SEZL's GMV Soars: Is Customer Engagement Strategy Paying Off?

Sezzle SEZL has witnessed an outstanding 74.2% year-over-year surge in its gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the second quarter of 2025. This is not one-off growth, but rather a consistent trend recorded in the past few quarters. For instance, GMV surged 64.1% year over year in the first quarter of 2025 and 42.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

This impressive trend is a direct outcome of SEZL's deliberate and strong focus on consumer engagement. By improving user loyalty via product innovation and targeted marketing, the company is ensuring that its engagement strategy is harvesting tangible results, translating into profit growth and business model sustenance.

Sezzle’s success in customer engagement is evidenced by the increase in purchase frequency to 6.1 in the second quarter of 2025 from the year-ago quarter’s 4.8. This indicates customers not only use Sezzle for one-off transactions but also incorporate it into regular spending habits.

We have found that SEZL has drawn in Monthly On-Demand & Subscribers of 748,000 in the second quarter of 2025, a 13.7% sequential rise, signalling a strong and expanding consumer base. These metrics are directly tied to product innovation, such as On-Demand, attracting more long-term subscribers.

This remarkable customer engagement is impacting the company’s bottom line. The surging GMV has resulted in a 76.4% year-over-year upsurge in the top line. What is impressive is that this growth is captured efficiently, translating into operating income skyrocketing 116.1% year over year and margin expanding 6.8 basis points, aided by an efficient cost structure.

Furthermore, adjusted net income soared 91.8% year over year, displaying underlying profitability. This engagement-led and loyal user base-driven financial performance presents a compelling argument that Sezzle’s strategic investments in customer-oriented features have positioned the company well to reap benefits in the long run.

SEZL’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

The stock skyrocketed 315.5% in the past year, beating the industry’s 22.7% growth and the 14.3% rise of the Zacks S&P 500 Composite. SEZL’s industry peer OppFi OPFI has jumped 113.1%, while PayPal PYPL has dipped 5.8% during the same period.

1-Year Price Performance

From a valuation perspective, SEZL trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45X, slightly higher than the industry’s 22.17X. OppFi and PayPal appear cheaper, with forward price-to-earnings ratios of 6.62X and 12.13X, respectively.

P/E - F12M

Sezzle carries a Value Score of F, while OppFi and PayPal carry A and B, respectively.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sezzle’s earnings for 2025 and 2026 increased 2.8% and 2.3%, respectively, over the past 60 days.

SEZL currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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