AFTERPAY IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PHYSICAL RETAIL STORES

Afterpay announced this week that it will be bringing its “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) payments for physical retail stores in the U.S. market to shoppers paying with Google Pay.

Under this new agreement, Afterpay customers can buy items in retail stores using the Afterpay app by tapping their Android phone at the POS terminal. Just like using Afterpay online, customers can pay for their in-store purchases in four installment payments, without the need to take out a traditional loan or pay upfront fees or interest.  The service is completely free for consumers who pay on time and is expected to be available in retail stores beginning in July of 2020.

Select U.S. retailers Forever21, Fresh, and Solstice Sunglasses will begin offering Afterpay in their stores this month.  Because shoppers are using Google Pay, which works with existing payment terminals, there is no technical integration effort associated with accepting Afterpay.

Afterpay first introduced its in-store solution in 2016 in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and became one of the only online payment companies to successfully offer its service in physical stores.  At the end of the 2019 calendar year, Afterpay’s in-store offering represented approximately 24 percent of total ANZ underlying sales – with almost 40,000 storefronts offering the service.  To date, customers have used barcode technology to complete their purchases in ANZ physical stores.

With Afterpay, retailers attract a growing segment of the population who prefer to pay without incurring traditional debt, interest, or fees. For this reason, retailers offering Afterpay see an average increased conversion of approximately 22 percent – as well as increased basket size, higher customer satisfaction, and repeat customers.  More than 89 percent of customers in the U.S. who use Afterpay select debit cards to make purchases.

“As shoppers return to main street, we are more committed than ever to support their business needs,” said Nick Molnar, Afterpay’s co-founder and U.S. CEO. “Afterpay and Google Pay give shoppers the ability to choose either physical or online shopping while still being able to budget their own money and avoid expensive loans, interest, and fees – which has shown to attract new customers and drive more sales conversion for our retail partners.  We are thrilled to partner with Google to make shopping and paying in-store convenient, secure, and contactless.”