Increasingly popular “Buy now, pay later options” can lead to sales boosts of up to 30%, according to Susan Pond, who is the owner of Fab Finds Online, an e-commerce furniture and home goods marketplace headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario.
“Sometimes people are looking at high-ticket items, which they can afford, but would simply prefer to pay in manageable instalments to avoid any expensive fees and credit card interest,” Pond explains.
Tapping into this growing commerce trend, Square has launched its first integration with Afterpay in Canada. The integration will enable Square sellers in Canada to offer Afterpay’s BNPL experience to their customers, helping them attract new shoppers and drive incremental revenue.
Square‘s parent Block acquired Afterpay earlier this year.
“When we learned that we could now offer Afterpay, we were eager to implement it,” said Pond. “Afterpay allows people to break their payments down, and does so without the onus being on us. This is a huge benefit to our business.”
The buy now, pay later model has taken off in Canada, fuelled by an accelerated shift to e-commerce throughout the pandemic.
“From our earliest days, Square has focused on building flexible omnichannel commerce solutions to empower entrepreneurs,” notes Square’s head, Alyssa Henry. “The launch of Afterpay in Canada—one of our largest international markets—is one more step in that direction.”
BNPL payments are projected to grow more than 60% to reach $6 billion in Canada this year, according to data analytics company Research and Markets.
“The integration with Afterpay helps us further our priority of global expansion while bringing even more businesses of all sizes into the Square ecosystem,” Henry added.
A similar integration has taken place across the U.S and Australia, where each company was founded.
“In a short amount of time together, Square and Afterpay have already proven to attract new shoppers and drive significant incremental revenue for businesses,” observes Nick Molnar, Afterpay cofounder.
Across both the U.S. and Australia, “the average transaction size with Afterpay is [three times] greater than non-BNPL purchases,” according to data from Square.
“From large, well-established enterprises, to smaller companies just getting started and everyone else in between, we look forward to giving Canadian sellers the tools to attract young, engaged shoppers who prefer to use Afterpay to shop flexibly for their everyday essentials,” Molnar stated.
Digital payments are expected to approach $200 billion in Canada by 2025 and the BNPL trend is expected to gain penetration across North America through this time.
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