SumUp Solo was the flagship reader in a line of new proprietary devices by the Hardware team at Sumup. The Solo embodied what was new and innovative in the card reader market: its sleek look, pocket size, touch screen and self-updating software made it seem like some fancy smartphone. In actuality, it was a more modern take on the classic Point-of-Sale.
As Product Marketing Manager, my task was to not only position and sell the card reader in the crowded online market of POS systems in Europe with our existing customers (SMEs), but also to grab the attention of potential new merchants looking for a new card acceptance system.
The brief
The Solo’s more advanced features than previous card readers on both the software and hardware side made it more premium than SumUp’s existing card readers. What’s more, SumUp Air, one of the company’s first card readers, was still selling extremely well. The challenge was to compete with similar card readers from European players on the market, reach the target audience who was willing to pay, and reduce the risk of any cannibalization towards SumUp’s existing card reader portfolio.
The challenge
All images from https://ifdesign.com/en/winner-ranking/project/sumup-solo/297188 and https://sumup.co.uk/card-readers/
Despite the rockiness of 2020, with uncertainties around small business openings, the global economy, and supply chain, SumUp Solo’s launch in the summer of 2021 was a great success.
Here are some of the highlights:
Dedicated launch brand campaign and tagline
Launched in 4 core markets in May 2021, in all 28 EU markets within 8 weeks
Hit 3 major launch KPIs within 1.5 months of 4 core market launch
Outperformed BAU (business as usual) campaigns on performance marketing channels
The result