Buy Now Pay Later Payment
From Pymnts June 2021
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Afterpay is giving some of its U.S. shoppers the ability to buy merchandise at retailers even if those stores don’t have a relationship with the company, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.
In Brief
- 13 Retailers Targeted
- CVS, Dell, Kroger, Macy’s, Nike, Nordstrom, Sephora, Target, Victoria’s Secret and more.
- Previously, the payment option had been only extended to retailers it had already partnered with.
- Afterpay fees are between 4 percent and 6 percent to partners and would get an affiliate fee for non-partnered retailers.
Insight
- Payment options are expanding. Worth noting that Klarna deployed virtual cards for UK customers. Klarna’s Pay in 3 option lets users create a one-time virtual debit card issued by Klarna and that works over card rails. The card covers the value of the purchase, eliminating the need for a credit card. The shopping app also integrates with users’ monthly budgets and spending limits and updates users when prices drop and daily deals.
Excerpt
The rates could fall as more rivals join the BNPL space, a Reuters report noted.
Competitors Klarna and Quadpay already offer users the ability to use their apps for BNPL at all U.S. stores, per the news outlet.
“Over the past year, we all relied on online shopping for the things we needed during the pandemic. But, as we celebrate the physical re-opening of stores, consumers still want the convenience and flexibility of buying with the click of a mouse as part of their ‘new normal’,” Zahir Khoja, general manager of Afterpay North America, said in the release.
The company said eCommerce in the U.S. has “nearly tripled in the first three months of 2021” and last year posted online sales that increased 43.7 percent.