Why Retailers Should Offer BNPL Both Online and In-Store

Buy now pay later (BNPL) began as an online pay-over-time option, which has surged since the pandemic. The global BNPL market is projected to grow up to $22.86 billion this year.

BNPL has extended to brick-and-mortar stores: As economies see in-store shopping returning to normal, consumers demand seamless and convenient payment methods like BNPL. Retailers that take an omnichannel approach and seamlessly offer both online and offline BNPL services to their customers can reap the rewards.

It’s high time to explore how offering both online and in-store BNPL can help retailers achieve their business goals.

Enhance the Brand Experience

When consumers shop online, they typically see BNPL as an attractive payment option that helps them spread out their payments into digestible amounts. But when shopping in-store, they view it also as a value-added service that the brand is giving them. Everything in-store seems more directly related to the retail brand as it's a more tactile experience. Therefore, retailers can use white-labeled BNPL to focus on brand building and increase sales and average order value (AOV).

Whether offered online or in-store, the availability of BNPL encourages people to purchase more and increase their cart size since they can split their purchase costs. With BNPL offerings and financing options, merchants benefit from lower abandonment rates, higher customer lifetime value, and increased AOV. White-labeled BNPL takes this one step further by helping the retailer build its brand.

Reports show that nearly every consumer who has used BNPL is interested in using it again at a local business. And while shopping at a local retailer's website, consumers all say they would use BNPL as a form of payment, and 94 percent say they would use it at the merchant's store.

Meet Your Customers' Needs — Across Every Channel

A Citizens survey highlights that 76 percent of U.S. consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they could have a payment plan with a seamless point-of-sale experience. BNPL does more than meet this demand.

The most common reason for customers using BNPL services is to make their day-to-day purchases more digestible. Furthermore, BNPL has little to no interest fees for the consumer and zero to minimal credit checks. It also reduces disruptions in the shopping journey — e.g., customers discovering that they don't have enough money for their items at checkout.

Offering both online and in-store BNPL is a way of telling your customers that you understand their needs and are willing to cater to them. Merchants that offer BNPL can use it to stand out from the crowd in the marketplace and draw customers away from the competition. For example, 46 percent of department store customers say they would switch to another retailer that offered BNPL as a payment option.

The bottom line is that as economies see in-store shopping returning to normal, consumers will expect more flexible payment options like BNPL in brick-and-mortar stores. When retailers are able to provide both online and offline BNPL payments, they will gain a competitive edge as well as develop stronger relationships with their customers.

Yaacov Martin is co-founder and CEO of Jifiti, a technology company that powers point-of-sale financing for banks, lenders and merchants with its white-labeled BNPL platform and end-to-end solution.