Beyond BNPL

What’s Up

Cyber Week 2022 saw a surge in consumer use of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services, according to data from Adobe Analytics. BNPL purchases increased by 85% compared to the week before; and revenue from BNPL grew 88%. Afterpay reported a 120% increase in transactions before and after Cyber Week. Consumers are using BNPL to finance holiday shopping and thanks to new offerings from BNPL companies, they are able to do more with brands and retailers that offer flexible payment options.

Klarna introduced a new tool which allows users to compare prices across retailers. It enables users to filter searches by color, size, customer ratings, store availability, shipping options, and more. The new feature lists product results in price order, and indicates which retailers are offering deals and discounts and helps shoppers compare prices as well as customer reviews of the products to help them decide what item is the best value. At check-out, a tab pops up and applies available coupons or discounts automatically.

Fly Now Pay Later, a BNPL leader in the travel industry, announced a partnership with Worldline. The collaboration integrates Fly Now Pay Later into TravelHub, a platform which grants access to more than 150 payment methods, currencies, tokenization, and fraud protection services all in one place. The partnership is meant to streamline the integration and adoption process of BNPL for travel merchants globally.

What it Means

Throughout the holiday shopping season, consumers are focused on finding the right gifts for the right price. Inflation is impacting this holiday season and more shoppers are making use of BNPL services as a way to spread out spending. We’ve seen other tools created to streamline online shopping and buying:

• Saks Off 5th shows online shoppers information around delivery dates and tells the user when to expect the delivery even before the item is shipped thanks to a new feature called Guaranteed Delivery Date.
• Gmail now allows users to track holiday packages more easily by way of simplified views of delivery and tracking information in users’ inbox list view with tracking numbers prominently displayed.
• Google Search makes it easier to find deals with a promotion badge, displays available coupon codes more obviously, features a new coupon clipping tool that lets shoppers copy promo codes before purchasing, and now shows side-by-side comparison views of products in a bid to make online deal hunting less cumbersome.

Retailers and payment platforms can benefit from optimizing the online shopping experience to encourage purchases by way of streamlining the process of searching and buying. According to GWI’s Connecting the Dots Global 2023 report, 34% of Gen Z and Millennials said that “easy or quick online checkout processes” are the reason behind online impulse purchases. Brands that incorporate tools to improve efficiency and boost flexibility into online shopping can appeal to a variety of shopping personalities. BNPL providers are branching out in ways that offer more functionality to the growing number of consumers using point-of-sale loans.

Our 2022 U.S. Holiday Guide identified the trend “The Rise of Cart Abandonment” as being a key concern for e-commerce players. Brands across categories can partner with tech and payment providers to streamline omni-channel activity and provide as much flexibility as possible when it comes to payment options, available discounts, and other shopper criteria.