Upway
The results
The shift to a localised, automated payment flow has fundamentally changed Upway’s trajectory. By removing the technical friction of bank transfers and adding flexible credit options, they have unlocked new levels of scale.
The transformation in numbers:
10x volume growth: Upway is now processing more than 10 times the monthly volume they did just four years ago.
+13% average transaction value: By offering trust-building tools and flexible options like Klarna, Upway’s ATV has grown by 13% in the last 12 months.
Zero auto-refunds: The auto-refund rate for bank transfers dropped to zero. Every euro that hits a virtual IBAN is captured and reconciled, even with human typos.
Reclaiming an hour a day: The operations team no longer spends their mornings chasing unmatched payments or unblocking stock from cancelled orders.
Accelerated market entry: Upway successfully expanded into four new countries by simply toggling local payment methods within their existing setup.
“We also really value the innovation aspect, knowing that the team is constantly finding the latest available options is quite important for us as we scale.”
Thomas Thewissen, Strategy and Operations Lead, Upway
Looking ahead to the future
As the Upway team looks to expand further into core geographies, they will continue to rely on automated reconciliation to keep their operations lean.
Maintaining this operational sanity allows the central operations team to focus on building processing capacity and sourcing more bikes without worrying about payment hiccups.
“You need to be local with the payment method and make sure that you assess what users prefer because in Europe, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.”
Thomas Thewissen, Strategy and Operations Lead, Upway
What this means for retailers
Upway’s success highlights a shift in European ecommerce. For retailers selling high-value goods, the checkout is a matter of trust. Legacy banking infrastructure that rejects payments for minor errors is a barrier to scaling.
Mollie’s virtual IBANs and reconciliation tools turn this potential point of failure into a competitive advantage. For Shopify merchants like Upway, going local isn’t a complex technical project; it’s a strategic standard.
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If you’re scaling a high-ATV business on Shopify, don’t let traditional banking logic slow you down. Build trust, eliminate manual work, and meet your customers exactly where they are.
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Start scaling with Mollie
Build trust, eliminate manual work, and meet your customers exactly where they are.