COPA Football scores goals with a world class online payment solution.

Cees Akkermans has been designing retro football shirts since 1998. What started as a hobby project has now grown into COPA Football, an ambitious and successful company, with clients all over the world.

3 min.

Solutions & Products Public sector
COPA Football scores goals with a world class online payment solution.

Cees Akkermans has been designing retro football shirts since 1998. What started as a hobby project has now grown into COPA Football, an ambitious and successful company, with clients all over the world.

How might you know COPA? Almost certainly from the retro football shirts they reproduce and re-release. They also design and produce exclusive collections in collaboration with football clubs and partners alongside their work with music artists, such as Metallica (for their world tour), Martin Garrix (European Championship 2021) and Elton John (Home Coming Concerts, Watford Stadium).

“Thanks to Worldline, all payments can be done in a secure environment that exudes trust and works flawlessly. This way, buyers don’t drop out during the payment process, even in the final stage of the purchase. Worldline also offers a stable platform; this is necessary as we often expect a peak in sales when we launch new products. Cross-channel sales are also possible. For example, we showcase part of our range on Instagram, and through that channel customers can go directly to our payment page.”

Koert Kamp, Social Media Marketer, COPA Football

Online payments open up the arena to a much wider fan base.

After the launch of their eCommerce website in 2016, it only took a few months for COPA to see a huge international interest in their flagship product, retro football shirts.

“We are amazed by the success of our webshop,” confirms Kamp. “Apart from our physical shop in Amsterdam, we used to sell exclusively to clubs and through online and offline resellers. Now consumers are also finding their way to our online store with our collection and offers for popular football clubs such as AS Roma, Atlético de Madrid and FC Porto.“

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Initially, COPA faced some challenges when building its online store. Partnering with Worldline proved to be a game-changer. “The key issue was creating the right link between our software and the payment page. That’s where Worldline helped us enormously,” says Kamp.
 

Another important reason for choosing Worldline was the mix of payment methods available at the switch of a button: Visa, MasterCard, iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort, Paypal and American Express, to name a few. As COPA are now targeting an increasingly international audience, they want to be able to offer everyone the payment method they prefer. “Worldline proactively suggested new solutions. For example, they told us that Buy Now Pay Later payment methods were becoming increasingly important. So we decided to add Klarna to the payment options on our payment page. A winning collaboration we intend to continue!”

A secure payment platform that provides robust defense.

With plenty of plug-and-play options to choose from, integrating payments into an eCommerce website can be done very quickly. COPA chose a payment page hosted by Worldline to allow their customers to complete their purchase smoothly and securely.

“Thanks to Worldline, all payments can be done in a secure environment that exudes trust and works flawlessly,” Kamp explains. “This way, buyers don’t drop out during the payment process, even in the final stage of the purchase. Worldline also offers a stable platform; this is necessary as we often expect a peak in sales when we launch new products. Cross-channel sales are also possible. For example, we showcase part of our range on Instagram, and through that channel customers can go directly to our payment page.”

Capturing the hearts of football fans across the globe.

As one of the most popular sports uniting supporters from all over the globe, football always inspires great passion - and retro football shirts have met with incredible success. What’s better than watching your preferred team win an important match, and keeping a jersey as a memento? 

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COPA has been growing at a rapid pace, with an average annual increase of 22% over the past 3 years (2018-2021).“Today, we sell globally and even if Europe is still our biggest market we now see orders from every continent. That used to be unthinkable. The fact that customers can checkout and pay on our website in the way they want, undoubtedly plays an important role in this.”
 

COPA is becoming more visible internationally as well, and it shows in their collections. In the past, the clubs they worked with were all European. Now there are collaborations with South American clubs for the first time and they recently launched their official Diego Maradona x COPA licensed collection. “After the addition of American Express and PayPal to our ecommerce website, international sales increased significantly” says Kamp. 

 

Worldline helps COPA raise their game for the future.

With the launch of their online shop, COPA saw the opportunity to expand their business model to a B2C audience beyond sport clubs and companies. This proved to be a strong tactical move, and they have plenty of ideas to move the game forward, continuously expanding to a larger cross-border audience.

“At the moment all payments are made in euros. We want to add more international currencies to that: we’re thinking dollars and pounds. We know Worldline can offer us those solutions and we are currently looking at all the possibilities.” And we will be right here to support COPA all along the way!

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If COPA’s story inspires you, and you want to take your business to the next level with an online payment solution from Worldline, check out our offer on the website or contact one of our payment experts.

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