It certainly hasn't been a great month for the Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price.
Prior to today, the buy now pay later provider's shares were down a very disappointing 42.2% since the start of the month.
This decline has been driven by concerns over the imminent launch of a buy now pay later product by payments giant PayPal in the United States and a profit-taking tech selloff on the Nasdaq index.
Fortunately for its shareholders, the Sezzle share price is heading in the right direction on Monday.
At the time of writing the company's shares are up 4.5% to $6.82.
Why is the Sezzle share price shooting higher on Monday?
As well as getting a boost from a strong night of trade on the Nasdaq index on Friday, investors have responded very positively to the release of an announcement this morning.
That announcement reveals that the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) rival has signed a proof of concept agreement with one of the world's largest retailers.
According to the release, Sezzle has commenced a proof of concept with US$77 billion retailer, Target Corporation. This will see the company's buy now pay later platform used for limited tests with a small portion of Target.com guests in two product categories.
The trial is being undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of the Sezzle platform for Target's retail operations.
However, management has warned investors not to get too excited with this news.
It warned: "The POC is preliminary in nature and does not represent any guarantee of a future commercial contract. Sezzle will provide a further update to the market at the conclusion of the POC, with the timing of this not yet known."
Should you invest?
While this is a promising development, I feel it is far too soon to consider it as part of an investment thesis.
I would suggest investors keep their powder dry until the company releases an update following the conclusion of the trial.
